Ancient Greece _ Medicine

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

The Asclepion:

 Baths - people could bathe here which helped with hygene

 Temple of Asclepius - people/priests prayed to make them feel better

 Living Quarters for Priests - priest that preeched lived here

 Abaton - where the people who had come to pray slept and it was believed that if you slept there Asclepius and his daughters would come and heal you

 Stadium - people recieved entertainment and participated in activities, brought everyone together

 Gymnasium - people exercised

 Library -

 Tholos -  

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

Who was Asclepius and How was he supposed to help the sick?

- god of medicine 

 

- helped the sick by curing them off their illnesses with the help of his daughters

- used herbal remedies and snakes

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

Why did people feel better after they had gone to the Asclepion?

Two reasons:

1) - patients introduced to new hygenic techniques and practices such as bathing often
    - patients participated in exercises for example weight bearing which made them healthier and         fitter  

2) - people believed that Asclepius and his daughters healed them, the positive attitude helped             them to get better (mind over matter)

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

Greeks New Idea
Theory of the Four Humours

 - Four humours were: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile

 - If the humours were balanced then the person was healthy

 - If the humours were out of balance then the person was unhealthy

 - Greeks believed that everything was made up from four elements: air, water, fire and earth

 - Linked the seasons with the elements and the humours

 - e.g. If people were sneezing and had runny noses in winter it meant that they had too much phlegm

 - Led the Greeks to do everything in moderation to keep humour balanced 

 - This meant people had started looking for natural explanations of disease

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

Greeks New Idea
Theory of the Four Humours

 - Four humours were: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile

 - If the humours were balanced then the person was healthy

 - If the humours were out of balance then the person was unhealthy

 - Greeks believed that everything was made up from four elements: air, water, fire and earth

 - Linked the seasons with the elements and the humours

 - e.g. If people were sneezing and had runny noses in winter it meant that they had too much phlegm

 - Led the Greeks to do everything in moderation to keep humour balanced 

 - This meant people had started looking for natural explanations of disease

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

Who treated the sick?

 - trained male doctors (e.g. Hippocrates )

 - mothers and wives (using herbal remedies)

 - Priests

 - A few trained female doctors (e.g. Hagnodice)

 [The same type of healers as in Ancient Egypt - continuity]  

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

Treatments and Preventive Methods

 Treatments:
- herbal remedies
- simple surgery
- bathing
- bleeding
- antiseptics (e.g. wine, vinegar)

 Prevention:
- diet
- hygiene
- exercise
- 'a daily regimen'

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

New Greek Ideas About Medicine

 - Diseases had natural causes

- Doctors : Hippocrates

- Surgery : Simple surgery

- The theory of the four humours (Hippocrates)

- Hippocratic oath ( still used nowadays)

- Cleanliness - baths, personal hygiene

- Careful observation of patients and recording of treatments

- Do everything in moderation (eating healthy, exercise and sleep)

- Natural treatments (herbal, bathing)  

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Ancient Greece _ Medicine

The Importance of Alexandria 

- Herophilus was one of the first Greek doctors to do dissections, he made an important discovery: the brain controls the body

- Greeks built a library and a university there

- The library not only had writings from Greek writers such as Hippocrates but also from doctors in India, China, Egypt and Mesopatamia.

- There were over 700,000 different items in the library

- Erasistratus made an important discovery when disecting a heart : it had four one way valves  

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