Category: Travel
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Notes made after a medical meeting in Rhodes a long time ago
It is time to relax between presentations, away from medical crowds, from lectures and posters, from science, medical education, and eager pharmaceutical representatives. It is also a respite from sleet and snow, and there is no need to wear a coat, for the sun shines almost all day. This is also an opportunity to learn…
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Medical tourism
Kozlova LiudmylaMykolaiv, Ukraine Medical tourism is a highly profitable industry that offers a range of medical procedures, highly specialized medical services, and tourism opportunities. It combines travel for health and medical services with recreational tourism. While on the one hand, medical tourism may reduce the current and future health capital of a country through its…
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Traditional medicine in Yang Talat district, Isaan, Thailand
Khwan PhusrisomBaan Dong Bang, Thailand & UK Isaan is northeast Thailand, wedged between Laos and Cambodia. I grew up there, in Yang Talat district, (Fig 1) in the Baan Dong Bang village headman’s teak house, where I saw traditional medicine in use from an early age. More recently I asked villagers including elders, farmers, teachers,…
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Dead Sea: Health claims and tourist delights
After the death of Alexander the Great, the land now comprising Israel and Jordan fell under the successive domination of the Seleucid kings, Rome, Arabs, Ottoman Turks, and the British empire. Lying in almost the center of that area is the Dead Sea. It is actually not a sea but rather a salt-water lake, and…
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The Emberá of Panama
L.J. SandlowGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States The Emberá are an indigenous people who live near the Panama-Columbia border. There are about 33,000 living in Darién, Panama, and 50,000 in Colombia. Until 1960 most lived in extended family settlements along the rivers. Since the 60s many have moved together into small villages, still along the river.…
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Budapest: Medicine and paprika
L.J. SandlowGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States The Magyars, ancestors of modern Hungarians, came from the region of the Ural Mountains and invaded Europe around AD 800. Crossing the Carpathian Mountains, they conquered the Pannonian plain and established a large and important medieval kingdom. In 1526 they were defeated at the decisive battle of Mohacs, their…
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Ephesus and its renowned physicians
L.J. SandlowGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States To visit the extensive ruins of Ephesus is to step back into the beginnings of history. The city had been founded by Ionian Greek colonists in the tenth century BC. It prevailed after an early turbulent history and was prospered initially as an independent city-state. After its conquest around…
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Asclepius at Epidaurus
L.J. SandlowGeorge DuneaChicago, Illinois, United States An Athenian seeking a cure for his afflictions in the fourth century BC had the option of visiting several competing sanctuaries, at Delphi, Olympia, or Epidaurus. To reach Epidaurus, the Athenian would bypass Megara and Corinth, then turn south and find himself at the shrine of Asclepius, the son…
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The hospital that treated patients with music
L.J. SandlowChicago, Illinois, United States High up in the mountains of Anatolia, bordering the Black Sea, lies the ancient hospital of Bimarhane or Darüşşida. Located in the city of Amasya, it was built during the reign of the Ilkanid Sultan Mehmet and his wife Uduz Olcaytu Anbar and constructed by Babe Bin Abdullah in 1308-1309.…