Medicine And Greco-Roman Medicine

No one likes going to the doctor, no one likes being sick, no one likes the unknown. We all want answers when things go wrong, we all want to feel better. Today modern medicine allows for quick answers and a pill or treatment for almost anything. We have determined that viruses and bacteria are malignant cells that attack the healthy cells within our bodies and that sickness is the result of the immune system trying to defend the body from the malignant cells. What would it have been like to have suffered from an illness in ancient Rome or Greece? When sickness and pain was punishment from the gods themselves. What medical practices and philosophies have remained with us through the centuries? What discoveries have lead to a better understanding …show more content…
However Greek medical practices were not accepted until military relations were established and the healing god Asclepius was introduced in 291 B.C.E. The natural route of healing was more commonly used by the Romans than the spiritual one. It is said that when called upon Asclepius would either heal the person himself or give them a dream for a priest to interpret in order of them to be healed.

Greco-Roman Medicine was based of philosophy and established the basis for modern medicine. The concept developed in this time period was that illness had a natural cause therefore it had a natural cure. Whenever natural remedies appeared to fail the Greeks and Romans would turn to the supernatural realm in search of healing. Modern medicine does not rely on the spiritual or supernatural realms in the first place. They treat each illness as an individual issue and seek individual cures for each illness as a result of this …show more content…
Hippocrates also believed in holistic medicine which has helped guide modern Europe and America into natural medicines such as homeopathy, naturopathy, and chiropractics. Hippocrates also developed the patient driven method of treatment. This method requires that you first observe the patient, you then make the diagnosis, treat the patient, and lastly observe the progress of the patient. The patient driven method also states that if the first method of treatment does not work the physician must then take their new observation and formulate a new diagnosis and treatment plan. This is still influencing modern medicine because doctors perform a series of test and make observations to make a diagnosis and then treat illness. If that doesn’t work they have to make new observations and review the old ones in order to correct any