An ancient Greek doctor many centuries ago expressed thoughts and ideas that will definitely be useful to you.
Who among us does not know that all doctors, after completing their education, take the Hippocratic Oath? And only after that they are sent to treat patients. Why was the ancient Greek physician and philosopher so distinguished that his name remained in medicine for millennia?
Portrait of Hippocrates from the collection of the National Gallery of the Marche (Italy, Urbino)
To begin with, Hippocrates laid the foundation for clinical medicine as such. All these ideas about the intervention of gods in human life just then began to give way to medicine as a science, according to which any disease has its own natural causes.
Now consider what else we are grateful to Hippocrates for. He introduced the concept of the integrity of the organism. He was the first to substantiate the need to take anamnesis and conduct consultations. He created the doctrine of temperaments and the dependence of human behavior on how the life “juices” circulating in his body are related. Developed a theory about the stages of disease. He introduced new methods of examining patients – palpation and auscultation (listening to sounds inside the human body to make a diagnosis). And he also argued that the best method of treatment is the creation of such conditions for the body to cope with the disease itself. Hence one of the most important principles of medicine: “Do no harm!”
In the scholarly works of Hippocrates there are wise thoughts that everyone should, at least, read. And it’s better to take it on board for the sake of your own health. We have selected the most important statements for you.
Cheerful people recover faster and live longer.
Movement is the storehouse of life.
A healthy beggar is happier than a sick king.
Our food substances must be a medicine, and our medicine must be food substances.
We don’t get a short life, but we make it that way; we are not poor in life, but we use it wastefully. Life is long if you use it skillfully.
Idleness and idleness entail viciousness and ill health, on the contrary, the aspiration of the mind to something brings with it vigor, eternally aimed at strengthening life.
What drugs do not cure, iron cures. What iron does not heal, fire heals. What fire does not heal should be considered incurable.
Some patients, despite the consciousness of doom, recover only because they are confident in the skill of the doctor.
In any illness, not losing your presence of mind and retaining a taste for food is a good sign; the opposite is bad.
The effects of dietary drugs are long lasting, the effects of drugs are transient.
Neither satiety, nor hunger, and nothing else is good if you transcend the measure of nature.
Sleep and insomnia, both of which are manifested beyond measure, are a bad sign.
Unreasonable fatigue portends illness.
If sleep relieves suffering, the disease is not fatal.
The opposite is cured by the opposite.
Often the best medicine is to do without it.
The doctor cures the disease, but nature heals.
Antique bas-relief: Hippocrates examining a patient
Some of the diseases come only from the way of life.
If the patient maintains his presence of mind and appetite, this is the best sign of a possible recovery.
It is more useful to choose both food and drink of less quality, but more pleasant, than the best in quality, but unpleasant.
Those who are accustomed to carrying out ordinary works, even people who are weak or old, endure these works more easily than those who are strong and young, but without habit.
A man becomes angry in two cases: when he is hungry and when he is humiliated, and a woman only in one – when she has no love.
It is impossible to help someone who does not want to change his life.
Gymnastics, physical exercise, walking should firmly enter the everyday life of everyone who wants to maintain efficiency, health, a full and joyful life.
As the cloth makers clean the cloth, knocking them out of dust, so gymnastics cleanses the body.
The human soul develops until death.
If a seriously ill person does not feel suffering, he is mentally ill.
Disease always comes either from excess or from lack, that is, from imbalance.
Healing is a matter of time, but sometimes it is also a matter of opportunity.
When several doctors examine a patient, they should not express their opinions about the course of the disease with the patient, let alone quarrel, refute each other’s opinions and ridicule their colleagues.
As for diseases, then take into account the following rule: help, or at least do no harm.
Life is short, the path of art is long, the opportunity is fleeting, experience is deceiving, judgment is difficult. Therefore, not only the doctor himself should use everything that is necessary, but also the patient, those around him, and all external circumstances should help the doctor.