History of Medicine

It's been over a year since COVID-19 first made its appearance, yet it remains as challenging as ever to beat. As cases surge around the world with no clear remedy in sight except for the vaccine (hopefully!), there is increasing attention being paid to ancient remedies. After various Indian and Chinese remedies made their rounds (which I wrote about some time back), here's a new one that made news this month. Andrographis paniculata , a herbal plant commonly known as green chiretta, was recently approved by Thailand for treating COVID-19. Their ministry of health has started a pilot program to test the alternative treatment after human trials showed patient condition improving within days of treatment with the extract. The ancient herb has apparently reduced the severity of inflammations in early stages of the disease.  Turns out, Andrographis paniculata is a well known ayurvedic herb, called  Kalmegh,  and is used to treat liver disease and fever. According to ayurveda, the &

I can think of no other year, at least in my lifetime, that the new year has held so much promise and people have welcomed January 1st with so much eagerness and hope! It's a time to bid goodbye to 2020 and the pandemic, and welcome the new year with new beginnings- a historic vaccine, the triumph of science and the return to normal life with friends, travel and in-person school! With January 1st holding so much importance, have you ever wondered why it is that day that begins the new year? January 1st is quite a random day really. It is the middle of winter with no special religious or seasonal festival marking the date or even the month, so why do we start the year on that day? Of course, it goes back to the Classical age!  The first new year celebration goes back several millennia to around 2000 BC when the Mesopotamians started celebrating the new year. However, they celebrated it on the vernal equinox in mid-March, when the length of day equals the length of night. The Egyptia