How Would An Ancient Greek Doctor Treat Your Symptoms?

Sorry to hear you're feeling sick! The Greek physician Galen would have treated you by cutting open one of your blood vessels to drain the stagnant, excess blood he believed was causing your illness. Bloodletting wasn't performed on everyone -- children, for example, were rarely bled -- but if you were a candidate, the amount of blood removed depended on how sick you were, with the sickest patients being bled the most.

Aww, you feel sick? Ancient Greek doctors knew what will make you feel better: forced vomiting and laxatives. The reasoning behind this fun treatment was the belief that your illness must have been caused by an overabundance of a bodily fluid, such as bile -- so, naturally, the best way to get better would be to flush everything out of your system.

Yikes! You're so sick that an ancient Greek doctor would refuse to treat you. Think of it as ancient malpractice insurance: if a physician didn't think you had a good chance of recovering, he didn't want anyone to be able to blame your failure to improve on his treatment. I guess you could try praying to Asclepius, the healing god?