Medicine GCSE

• Who was Hippocrates and what did he believe?


  Greek doctor who lived around approximately 400BC. He is known as the father of modern medicine/father for healers believed in rational science as opposed to magic and rituals; saw disease as a natural process and recognised that symptoms are a reaction to a disease.His approach was rooted in cultural values and they were Ancient Greek. He also rooted the idea of observing and recording illnesses and diseases.

  Hippocrates Oath was based on the early studies of Hippocrates that every new doctor must take. It outlines the expected ethical approach and obligation when treating a patient. In this oath, doctors promise that they will do their best to treat their patients and keep information confidential.
• What were the Greeks like?

  The Hippocratic approach is always to the whole patient. They covered many aspects of medicine and surgery, as well as diagnostics, therapeutics and disease preventation. Greeks disliked to dissect human bodies, they mainly performed autopsies to determine the cause of death. Greek doctors taught no deep anatomy to their apprentices. Students only learned through their masters and there were no hospitals. The Hippocratic Corpus is a written collection of Hippocrates' work, allowing other doctors in different countries to learn from his knowledge.
• What were the 4 humours?


  yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, blood

  For Hippocrates and the heart of Hippocratic physiology and pathology, they constituted a formidable framework for understanding health and disease. scientific method started to replace this in the 19th Century.
• What is humorous medicine?

  Holistic and preoccupied medicine centred on only interpreting changes in the humours and no required knowledge of the anatomy. It viewed health as the sound balance of the humours, imbalance too much or too little of one of them, or an imperfect quality produced disease. Excretion is disease - sweat, phLego, urine, vomit, diarrhoea- were interpreted as the products of natural defence mechanisms to restore balance.
• How was the Hippocratic legacy transmitted through time?

  Through the writings of Galen who dominated medical thinking for more than a millennium. He saw himself as extending and completing the framework of Hippocrates.
• Who was Galen and what did he believe?


  Galen was a Roman doctor who lived from AD129-AD203. He revived Hippocrates' ideas and encouraged bloodletting as a treatment, after learning about anatomy from treating injured gladiators. He wrote about all aspects of medicine; diagnosis, therapy and the philosophy of medicine. He codified the Hippocratic doctrine of the humours but also went further into health and disease. Doctors for more that an thousand years agreed with him.
• What do homeopathists, Chiropractors, herbalists and osteopaths do?

  Repeat the Hippocratic teachings and spread his works as the founder of ideals.

  They encouraged with Hippocrates and Galen that doctors could seek natural treatments like bloodletting ( process of bleeding a patient, either by

  leeches or by cutting a patients vein)

  purging ( act of getting rid of fluid from the body with the purpose of balancing the 4 humours, patients may take substances that with make them vomit or empty their bowels) and herbal remedies.
• Explain the significance of Hippocratic and Galenic medicine after c1000 AD

  (8 marker)

  Content

  SHORT TERM IMPACTS

  LONG TERM IMPACTS

  Hippocrates is known as the father of modern medicine/father of healers who believed in rational science as opposed to magic and rituals. He saw disease as a natural process and recognized that symptoms are a reaction to a disease through observation. Galen transmitted Hippocrates's teaching through his writings and dominated medical thinking for more than a millennium. He saw himself as extending and completing the framework of Hippocrates, as well as introducing the concept of the 4 humours and emphasized the importance of anatomy. Hippocratic and Galenic teachings were seen as compatible with Christian values of compassion and healing as their ideas of medicine were aligned with the idea of caring for the sick, not necessarily treating "God's punishment". Hippocratic and Galenic medicine included the establishment of medical schools, the translation of ancient texts, and the development of medical treatments based on these ideas after c1000AD. However, the Catholic Church had a large role in training doctors and providing healthcare in infirmaries and monasteries, heavily influencing ideas about the cause of disease and treatments throughout the medieval period.

  For example, although Hippocratic and Galenic medicine was based upon rational natural treatments because it was accepted by the Christian church as an orthodoxy, it was significant because it held back the development of medicine and progress as no one dared challenge or criticize ancient teachings. This is because they risked being faced with severe consequences such as being labelled heretics or facing persecution.