1. History of Health and Disease – Introduction and Ancient World

The way we think about disease or define it depends on the way we think about the world around us (think about religion and how some groups view medicine and disease)

for affect on peoples' health

Religion and superstition still played a major role in Greek medicine

a./b. Ancient greek physician who founded rational medicine in the 5th century BC
c. Believed each disease had a natural cause
d. - Natural factors can bring about an imbalance of the four humors that is associated with disease
- Made a systematic eeffort to relate enviromental factors to disease
- Endemic disease vs epidemic disease
>Endemic: always there
>Epidemic: large outbreak at a certain place or time

Blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile
- Hippocrates claimed alldisease is caused by an imbalance of the humors that make up the body

- Aqueduct allowed for fresh water
- Pure water was a priority
- Many public places (baths fountains) had water
- Had sewage systems
- Had toilets
- Had bathhouses

- No more Roman army or Roman slaves - cities shrink, return to agricultural life
- results in disease more easily spreading
- Health connected to religious morality
- Disease = Sinfulness, Church cares for sick, infirm
- Feudal System takes over
- By early 1300s, bad harvests, overpopulation lead to famines
- Diseases of malnutrition (rickets, pellagra, scurvy) widespread.