Module 4: History of Health and Western Medicine

Question 1

Ancient Greece (1000-400 BCE)

Answer 1

• preventative medicine as much as treatment
• Hippocrates is the father of modern medicine
• health as a balance; disease as caused by imbalance

Question 2

Humoral system (developed by hippocrates)

Answer 2

Balance of the four humours in the body

• blood
• yellow bile
• black bile
• phlegm

Question 3

Middle Ages (500-1500 CE)

Answer 3

Cities were becoming crowded

Christian beliefs became popular
- Hygiene practices fell to the wayside initially with Christian belief in the separation of body and soul

Question 4

Renaissance (1400-1700)

Answer 4

• shift from superstition and religious thought to more scientific explanation
• day to day activities were still lacked hygiene, proper waste disposal

Question 5

Age of Enlightenment (1700-1800)

Answer 5

clinic observations begun; disease was still considered something that happened due to lack of hygiene

Question 6

The industrial revolution (1800s)

Answer 6

Advances in explaining and preventing disease: microbial theories of disease

Question 7

Mind-Body dualism (characteristics of modern biomedical culture)

Answer 7

mind and body are 2 separate entities

Question 8

Physical reductionism (characteristics of modern biomedical culture)

Answer 8

the body broken up into individual parts

Question 9

Specific etiology (characteristics of modern biomedical culture)

Answer 9

every disease has its own cause and origin. Doctors treat disease rather than patient

Question 10

The machine metaphor (characteristics of modern biomedical culture)

Answer 10

body is seen as a machine with multiple parts that have unique functions

Question 11

Control and regimen (characteristics of modern biomedical culture)

Answer 11

disease can be managed through strict control of one’s body and specific regimens