Sick Over the Centuries

Me, not in Greece, not sick, eating wild blueberries. Take it or leave it.

Malaria.  HIV.  West Nile.  In the last ten years Greece has had outbreaks of all of these diseases.  But cooler yet, at least to a Microbiology major like me, is that in ancient Greece, there were diseases known and treated, some of which have been connected to maladies that continue on into our time.

Hippocrates and his fellow researchers were some of the first to observe, document, and attempt to treat diseases.  One of the texts written at Hippocrates' pseudo medical school even contained a description of asthma, one of my future research focuses.  We even still use some of their "home remedies," such as honey for acne and desensitization for allergy treatments.  Though our technological advances have allowed us to make discoveries at a larger scale in a shorter amount of time, perhaps it was upon their foundation of medical learning that we built.

Biology and Medicine Within the History of Civilization

The Distant Past

            As James mentioned, ancient Greek and Roman medicine were not as practical nor pragmatic as modern medicine.  True, diagnosis was not fully bereft of logic, but there was a decent amount of superstition as well.  The human body was the pinnacle of perfection, particularly the athletic body.  Blending religion into the mix, seeing as gods were to be of human form, creating monuments of giant, human figure and exercising came to be forms of worship.  Due to this, the study of the human body and all of its intricacies took heightened precedence.  Medicine and health were crucial topics of interest. 

            Hygiene was not entirely one of these important topics, though bathing held its own significance.  Even with the detriment of poor hygiene holding back greater progress in health and medicine, the ancient Roman refiners borrowed and expounded upon the knowledge of the ancient Greeks, improving public health tremendously.  Still, at the base of it all, the head of each household was in charge of knowing the most basic of remedies, including proper application of wine, vinegar, poppy juice, unwashed wool, herbs, and honey, to name a few.  This, coupled with skill in bandaging and stitching formed a solid basis to set as a standard for those of olden times. 

            Even more practical than knowing basic first aid was preventative care—something that is highly conflicted against itself in modern times.  Though the ancient Romans did not possess the immunizations and cautions of today, much more emphasis was placed on exercise and personal fitness.  Social norms and culture regulated and enforced this healthy practice, arguably to an extent even greater than the present day.  While the ancient Romans drained swamps to prevent breeding of malaria-ridden mosquitoes and maintained rigorous exercise to ward against injury and disease, this, combined with basic cleansing practices, was not enough to provide the protection of the here and now.  Yet, oddly enough, it is not disease or hygiene that threatens the general public of today, but the neglect of old practices of fitness and diet that bring the danger. 

The Recent Past

            Stepping back to hygiene and general wellness, it is thought by some that the people of today are actually a little too clean and a little too careful.  Of note, antibiotics, though intended to prevent sickness, are actually in some cases fueling our modern plagues.  Humanity has been evolving and progressing since before the ancient Greek and Roman times, and the current human status has more or less become stable with the microbiome.  Cleanliness is good, but anything in excess can prove to be detrimental.  Such is the case with the people of today.  One instance of this pertains to overuse of antibiotics, which kill both harmful and helpful strains of bacteria in the gut.  Excessively killing harmful bacteria via repeated use of antibiotics (and also other related practices) causes the immune system to become lax.  Killing beneficial bacteria is obviously not beneficial.  Problems abound at both ends of the spectrum. 

Blaser, Martin J., MD. "Modern Medicine May Not Be Doing Your Microbiome Any Favors." Interview by Joe Raedle. NPR Books. NPR Books, 14 Apr. 2014. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. <http://www.npr.org/2014/04/14/302899093/modern-medicine-may-not-be-doing-your-microbiome-any-favors>.

"Medicine in Ancient Rome". HistoryLearningSite.co.uk. 2014. Web.

Did someone call a doctor?

Ancient medicine was a combination of religion, science, trial and error, the placebo effect, and an overall infatuation with the human body.

The body was always something of great value to our friend of Ancient Greece and Rome. Not only did they admired the beauty of the body and find great value in exercise and physical prowess but they also took great strides to understanding the body better.  A large part of a Greek’s health was dietetics, included eating, exercising, and bathing regularly.Since Greeks largely believed in the body's ability to heal itself they relied heavily on these principles, in addition to medicines or remedies.

Warfare also created an excellent environment to learn more about medicine.  Many skills learned by the Greeks such as surgical and first response techniques such as stitching, wound cleansing and the stopping of excessive bleeding were developed on the battlefield.

The Greeks are known for simple systematizing of symptoms to distinguishing sicknesses and diseases. Many schools were created to study the body components and their response to illness. This chart displays some of the symptoms used to create a diagnosis.

Element	earth	air	fire	water
Humour	black bile	yellow bile	blood	phlegm
Quality	dry	cold	hot	wet
Body Part	spleen	blood	liver	brain
Season	autumn	spring	summer	winter
Age of Man	maturity	infancy	youth	old age

All of these symptoms were used to calculate and diagnose illness. Today, a book of diagnosis would consist of many more than just 24 symptoms.

Through the years our knowledge of medicine has expanded and we have found more and more cures and have advanced in technology. Over the past 50 years medicine has taken some extraordinary leaps! Surgeons now have lasers to preform surgery and cameras that you can actualy taken into your body and see the inside of yourself while the doctor explains to you about a blockage you might have. 

Something like that is straight out of a 70's sci-fi comic book, or are tools that only a secret agent would have had access to back when TV shows wer black and white and there were only 4 channels to watch.

In the clinic where I work we have patients with seizures who use a tiny magnet that has a little wire that wraps around their vagus nerve in order to stimulate it if there it too much electrical activity. While the desire to help others and explore the human body has existed through centuries, our ability to do so know has been magnified! While we have accomplished incredible things  in the medical field in the last several years, it is only by building on the foundation set by others, such as our ancient friends, that we have reached these heights.

Sources: Kindra Jacoby PA-C

Riverwoods Neurolgical Center

Elenor Betts

History Department 

Open University