Asthma History: Chapter One: The First Asthmatic—Speculation and Mystery

When did the first person with asthma live? Since written language didn’t exist until around 2700 B.C., we have no direct records to answer that question. But that doesn’t mean we can’t explore the possibilities. Using what we know about early humans, their environments, and later documentation of asthma-like symptoms, we can imagine how respiratory issues might have existed long before history was written down.

Asthma in Prehistory: A Possibility

Let’s travel back 2.5 million years to the Stone Age, a time when early humans were adapting to their environments, creating stone tools, and beginning to hunt for food. This period is referred to as the Stone Age because of the widespread use of stone tools, and it’s divided into three phases: the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic.

We have no concrete evidence to suggest that asthma existed during this time, but it's plausible. Early humans were exposed to environmental factors that are known to trigger asthma today: smoke from fires, pollen from plants, and close contact with animals. Could these early humans have experienced shortness of breath or respiratory distress, much like people with asthma today? While we can’t be certain, it’s intriguing to think about how such challenges might have impacted their lives and survival.

Later Evidence: Clues from Ancient Civilizations

Even though there is no direct evidence of asthma in the Stone Age, historical records from later periods give us a glimpse of what early respiratory issues might have looked like. The Ebers Papyrus, dating back to 1550 B.C. in ancient Egypt, contains remedies for breathing problems, suggesting that respiratory conditions were known and treated at that time. Similarly, the Greek physician Hippocrates (around 450 B.C.) described conditions resembling asthma, highlighting how long humanity has grappled with respiratory ailments.

Given that asthma was documented in ancient civilizations, it’s reasonable to speculate that similar conditions existed much earlier. People in the Stone Age might not have had a name for these conditions, but they likely experienced the symptoms—perhaps leading to natural remedies, adaptations, or simple survival techniques.

The Mystery of Early Asthma

We may never know if people during the Stone Age suffered from asthma, but what we do know about their environment makes it plausible. It’s easy to imagine a Stone Age individual struggling to breathe after inhaling smoke from a fire or coming into contact with pollen-rich plants. What treatments, if any, existed? Did their peers help them, or did they suffer in silence? These questions remain unanswered, but they open up fascinating possibilities about life before written history.

As we explore the evolution of asthma and its treatments in later sections, we’ll see how our understanding of the condition has grown. But for now, we can only wonder about the earliest days of this mysterious illness.