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Contributions of hippocrates to medicine
Contributions of hippocrates to medicine
Contributions of hippocrates to medicine
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Health Problems and Cures not from the Gods?
This has just came in, Hippocrates, the father of Medicine, has defied the Gods! He has just said that all health problems and cures come from the unbalanced humors. The humors are blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. This is truly insane that he is defying the gods, maybe he might be killed if he continues doing this. Still while he is putting his life on the line he has many medical breakthroughs. He has told me that “Everyone has to exercise more, eat a low fat diet, and that we should stop smoking or else everyone will become sick”. I asked him what will he do if the gods get angry at him. he told me “I will tell them that they are not the reason people get sick it is because the body is unstable.” He then left angrily to his office.
Athens Coming Down with Health Problems
Many Greeks have been coming down with bad illnesses and coming to Asclepius’ temples, praying and giving sacrifices to the God so they can live instead of visiting doctors. Many of us know that Asclepius was turned into a god after he died because he was so good with helping people who were sick. Children are facing illnesses such as vomiting, teething, coughs, diarrhea, and discharges from ears. Adults are facing problems such as pleurisy, pneumonia,and hemorrhoids. Lastly, elders are facing problems such as bad hearing and eyesight. Since doctors might know how to help children and adults; elders are harder to fix and that is why they visit Asclepius’ temples.
Religion Interfering with Health and Medicine
Doctors all around Athens (mostly Hippocrates) have been complaining about how praying to the gods in temples is no use and will not help. They say that doctors know how to cure the people, but At...
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...person to discard the idea that angry gods got people sick and approached it more scientifically. He also helped people live healthy lifestyles because he told people to exercise, low fat diet, and stop smoking. He is considered the father of healthy lifestyle because he promoted all of this. He still had some bad ideas like fresh fruits and vegetables were bad for health. Another person who helped medicine was Asclepiades because he learned a way to help patients with mental problems because instead of putting them in dark rooms where they got more hallucinations he put them in well lit room so they did not see too much. Galen is another Greek physician remembered for his detailed study of human anatomy from dissecting dead bodies. He also experimented on live animals, particularly pigs, and showed that the brain controlled the body through a system of nerve fibers.
but this was the best they could do. The search for effective treatments was hindered by the church as they believed that religion was the cure for the sick. The believe that Saints could cure by touch
Hippocrates believed that macrocosms, often designated the universe and environment, could influence and effect microcosms, like that of the human body. The Hippocratics reasoned this was because all things in the macrocosms and microcosms derived from the same materials. Empedocles, a Greek philosopher, communicated the first four-element theory of matter which delineated the four essential building block to be air, water, fire, earth. All of these elements corresponded with the four humors that, in conjunction with the theories of the contraries (hot, cold, wet, dry), formed Hippocrates’s practice and concept of humoralism (Lecture 3, [FIND DATE]). Hippocrates asserted that each human being contained unique combinations of the four distinctive humors, being yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood, which shaped individuals’ temperaments. Patients fell ill when the balance between these humors was compelled to shift out of equilibrium. Thus, Hippocrates, and his students like Galen, understood that physicians had to have a full understanding of the patient and must subsequently tailor their treatments to achieve the highest form of care (Airs, Waters, Places, 90-91). Consequently, physicians practiced healing with a counterbalance therapy which returned the individual
In modern medicine when an ailment arises it can be quickly diagnosed, attributed to a precise bacteria, virus, or body system, and treated with medication, surgery or therapy. During the time before rational medical thought, this streamlined system of treatment was unheard of, and all complaints were attributed to the will of the multitude of commonly worshiped Greek gods (Greek Medicine 1). It was during the period of Greek rationalism that a perceptible change in thought was manifested in the attitudes towards treating disease. Ancient Greece is often associated with its many brilliant philosophers, and these great thinkers were some of the first innovators to make major developments in astrology, physics, math and even medicine. Among these academics was Hippocrates, one of the first e...
Hippocrates (c. 460-377 BC) was born on the Aegean island of Cos, Greece. He learned his medical practices from his father, Heracleides, and Ancient Greek physician Herodicos of Selymbria. Like many big Greek names of the time, Hippocrates was thought to have come from the Gods. He was considered a descendent of Asclepios, the God of Medicine. Two major creations of Hippocrates have upheld the biggest influence on medical history. The peak of his career was during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C), where his healing tactics helped Athenian warriors (“Hippocrates”, 1998).
Twenty four centuries ago, Hippocrates created the profession of medicine, for the first time in human history separating and refining the art of healing from primitive superstitions and religious rituals. His famous Oath forged medicine into what the Greeks called a technik, a craft requiring the entire person of the craftsman, an art that, according to Socrates in his dialogue Gorgias, involved virtue in the soul and spirit as well as the hands and brain. Yet Hippocrates made medicine more than a craft; he infused it with an intrinsic moral quality, creating a “union of medical skill and the integrity of the person [physician]” (Cameron, 2001).
