Concepts of physical practices in ancient greek health philosophy

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PhD, Associate Professor E.L. Panova1
Y.V. Kuzmina1
PhD, Associate Professor Y.G. Grigoryan1
PhD, Associate Professor K.V. Bogatyreva1
1I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (Sechenov University)

The article explores the role and importance of physical practices as interpreted by the ancient Greek health philosophy and medicine that were the first in the human history to offer a consistent system of views on the human nature and health. Since the late VII century B.C. the Greek culture had developed a new type of the world outlook absolutely different from the mythological one and based on the following concepts: the world evolves according to the natural laws independent of the gods’ wills; and knowledge of the laws gives the means for a human to control the own life process and change it in some aspects. This new world outlook provided a basis for the first consistent health conceptions to outline the health protection and building ways, with the relevant health theories stemming from the new understanding of the human nature. The humoral theory was the most influential at that time. It were the studies of the great ancient therapists including Hippocrates (circa 460 –370 years B.C.) and Galen (129–200 years B.C.), that opened up and crowned a great epoch in the ancient Greek medicine, plus studies of the modern national and foreign scientists that have laid a sound basis for the physical education as a part of the modern dietetics system i.e. the science of healthy lifestyles. The study analyzes the present value of the historical health protection and improvement system developed by the ancient Greek culture. It was found that the health conceptions by Hippocrates and Galen laid a sound foundation for the further health research, protection and improvement methods – still highly valued and applied by the modern health medicine and physical education.

Keywords: health, physical practices, disease, Hippocrates, Galen, ancient medicine.

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