Greek and Roman Good Health Discoveries....Today's post:  Tuesday, 11-13-2018

Some of the discoveries from the Greeks and the Romans were sound and useful then. They still were when Europeans re-discovered them. 

Of most importance, because they do work in important areas now AND in some cases are better than what we have now from some mainstream sources, I thought those discoveries and practices were worth posting about.

(I’d be happy to email you the URL where I found this.  davideller7@yahoo.com  is my email.

As I often do, my comments are set off by brackets like these [  ].

Greek medicine ideas & practices that still work today:

1.  “Wealthy and educated Greeks worked at:

maintaining a constant temperature

cleaning their teeth

washing regularly

keeping fit

eating healthfully”

[Avoiding extremes of temperature is often a way to prevent conditions caused by them and reduces excess stress on the body.  You also think better and are nicer to other people when you are not distracted by being very cold and even more when you are too hot.]

[We have some methods of cleaning teeth & gums they did not. 

But many people today are unaware of how much doing this prevents and how damaging the prevented things are!  So some people do little or nothing to clean their teeth and age faster and die younger and lose teeth and look older and less attractive -- and are more likely to get heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease and cancer!

So the Greeks who did clean their teeth got much of this protection; and lived long enough lives to produce the art and practices we now value.]

[It’s still true today that preventing entry and removing: dusts and rotting food and dead animals and human wastes from your living space protects your health.  It’s lifesaving in some cases. Washing yourself also has some of this same effect if it isn’t overdone.]

[The Greeks knew that exercise protected health and slowed aging.  It also enabled Greeks to field fit warriors when they needed to do so.  They also realized that being physically fit kept their minds fit and more youthful.]

[They also ate a variety of fresh nuts and fruit and greens and fish and stored extra virgin olive oil.  In those days, all these were what we would today call organic!

They ate no refined and processed sugar; and they didn’t eat hybrid wheat since it didn’t then exist! 

Dozens of studies have found this diet to be protective in many ways from preventing heart disease to preventing cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.]

2.  Greek doctors became expert herbalists and prescribers of natural remedies. They believed that nature rather than superstition was the best healer. [Some of these likely helped in some cases.  Some of the stronger ones did have side effects.  But we now know that others like olive leaf were that effective but also safe.]

3.  Constant wars gave doctors experience in practical first aid, and they became skilled experts at setting broken bones, fixing dislocated limbs, and curing slipped discs.

Military doctors would remove arrowheads and other pieces of weaponry. They also carried out amputations, for example, to stop the spread of gangrene.

They would close a wound using thread, and dress it with sponge or linen soaked in vinegar, wine, oil, or water, seawater, honey, or powdered plants.

[Even today if a wound is cleaned and covered in this way it tends NOT to get infected and to heal faster than if these things are not done.]

X  X  X

Roman medicine ideas & practices that still work today:

“It was by observing the health of their soldiers that Roman leaders began to realize the importance of public health:

1.  “Most Roman surgeons got their practical experience on the battlefield. They carried a tool kit containing arrow extractors, catheters, scalpels, and forceps.

They used to sterilize their equipment in boiling water before using it. [This prevented infection and increased the survival and cure rates.  It wasn’t until the 1800’s that Europe and the US caught up with this one!]

The Romans performed surgical procedures using opium and scopolamine to relieve pain and acid vinegar to clean up wounds.”

2.  The Romans also had midwives, whom they treated with great respect. Records of medical instruments include a birthing stool, which was a four-legged stool with arm and back supports and a crescent-shaped opening for the delivery of the baby.

[Childbirth is safer and faster when the mother uses a birthing stool instead of lying on her back for the convenience of doctors.  We still have yet to catch up to the Romans in this practice!]

3.  In purpose-built hospitals, people could rest and have a better chance of recovery. In the hospital setting, doctors were able to observe people's condition instead of depending on supernatural forces to perform miracles.

[It wasn’t until just before the US Civil War in Europe and in the US Civil War that we caught up to this practice!]

4.  Claudius Galen, who moved from Greece to Rome in 162 AD, became an expert on anatomy by dissecting animals and applying his knowledge to humans.

He was a popular lecturer and a well-known doctor, eventually becoming Emperor Marcus Aurelius' physician. He also wrote several medical books.

Galen also dissected some human corpses. He dissected a hanged criminal and some bodies that a flood had unearthed in a cemetery.

As a result, Galen displayed an excellent knowledge of bone structure. After cutting the spinal cord of a pig and observing it, he also realized that the brain sends signals to control the muscles.

5.  The Romans made progress in their knowledge of what causes diseases and how to prevent them. Medical theories were sometimes very close to what we know today.

For example, Marcus Terentius Varro (116–27 B.C.E) believed that disease occurred due to minute creatures too small for the naked eye to see. We now know about bacteria and viruses, which we can only see using a microscope.

6.  Some of their herbal remedies still work:

Garlic: Doctors advised that garlic was good for the heart. [Minced raw garlic and deodorized garlic are both heart protective and prevent cancers too!]

7.  Public health aims to keep the whole community in good health and prevent the spread of disease.

Today, among other things, it involves vaccination programs, promoting a healthful lifestyle and diet, building hospitals, and providing clean water for drinking and washing.

The Romans, unlike the Greeks and Egyptians, were firm believers in public health. They knew that hygiene was vital to prevent the spread of diseases. 

Practical projects, such as creating a water supply, were very important to them. They built aqueducts to pipe water to cites. The sewage system in Rome was so advanced that nothing matching it was built again until the late 17th century.

[It was even later, until after 1940, that this was done in much of the United States!]

One explanation of how the Romans were able to organize such major public projects is that they had a vast but centralized empire. The Emperor wielded his power across the Roman territory, and there was enough cheap labor and sufficient wealth to carry out these schemes.

Some of the wealthy even had underfloor heating in their homes.

The Romans also promoted facilities for personal hygiene by building public baths and washrooms. Their focus was on maintaining a motivated and healthy army, but their citizens also benefited.

Examples of some Roman facilities include:

Public baths: There were nine public baths in Rome alone. Each one had pools at varying temperatures. Some also had gyms and massage rooms. Government inspectors were vigorous in their enforcement of proper hygiene standards.

Hospitals: Ancient Romans were responsible for setting up the first hospitals, which they initially designed to treat soldiers and veterans.

Water supply: The Romans were superb engineers, and they built several aqueducts throughout their Empire to supply people with water.

Planning: The Romans were careful to place army barracks well away from swamps. If marshes got in the way, they would drain them. They were aware of the link between swamps and mosquitoes and understood that these insects could transmit diseases to humans.’

[Much of our public health practices that protect the health of all of us and each of us individually we got from the Greeks and Romans.

It took us hundreds of years to put these in place.  And for some of these we have yet to catch up with the best of their practices!

Many people today in the US are not yet using some of these methods and are sicker and shorter-lived because of it

And of course any of them you use that do work will benefit you!]