Egyptian Imhotep: A Very Brief History Of Medicine

“Use of herbs as medicines dates back to the beginning of civilized man. The earliest known written records of herbal medicines were inscribed on a six thousand year old clay tablet written by the Sumerians, who lived on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now known as Iraq”(History).

Yin and Yang are fundamental to the understanding of the Chinese religion since they believe that everything goes hand in hand and is never fully one way or another. The symbol represents a sunny and shady side, yet they go hand in hand to complete the circle. This represents in every day both sides will be present to be completed. For example, losing a loved one can hurt however that person gets to move to the next journey. Or it raining on a day off. Even though one might not be able to go out and get some sun on there day off the environment gets rain and plants get nourished, good comes with bad. Even thought many don't like being sad, one must be sad to understand happiness, which is an essential

In the modern day world, there are still some remedies and treatments practiced that was discovered by the Egyptians. Some herbal and natural remedies used in modern day time include mint and Aloe Vera, while their other herbal medicines provided a base for our everyday medicines, such as antibiotics and pain killers. When it came to pain killers, it is recorded that ancient Egyptians had an understanding and used “natural remedies to control pain long before Europeans figured out the natural powers of such herbs” (Gordon). They understood and used multiple herbs and natural elements to rid themselves of disease and parasites. In Egypt, they treated worms with pomegranates, later proven by “modern medical studies [show] ... that the ancient Egyptians were absolutely right to treat worms with the fruit” (Gordon). This is because, “modern scientists confirmed that the high tannin content in pomegranate can actually paralyze worm” (Gordon). As for everyday remedies, the Egyptian also used the soothing powers of the Aloe Vera plant to calm burning skin and mint to relieve gastric pain. The ancient Egyptians relied greatly on their natural resources and provided a stepping stone for the medicine in today’s world, although we would never know about their discoveries if it hadn’t been for the way they kept a written record of their

Yin and Yang is a Chinese philosophy. Yin and Yang connects to Taoism, because it symbolizes balance between opposing sides. It is made of two principles. Yin, the predominately black side,

In Chinese culture, health and illness concentrates on the balance between body, mind, and spirit, expressed as Yin Yang. It symbolizes the idea that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is a belief in part of the Chinese culture, that a physical illness is caused by an imbalance of Yin Yang.

Many traditional Native medicines and healing practices were discouraged with the advent of Western medicine, but now there is a movement to return to traditional ways (Zubek, 1994, p. 1924). Modern Western medicine treats the symptoms to cure a diseased state when the body is out of homeostasis. Native American healing traditions do this as well with herbs and plants suited to the purpose. These Native healing traditions also include sacred rituals, chants, and purification rites to help bring the spirit and mind of the afflicted back into balance. In effect, treating the whole person, not only the disease. A blending of these two healing practices could bring about better prognoses for today's patients. The purpose of this paper is

Native American culture refers to the term medicine as “the essence of life or an inner power” (Portman & Garret, 2006, p.454). It is believed that each person has their own essence that is locked in a physical form “our body” and this way they can learn in body, mind and spirit. To be able to understand the roots of Native American traditional medicine, it is important to

The concept of yin and yang is represented by two opposite principles in nature and in order for one to exist, the other must exist. Yin represents the feminine or negative nature of things and yang represent masculine or positive nature of things. One meaningful element in Confucianism is the Five Bonds. The Five Bonds are guidelines to the way things should be done in social life with family as the basic unit of the society.

life sciences and medicine drawn from the Taoist traditions of the Yin-Yang and Five Elements

Present prescriptions these days frequently ignore the aspects of an individual mentioned above and as a consequence, most herbal medicine practitioners believe that the art of health-giving has been vanished over the years. This sort of dissatisfaction headed to a significant growth in the number of people who rely on herbal medicines in order to get rid of their medical problems. These people believe in the fact that one’s wellness and overall health do not depend only on a positive riddance of several diseases inside the human

