Greek Medicine

Greek Medicine By Sonia Athi

Hippocrates: who was Hippocrates? Hippocrates was an ancient Greek physician who is considered to be one of the most exceptional contributors to medicine till date. Hippocrates influenced Greek medicine a great deal.

Hippocrates: rejection of the Gods theory.

Hippocrates preached that the Gods had nothing to do with illness’s and he completely rejected any speculation that evil spirits existed or that praying would heal the human body of illness. Instead, he had his theory of the four humours which some people refused to believe as they were fixed in their ways of believing in God and evil spirits. The theory was that illnesses were linked to the four seasons, thus the ‘four humours’.

The four humours

According to Hippocrates, the four seasons had their own illness. Which are called the four humours. Yellow bile – summer Black bile – autumn Phlegm – winter Vomit – spring Hippocrates also thought that when a patient was taken ill it was as a result of the patients unbalanced body humours. A prescription was given to the patient in attempt to re balance the humours. Hippocrates would prescribe a change in diet and exercise intended to revive the body of it’s balance.

Hippocratic oath The Hippocratic oath was formed by Hippocrates himself. It was an oath to be sworn by doctors stating that they would keep patient confidentiality also that they would do everything to their knowledge to help a patient. This oath has been modified but is still used in the present day by doctors who also swear that they will keep patient confidentiality and the rest of the requirements that the oath involves.

Clinical observation Hippocrates thought that keeping a record of your patients state and symptoms would help in their diagnosis. This was in fact a very helpful invention as the more patients that Hippocrates recorded, the familiar he got with the illness’s so he could sometimes predict the future symptoms of his patients and find ways of preventing the illness from developing any further. Clinical observation is still used today in hospitals and surgeries to monitor a patients state.

Health and Hippocrates Hippocrates believed in the importance of exercise; he used to encourage exercise to his patients and strangely enough, he had his own brand of toothpaste! No, not really, but he did advise people to wash their mouth with peppermint which improved the Greeks teeth.