Vasyl Yakovych Danylevskyi's lecture on health and illness (1921): annotated translation

Academician Vasyl Yakovych Danylevskyi is a world-renowned scientist, doctor, biologist, writer, teacher, author of introductory lectures for students of the medical faculty, published in 1921 in the book "The Doctor, His Vocation and Education". The article presents the second, abbreviated and annotated, lecture of Danylevsky V.Ya., dedicated to understanding the human body's ability to resist diseases, recover losses, and replenish resources. The author describes the mechanisms of morphological and physiological balance, defines the formula of human happiness (as a combination of purity of soul, enlightenment of the mind and health of the body). The lecture provides answers to the questions of what health is and whether a healthy person needs a doctor; what is a disease, and can health be restored without resorting to medicine; what role does society and the environment play in the full life of a person. In the lecture, special attention was paid to the actions and inactions of the doctor in combating the disease. It is important to advise the doctor about the purposeful use of his energies, caution against wasting these energies on secondary things unrelated to treatment, prevention and self-improvement. The author emphasizes the important role of the doctor in establishing all aspects of people's lives: lifestyle, nutrition, work and rest, hygiene (housing, clothing, personal), choice of profession, education and upbringing. The disease is considered by the author from the unexpected perspective of the natural mechanism "to remove the disease-causing substance from a person in order to preserve his life". The capacity for recovery and self-repair is described for both physical and mental health. The meaning of recovery is not only getting rid of the disease and replenishing resources, but also the return of a person to social life. The work of doctor Danylevskyi V.Ya. compares with the art of the best one’s representatives of all eras. And he considers the use of drugs permissible only if there is evidence of their reliability. Lecture by Danylevskyi V.Ya. about health and disease demonstrates the author's deep understanding of issues that have become the basis of modern evidence-based medicine, bioethics and pedagogy. Keywords: compensatory mechanisms, sanogenesis, history of medicine.