Hippocrates - Τhe Father of Medicine

Hippocrates was born around 460 BC on the island of Kos, Greece.

He became known as the founder of medicine and was regarded as the greatest physician of his time.

H e based his medical practice on observations and on the study of the human body. He held the belief that illness had a physical and a rational explanation. The observations of his time considered illness to be caused by superstitions and by possession of evil spirits and disfavour of the gods.

Hippocrates teaching. Hippocrates held the belief that the body must be treated as a whole and not just a series of parts. He accurately described disease symptoms and was the first physician to accurately describe the symptoms of pneumonia, as well as epilepsy in children. He believed in the natural healing process of rest, a good diet, fresh air and cleanliness. He noted that there were individual differences in the severity of disease symptoms and that some individuals were better able to cope with their disease and illness than others. He was also the first physician that held the belief that thoughts, ideas, and feelings come from the brain and not the heart as others of his time believed.

Hippocrates traveled throughout Greece practicing his medicine. He founded a medical school on the island of Kos, Greece and began teaching his ideas. He soon developed an Oath of Medical Ethics for physicians to follow. This Oath is taken by physicians today as they begin their medical practice. He died in 377 BC. Today Hippocrates is known as the "Father of Medicine".

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founder of medicine physician observations superstitions evil spirits disfavour of the gods severity of disease symptoms Oath of Medical Ethics

засновник медицини лікар спостереження забобони нечисть немилість богів тяжкість симптомів захворювання Клятва медичної етики

Tibetan medicine

Tibetan medicine is very ancient. It was over thousands of years when the ancient treatise on medicine 'Chjud-shi' was written. The chief postulate of Tibetan medicine: "Everything that surrounds us may be used as medicine".

Tibetan doctors thought that:

- diseases were caused by the violation of the equilibrium of the main ‘vital sources’:

- diseases reflected the suffering of the entire human organism and not just the separate organs. They considered that it was necessary to treat the entire organism.

One of reasons causing diseases was food. They considered that food was useless and bad.

Tibetan doctors were gifted specialists. During the examination of the patients they used different senses, as: vision, hearing, smell, taste and touch. The ancient Tibetan doctors considered great importance to the individuality of each organism. The Tibetans made medicines from raw plant, animal and mineral materials.

According to the World Health Organization, one out of every five persons who use modern medicines suffers from negative side effects. Ancient medicine had no medicines that were toxic or had pronounced side-effects. That is one of its main advantages.

Our preliminary, but far from complete, estimates show that the Tibetan doctors used some 3,000 natural curative substances. Chjud-shi describes 114 minerals alone. They include many precious metals and stones: gold, silver, emerald, pearls, etc. It was thought, for example, that gold extended life, iron helped treat blood and eye diseases, and copper — diseases of the lungs.

They also used insects and mollusks. They burned the animals and used ash from their inner organs as a medicine for the patients. They considered that such as ash could contain useful substances, necessary for the patient. Their medicines were not toxic for the patients. At present some 50 Tibetan medicines are being studied. But a huge abyss stilt separates the many thousands of experiments conducted on animals from the use of Tibetan medicine in treating humans. In this connection, we shall have to elaborate a lot of "corrective factors" which will take time, of course. But we are obliged to do this by the main commandment of Tibetan medicine, which coincides with the primary rule of traditional medicine: "Do not harm". 

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ancient treatise violation of the equilibrium gifted raw plant pronounced side-effects preliminary estimates emerald to extend life copper ash to conduct the experiments commandment Do not harm

древній трактат порушення рівноваги обдарований сира рослина виражені побічні ефекти попередні оцінки смарагд продовжити життя мідь попіл проводити експерименти заповідь Не нашкодь