Although he lived four centuries before the birth of Christ, a man named Hippocrates recorded the symptoms of diseases we still see to this day. Known as the “Father of Medicine” (Hippocrates), Hippocrates was an ancient physician who studied and recorded his observances of the body’s infections and physiology. He set forth the foundation for future physicians, and in doing so, is accredited for our knowledge of infectious diseases in earlier centuries. During this time however, many believed the earth and its inhabitants were composed of four general elements: air, water, fire, and dirt. They also believed that any one person who fell ill was being punished by the gods. As a foresighted thinker though, Hippocrates encouraged the idea that humans became ill due to natural causes. In that wisdom, he recorded all his observances of his patients and their illnesses, taking careful note of the bodily symptoms and their progression.
Physicians were only for royalty and the wealthy. Most common folk, if sick, would visit locals with medical knowledge they gained from ancestors or experience. If they did end up visiting a doctor, it would be one painful experience. Bloodletting was a very common procedure done in sickness and health. It was a procedure done to let out the ‘bad blood.’ It was done in 2 ways, leeching and venesection. Leeching was only used for royalty. The leech was placed on the most infected part of the body. Venesection is the act of directly opening the vein using a fleam, a long half inch blade, and catching the blood in a bowl to measure the amount of blood drained. Other common ones include burning a candle near your tooth for a toothache. If you have evil spirits in your head, then you would have a procedure called trepanning done, which involves cutting a hole in your skull to release the bad spirits.The cure to most general illnesses is pilgrimaging to a holy shrine. Supernatural healing, healing the sick by using herbs and demonic magic. There were only a few healing herbs and they were brought in through trade by travelers. Some examples are sassafras brought from West Indies and guaiac wood that was known to treat syphilis and many similar
Hippocrates used his knowledge of natural healing to help many people recover from what ails them in an attempt to; also, learn more of people’s sicknesses. Hippocrates once thoroughly examined the king of Macedonia, who was very sick at the time, and aided him in “recovering from tuberculosis”- which he did recover from (World Biography, 4).
Hippocrates' work was a breakthrough in medicinal history. He set an example of the ideal physician after which others, centuries after him, copy their existence. It was said by Celsus that "Hippocrates fist gave the physician an independent standing, separating him from the cosmological speculator, or nature philosopher.
The Romans used both scientific and mythological methods in their medicine. By adopting the methods of Greek medicine; the Romans obtained a solid foundation. They copied Hippocrates, who separated the study of medicine from philosophy and had an overall approach to the health of humans. Hippocrates also observed the habits and environment of humans to accurately determine illnesses and discover treatments. The Romans adapted the Hippocratic method and combined it with mythical and religious views. The Romans used Greek methods, and also included prayers and offerings to the gods. Although all gods had healing powers, Aesculapius, the god of healing, was the most important.
Many people don’t believe in medicine at all. The most commonly used treatment is prayer. Ordinary people relied on methods their parents and grandparents used, such as lucky charms, magic spells and herbal cures. Some of the herbal remedies are quite useful. The monks who looked after sick travellers in the monasteries were very skilled in using herbs.
While it is easy to stand back and scorn the subjectivity of the ancient Greeks’ medical practices and laugh at their notions of human anatomy, it is important to recognize that all “science” has a degree of cultural influence. It is true that their sweet and sour pessaries, cures of sex, and anatomical understanding that was based on “Love” would be ridiculous in the modern western society, but rather than view their methods as “bad science,” we can use them as a rich source for discovering cultural values. Love was at the center of their science of healing, and this shows us that it was not an isolated phenomenon in Greek society, but enveloped all aspects of life – spiritual, emotional and physical.
Early Greek medicine was more of a divine matter. It was believed that the God Asclepius was the god of medicine. Priests would live at his temples and claimed they knew the ways of healing people. It was not until around 500 B.C., a Greek physician named Alcmaeon began to dissect animals to observe their skeleton, muscles, and brain. This was most probably the first ever to describe a phenomenon through objective observations. Through his observations, he believed that illness was due to an imbalance in the body. This idea prevailed for many centuries in the history of medicine.
The most important and influential discovery was the practice of surgery. With this invention, human life became more sophisticated, humans lived longer, and we obtained a knowledge of ourselves sufficient enough to break the boundaries built by ignorance. Lacking prescription drugs, accurate tools, computer technology, and any background experience to build from, our ancestors struggled to learn how to repair the human body. They did an suprisingly competent job of treating the sick and injured. Some of the medical technology developed in ancient times surpassed anything available in the modern world until the 18th century or 19th century. In eras wherein religious views took precedence over medicine and logic, surgical advancement was difficult. The knowledge we have now was obtained from these people's exploits.
Hippocrates was a Greek physician that left a legacy that existed during his lifetime in Classical Greece and continues today. His moral and ethical standards were the foundation of his teachings, along with his meticulous writings concerning the study of the human body. He firmly believed that poor health and disease were the result of a natural process that could be discovered and cured through careful clinical reasoning and observations. Hippocrates travelled throughout Greece teaching and describing disease symptoms, and taught doctors how to analyze and treat specific illnesses or diseases. Hippocrates’s accomplishments give him the respect from doctors and medical professionals around the world that continues even today.