Ancient Theories of Health and Illness

Health in the ancient world was not defined simply as the absence of disease, but as a complex state influenced by sociocultural context and environment.
Bodily impairments were normalized and frequently not medicalized; antiquity lacked a specific identity category or terminology for "people with disabilities."
Physicians often viewed conditions like healed fractures or female physiology as natural states rather than pathologies requiring treatment.
Most ancient people regarded health as a primary good essential for enjoying other blessings, such as wealth, family, and wisdom.

Pathologies were frequently attributed to divine punishment from gods, such as Apollo or Zeus, in response to moral failings or social offenses.
Mythological frameworks, including the story of Pandora and the transition from the Golden Age, explained the entry of suffering and death into the world.
Malevolent spirits known as daemons were believed to possess individuals or produce deceptive symptoms, leading to physical and psychological distress.
Cultural phenomena like the "evil eye" or curse tablets were considered potential causes for the decline of health.

Residue Theories: Some thinkers, such as Euryphon of Cnidus ( $5^{\text{th}}$ -century BCE), posited that illness resulted from undigested food residues rising from the abdomen.
Elemental Balance: Alcmaeon of Croton defined health as an equilibrium (isonomia) of powers like hot, cold, wet, and dry, while sickness was viewed as a "monarchy" of one quality over others.
Platonic Functionalism: Plato expanded these theories, defining health as a state where bodily elements are balanced and parts fulfill their intended telos (functional end).

Methodism: This group categorized illness through the arrangement of atoms and the constriction (status strictus) or looseness (status laxus) of bodily channels.
Pneumatism: These physicians defined health as a balance of the pneuma (enlivening spirit), focusing on external factors like weather that could unbalance this vital air.
Galenic Integration: Galen synthesized Alexandria’s anatomical findings with humoral theory, identifying pathologies at the level of specific organs and structures while maintaining the importance of overall harmony.

The text On the Nature of Humans rejects single-substance theories, arguing that the body consists of four congenital humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.
Health is achieved when these humors are in correct proportion and thoroughly mixed; imbalance or isolation of a humor leads to pain and disease.
Humoral levels are observed to fluctuate according to the seasons: phlegm increases in winter, blood in spring, yellow bile in summer, and black bile in autumn.

Crisis (Krisis): Medical practitioners monitored "critical days" to predict turning points in an illness, which signaled either recovery or death.
Etiology of Outbreaks: Physicians distinguished between group-wide epidemics caused by inhaling unhealthy air (pneuma) and individual illnesses caused by personal regimen, such as diet and exercise.

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