Even though Hippocrates lived nearly 2,500 years ago, many of his ideas sound very familiar today.
He would inquire about the family health history to see if any relatives had suffered from similar diseases.
He asked questions about the patient’s home to see if his or her environment might be causing the illness. He discovered that diet played an important role in preventing disease.
Hippocrates was the first to understand psychosomatic disease, in which physical illness is caused by emotional stress.
He even made suggestions on what we call bedside manner. He said physicians should pay as much attention to the comfort and welfare of the patient as to the disease itself.
He found that treatment would have more of an effect on a patient who had faith in his or her physician.