As explained in World Religions Today, in contemporary culture, the discoveries made through science are usually articulated in the structure of mathematical equations. These mathematical equations serve as proofs of the fundamental truths that the particular science reveals. Analogous to this idea is the symbolism in the Yi-Jing system of East Asian Religions. The symbolization of the Yi-Jing system enriches the conceptualization of the universe as incessantly changing. Within the Yi-Jing system, the yin-yang symbol exemplifies the most familiar representation of these uncovered fundamental truths (Esposito 502-3). In this essay, I intend to explain the meaning of the terms yin and yang and discuss the role they play in Chinese religions generally. Further, I will explain the way in which the symbolism of yin and yang contribute to the Chinese conception of the universe and the way that role is played out in religious practices.

Tessa Vossen and colleagues illustrated the back-story of Suriname and its role in slavery, studies of illnesses as well as native medicines. Vossen’s provides a combined analysis towards the role herbal plants and natural medicines in attempt to grasp the intersection of the relationship between slaves and type of medical care provided. “Through the examination of distinct conceptions of the human body, physicians were able to demonstrate intellectual, social and physical constructs of healing for it” . Perceptions of health and illness include ailments generally centered to certain geographic regions or cultural groups. Some cultural bound syndromes were often treated with medicinal plants with the aim of curing ailments that manifested during

Even the illness etiology (e.g. evil wind) and the formulas of prescriptions (monarchs, ministers, assistants and emissaries) are also confusingly irrelevant to medicine (Lloyd & Sivin, p. 233). Indeed, they are the products of intuitive thinking and analogical reasoning by the ancient Chinese people, considerably different from the logical thinking and deductive/inductive reasoning in western culture. However, this is exactly the reason why the theoretical paradigm of TCM is so inclusive: the accumulation of medical knowledge is not based on logical experiments, but on intuitive experiences without standards or unity, hence it is multi-directional; the relationship between two things is not elicited from deductions or inductions which require clear preconditions, but from analogical similes, hence it is multi-faceted (Chang & Zhang, p. 12; Leung, p. 121). For instance, the concept pair “Yang” and “Yin” can be seen as a symbol of any two opposite yet complementary objects existing everywhere and perceived by everyone, such as day and night, hot and cold, man and woman (Unschuld, p. 55). The dynamic changing between Yang-qi and Yin-qi represents the mutual transformation from one natural force to another corresponding one (Leung, p. 20). This paradigm is like an infinite web into which anything can be included but not fixed.

Another source of similarities and differences across civilizations is medicine. A similarity in medicine was the attempt to explain maladies and sicknesses without supernatural cause, as shown by the “Plague of Athens, 430 BC” by Thucydides and Hippocrates’ On the Sacred Disease. They tried to describe the diseases as scientifically as possible, with Hippocrates going so far as to call doctors who tried to pin the sicknesses on the gods, “quacks” and “magicians”. This is more in line with modern-day thinking and while they did not correctly pinpoint the causes of the disease, it was a big step towards developing a more practical and scientific way of looking at cures and medicines. A difference in the belief of physical cures and remedies is shown by the idea of Ayurveda in India. Ayurveda focuses more on herbal cures and mindfulness. It is sometimes referred to as a pseudoscience. It believes in a focus on the “humours” of the body and how they need to be in balance, in addition to alternative medicinal practices such as acupuncture or chiropractors. While the effectiveness of these types of medicines is another discussion, they were important in the development of their respective countries and cultures.

Traditional Chinese medicine, or TCM, is one of the oldest systems of medicine to exist among humans, and it is extremely prominent to this day. According to legend, the system has been in use since the third millennium BCE. The views of such an old system differ greatly from those found in modern western medicine. Perhaps most prominent is the fact that TCM focuses more on the patient than the illness. The system considers the human to be a microcosm of the universe, implying that the body is affected by the traditional Taoist forces of yin and yang, the five elements, and Qi in the same way the cosmos are. Each of these forces act upon the “zang fu,” or organ system, directly influencing a patient’s health. Healers use qigong to assist in the restoration of stability in the body. Achieving balance, both internally and externally, is the most important aspect of healing in TCM.