sexually transmitted diseases. Archeological digs have revealed prehistoric art showing that holes were bored through human skulls to relieve pressure. Neolithic man endured the daily pain of osteoarthritis. There are the calcified remains of parasitic eggs known to cause the tropical disease schistosomiasis in Egyptian mummies.1 And petrified syphilitic skulls, dating back prior to Columbus's historic journey to the New World, have been uncovered in North America.2
Just like the diseases and the physical and mental ills that existed long before us, the natural impulse to stop the suffering, to find a better way, is nothing new, even though some try to lay claim to this innovative thinking. Today bulletin boards at trendy health food stores contain messages of healing—the new blue-green algae, the latest inner child healing workshop, or the spiritually centered ads about reconnecting with nature—tacked to their cork surfaces with multicolored pushpins. Or better yet, there are tear-off phone numbers so that the desperate can call for help twenty-four hours a day. Hip, pop-culture magazines are filled with the claims of new life from New Age healers. On the Internet you can get a reiki consultation, and herbs to kill your bad breath and the dog's at the same time. The secrets behind these dramatic breakthroughs and discoveries about stopping the pain and healing our bodies, our odors, our relationships, as well as the universe around us, can be ours with just a credit card number.
What we often don't realize in our search for healing is that many of the concepts and theories that are being touted these days have been around since a time when it was OK to believe in myth, a time when legend was passed from generation to generation. Finding a way to wellness dates back to an era when legend could become reality. Today we have come to a threshold in which we understand what our ancestors perhaps took for granted—that healing is everyone's business and responsibility, and that it is something that involves our understanding and active participation.
The healing traditions of our neighbors in the East, which go back centuries of generations, are steeped in parables and evidence a connection between health, spirituality, and the cosmos. In China, Han dynasty tombs preserved fragments of exemplary medical information, which, according to legend and generations of believers, were first penned by the mythical Yellow Emperor, who is said to have reigned from 2696 B.C. to 2598 B.C. Beginning with conversations between the emperor and his physician, the Nei Ching Su Wen, or The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, establishes the concept that supports the need for a positive doctor-patient relationship. With information on drugs, surgery, medical theory, spirituality, life force, the balance of yin and yang, the five elements (wood, fire, metal, air, and water), and the four seasons of healing, this comprehensive record remains a main source of guidance for many Eastern cultures and health practitioners today.3
Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets, dating from somewhere around 2500 B.C., tell tales of illness and list the details of medicinal plants and animal parts prescribed for treating the ills of the time. Historians are unable to determine whether the Sumerians actually discovered these healing arts or whether the concepts were borrowed from other cultures. Many of these medicinal remedies were divided into organic and inorganic categories, with plant remedies such as figs, dates, anise, jasmine, juniper, coriander, caraway and willow.4 Passing this legacy of knowledge and healing on to the Babylonians, the Sumerians set in motion a generational chain of curative information that formed the rudimentary foundations of Western medicine. The embryonic Sumerian teachings traveled history's course, crossing lands and time. Eventually uncovered by Egypt's Pharaohs, these healing arts evolved to yet another level. And as writings preserved in papyrus tell us, elaborate theories explaining the cause of physical ills took on dramatic proportions. The Egyptians believed that sickness originated in the supernatural realm, and that healing took place on the physical and spiritual planes.
As the discoveries of healers became paradigms for their culture, the integral rhythm of contrasting internal and external forces was seen as reigning over the body. Chinese healers set forth the delicate balance of yin and yang: yin, the feminine force of darkness, night, moon, moistness, quiet, and earth; yang, the masculine force of light, sun, day, dryness, fire, heat, heaven, noise, and function. Yin, representing the internal, descends; yang, the external, ascends. It was believed, and is still believed today, that each of the body's organs has an element of yin and yang, and that health is achieved by keeping the two in balance.
Similar to Chinese healers, Greek physicians looked at the nature of disease as sets of opposites: hot and cold; moist and dry. They also described and diagnosed illness based on the four humours—blood, phlegm, and black and yellow bile. The thread that binds these ancient beliefs is the theory that a vital life force, when kept in balance, can ward off disease. And whether it is called qi (Chinese, pronounced chee), lung (Tibetan, pronounced loong), or prana, meaning breath, maintaining or restoring balance was the physician's secret for preventing disease.5
Ancient healers developed an intimate bond with their patients; they believed, above all, that nothing must be done to injure the patient. Whether taking a history, feeling the pulse, or gauging the heat of the body, each practiced the gentle art of his or her respective beliefs. Medical advice, even in more primitive times, paralleled much of what the adventurous preach today—diet, exercise, prevention. The Chinese, much like the Tibetans, talked openly about combining tranquil, moderate exercise with seasonal diets, stressing the importance of a serene mind. They believed that it is better to prevent illness than to try to cure it once it occurs—a concept we're just getting around to understanding in this modern age of Western medicine. We've certainly made a lot of progress in the last two thousand years!
The use of plants and herbs was already highly developed in many cultures many centuries ago. Thriving pharmacopoeias were produced in China, Egypt, and Greece. The Chinese, who were using acupuncture in addition to herbs, massage, and gentle exercise, had delineated points on the body that could be needled or cauterized to cure or alleviate pain associated with most ailments. Historians indicate that the Chinese may have filtered water and prescribed boiling water and eating hot dishes as a means of avoiding infection.6 Because Egyptians actively engaged in embalming the dead, they began to learn the delicate intricacies of the human anatomy. Egyptians and Greeks used herbs and foods to balance the humours, often using St. John's Wort, yarrow and plantain to heal wounds and ward off illness. And whether Chinese, Egyptian, or Greek, disease prevention teachings, along with suggestions for keeping the body in balance, were a major component of these early beliefs.
During medieval times and even later, setbacks were not uncommon. Wars, cultural revolutions, plagues, malnutrition, and rampant disease left many victims in their wake. Keeping pace with the turbulence and magnitude of disease and death was challenging for physicians, at best. And in the 1500s and early 1600s, when the ancestors of some of us first set off across the Atlantic in search of a better life, scurvy and rickets were taking thousands of lives before the historic ships ever reached America's shores. Unprepared for the primitive life of the New World, women and babies died in childbirth, and nature's bitter elements took many lives as well. Native American healers, familiar with the restorative powers of their lands, shared shamanic teachings about the healing properties of plants, grains, and community. Recognizing the value of these natural remedies, the earliest settlers continued the medical evolution by sending these ideas back to Europe to incorporate them with the European healing tradition.
As the oceans' waters ebb and flow across sand, pebbles, and jagged rocks, so has medical theory over the centuries. The eclectic blend of Native American, African, Eastern, and European traditions eventually evolved into the new medicine: the Western way—the path that continues to dominate our medical treatments today. Corresponding with the U.S. industrial revolution, the mid-1800s marked an end to the free-spirited, anything-goes medicine of earlier times. Just like factory managers, physicians began to value the importance of fixing parts and keeping our bodies working like finely oiled machines. This type of thinking, along with the concept that bacteria produce disease and that antitoxins could be used to ward off these bacteria, formed the early roots of biomedicine. The American Medical Association was formed in 1847, and by the end of the nineteenth century its members were lobbying for state
