Humoral medicine - discussion

[homeopathic_meditations]

Today, ritaer has posted an invitation to discuss Galenic medicine. Specifically, to challenge the idea that our ancestors were idiots who never noticed that did not work at all.

"Any westerner who has studied the history of medicine has been exposed to the horror stories about the pre-modern practice of medicine in Europe and the Americas. "Heroic" measures including copious bleeding, purging with toxic metals such as mercury compounds and prescriptions made up of 20-20 ingredients are assumed to have killed more than they cured."

I am afraid Magic Monday will run out in a few hours. Therefore, if you are interested in this discussion, I am willing to pick up the ball and host it here for the rest of the week. Please share your comments and enjoy a thoughtful exchange of ideas.

Comments

[open_space]

Thanks for the offer! I'll chime in.

It's funny because I signed up for a trad mexican medicine program and out first homework was to watch The Medic, a movie about barbers.

I was intrigued by ritaer comment about the change in diet over that period and couldn't quite follow up. Do such things have drastic effects on health?

What is a 20-20 ingredient?

[homeopathic_meditations]

The Medic is a good movie, the book it's based on is more nuanced and does not take cheap shots at religion. Christian priesthood of the time were aware that they were not physicians and ABSOLUTELY did not demand that patients should not be treated. It is just that medicine of that time and place was more limited that what we are used to now-a-days.

On the diet theory, I think ritaer was onto something but cannot tell I'd agree with the timeline. There's no doubt that the kind of industrial food we get today is making us sick. However, it is a well documented process that can be traced to somewhere in the first half of the 20th century. It may be possible that this kind of diet was adopted earlier by wealthier people; who in turn made up a disproportionate fraction of physicians' clientele... but I doubt it moves the timescale enough into the past to matter.

[edit] I don't know about the 20-20 term either.

[open_space]

I was confused at those cheap shots at religion too. I didn't know there was a book though! I'll see if I can find it to read later.

[homeopathic_meditations]

For the record, I don't think the Muslims were treated fairly in the movie either. Even the Jews come about as jerks at times.

And, if I may dispense with etiquette, I shall spoil you. At the end the torch bearer does not start a messianic hospital at London, he's bullied out of town by Oxford graduated doctors. He sets out to establish himself in Scotland; which, in my head canon at least, would make him the legendary saint patron of the world famous med school at University of Edinburgh.