Tag: alternative medicine
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The history and mystery of cupping
Mariel Tishma Chicago, Illinois, United States Peasant Spa of Krapinske Toplice, Yugoslavia. Where ancient method of cupping using cow horns is practised. Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY Maybe your chest hurts from coughing, or maybe your muscles ache. Maybe you feel sluggish and anxious, worn out, and not sure why. There is a treatment, some…
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Practical hydrotherapy
Water in the form of bathing and other techniques has been used since antiquity to relieve pain and promote healing. Also called water cure, it is now regarded as part of alternative medicine, often combined with massage, relaxation, and physiotherapy. It was particularly promoted in the early 1900s by Dr. Curran Pope, who claimed it…
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“(W)holistic”: the coining and the connotations
Richard Sobel Negev, Israel Origin of the term Jan Christian Smuts (1870-1950)—general, statesman, twice Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, and philosopher, published his political treatise, “Holism and Evolution,” in 1926. It is said that Albert Einstein thought Smuts was one of only eleven people in the world who understood his Theory…
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Is it ethical to bring religion into medicine?
Patrick Guinan Chicago, Illinois, USA Over 200 years ago Voltaire wrote that one half of metaphysics was known to everybody and that the other half will never be known. It is by no means certain that ethics has yet reached the same high degree of development. At the beginnings of recorded history, the priests…