Humoral Theory
Humoral theory in clinical practice and its relevance to Naturopathic practice.
Humoral theory was originally described by physician Hippocrates ca. 460–370 BCE, then in 2nd Century CE, the physician Galen is noted to further develop the theory; up until the 17th century it was popular amongst physicians, for example there is record of Arabic and European physicians using it in their work in the 9th and 11th centuries, and it continued in some form up until the 18th century before declining in favour for more scientific discoveries such as Robert Koch’s bacteria and virus discovery in the 19th century. It is still referred to today in some psychology studies of Carl Jung’s references to humoral personality types which explores the link between personality and health of the body. Humoral theory to some extent might still be used in general naturopathic case taking, however medical science has changed what is known about disease and therefore diagnosis and treatment is not based on humoral theory alone (Harvard University Open Collections Program, 2017).
Humoral theory eclectically drew philosophical connections between humans individual ‘humour type’ and the earth’s seasons. Therefore, a humour with characteristics of hotness for example sanguine, is associated with summer. Further correlations are made as to whether a person needs cooling or warming treatment depending on their individual presentation. The four humour types are melancholic (black bile), choleretic (yellow bile) sanguine (red bile), and phlegmatic; ‘In its day’, it was a diagnostic method of its own, and rather than extensive scientific analysis, a prognosis might have been made by inspecting the patient’s body type and features, lifestyle, temperament, and present circumstances. Treatment sometimes had adverse results, for example the common practice of blood- letting in theory that it balanced the humors often caused harm to the patient (Harvard University Open Collections Program, 2017).
Heather Indiana Rose
Copyright 2019