Is it time to kill the term “placebo effect”? A researcher looking at questionable medieval medicines, that are today shunned as placebos, has shown how early physicians triggered patient’s brains...
History is filled with bizarre, and often degrading, jobs that we can’t imagine doing today. Shepherd of the Royal Anus is up there with the worst of them. The ancient Egyptians have been remembered...
One of the most fascinating medical phenomena is the placebo effect. In medicine, a placebo is considered to be any medical treatment that is not “real.” This could be a fake pill, shot, or in some...
Did you know that more than half of all people will have to deal with hemorrhoids at least once in their life? Although hemorrhoids are an issue no one looks forward to dealing with, if you ever find...
Bloodletting, or phlebotomy, is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “the surgical removal of some of a patient’s blood for therapeutic purposes.” Throughout the majority of history, this gruesome,...
How did people of ancient times treat the difficult and complex condition known today as cancer? In recent years, a rising number of scholars have taken a look at the prevalence of cancer diagnoses...
Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariya Al Razi is not a familiar name to most in the English-speaking world. But he was one of the most notable persons in the history of medicine. He was a renowned Persian...
There has long been speculation about the true cause of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death on the island of St. Helena on May 5, 1821. As we mark the 200th anniversary of this event, a biochemist from De...
Researchers studying the antique medicine chest of Japanese Edo -era physician , Ogata Koan, discovered enough poison to kill a small army. But why? Koan was a leading a 19th century Japanese medical...
Merit Ptah is often called the first woman doctor. Now, a researcher calls it a case of mistaken identity. For decades, an ancient Egyptian known as Merit Ptah has been celebrated as the first female...
It’s no surprise that the history of medicine had a rocky and somewhat gruesome journey before reaching its current, modern state. From the earliest meddling in surgery in Classical Antiquity to the...
Classical Greece is considered by many to be the birthplace of modern Western civilization. The ancient Greeks made astounding progress in a huge number of areas - from politics and governing to...
Most people have heard of the eminent physician Hippocrates and his famous oath. But far fewer know of Shennong, Avicenna, and Andreas Vesalius – some of the lesser-known figures to have transformed...
The Edwin Smith Papyrus is a medical treatise from ancient Egypt. This papyrus is named after Edwin Smith, the American collector of antiquities who purchased the papyrus. The Edwin Smith Papyrus is...
A surprising Google Doodle has greeted users of the search engine in the UK. The image celebrates the 1038th birthday of Persian polymath Ibn Sina. For many in the West, this may be the first...
In the modern age, when we think of surgery, we think of doctors working in sterile environments using finely crafted tools on an anesthetised patient. That was not always the case. Early surgical...