Bloodletting has long been a practice for withdrawing blood from the human body. It was typically thought to restore balance and remove excess “humors.”
Bloodletting has long been a practice for withdrawing blood from the human body. It was typically thought to restore balance and remove excess “humors.”
One of the fathers of medicine, Hippocrates, believed that diseases were caused by an imbalance in the four basic humors. Treatment consisted of getting rid of the excess by various means such as bloodletting.
Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and Asians all practiced bloodletting going back at least 3,000 years. In the Renaissance era, for example, it became incredibly prevalent across Europe. The technique remained in use as a medicinal treatment until the late 19th century, when it was finally discredited.
Bloodletting could be done through multiple means, like venesection or scarification. But leeches were a very common method for bloodletting. The medicinal leech could ingest almost ten times its weight in blood.
Bloodletting was believed to cure a wide range of diseases. It was used for everything from pneumonia and seizures to mental illness and “female hysteria.”
Although bloodletting has been discredited for most illnesses, leech therapy is still used in some situations today. Less often for fashion and beauty.
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