What We Can Learn From Ancient Greek Medicine

History doesn't record whether the first Olympic athletes in 776 B.C. went to sports medicine doctors, or if they took performance-enhancing substances.

But the record does indicate that even 3,000 years ago, medicine was considered to be a good career path: "A physician is worth more than several other men put together, for he can cut out arrows and spread healing herbs," says a character in Homer's Iliad, referring to a battlefield medico who was the Trojan War equivalent of Hawkeye Pierce from M*A*S*H*.

Today's doctors don't spend much time yanking out arrows, and while some still spread healing herbs, we call it "alternative and complementary medicine" and hope that Medicare will cover it.

Still, modern medicine is riddled with relics of ancient Greek science, from versions of the Oath of Hippocrates that some graduating medical students still utter ("I swear by Apollo, the Physician and Asclepius and Hygeia and Panacea and all the gods and goddesses ..."), to the techno-jargon that doctors spout. According to Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, nearly 90% of medical terms used today have Greek or Latin roots. So the next time someone tells you you've got hyperkeratosis, you can reply, "I don't know what it is, but it's Greek to me!"

Yet apart from confusing technical terms and solemn oaths, do we really owe the ancients any thanks for modern medical wisdom? It depends on what bits of medical wisdom you value, historians say.

Humor Me

According to legend, the field of medicine was created by the centaur Chiron after he was wounded by Hercules and needed to heal himself. Chiron is also said to have passed on his medical wisdom to the hero Achilles. Whether the centaur invented the waiting room or managed care is unknown.

Greek gods, goddesses, and demigods such as Apollo, Asclepius, Hera, and Hygea were also credited by ancient worshipers with healing power. But it was the revered Greek doctor Hippocrates, who lived around 400 B.C. who is given the nod as history's first medical superstar.

"Hippocrates is generally credited with turning away from divine notions of medicine and using observation of the body as a basis for medical knowledge. Prayers and sacrifices to the gods did not hold a central place in his theories, but changes in diet, beneficial drugs, and keeping the body 'in balance' were the key," notes an article on the National Library of Medicine's History of Medicine division web site.

OK, so the old boy knew a thing or two about maintaining health. But the same source goes on to note that Hippocrates had some ideas that, while all the rage in fifth century B.C., aren't given much credence in 21^st century A.D.: "Central to his physiology and ideas on illness was the humoral theory of health, whereby the four bodily fluids, or humors, of blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile needed to be kept in balance. Illness was caused when these fluids became out of balance, sometimes requiring the reduction in the body of a humor through bloodletting or purging."