153: Ancient Physician Wisdom
I have a total crush on Hippocrates - a Greek doctor who lived over 2000 years ago. I am blown away by his instinct and foresight and the way he practiced medicine. He prescribed real food, walking, sunshine, fasting, rest, massages and wine. 🙌🏻 He’s the one who said all disease begins in the gut, something science is now starting to prove.
In this week’s episode, we’re seeing how the advice of Hippocrates - who is considered the father of medicine - aligns with the provision of THE Father of Medicine. He left us some key nuggets of health wisdom and is our “honored guest” on the podcast this week. This is all about holistic medicine at its finest - come listen!
EPISODE 153: Ancient Physician Wisdom
Show Notes
(0:00) Intro
Hello my friend welcome back to the club how are you today?
We don’t read a lot about doctors in the Bible. We know Luke was a physician. One fairly significant time we see the mention of a doctor in the Bible is not a very flattering one.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors and had spent all that she had. Yet she was not helped but only grew worse. She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak. She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.” Immediately her flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction. Mark 5:25-29
I love this story because:
#1. It reminds us that the Lord is our Almighty Physician and Healer.
#2. it reminds us that we need to act to activate our blessings.
(4:30) The Body’s Innate Wisdom:
Hippocrates said:
“Everyone has a doctor in him or her; we just have to help it in its work.”
God has given us amazing bodies that know how to heal.
Hippocrates also said:
“The natural healing force within each one of us is the greatest force in getting well.”
Our body knows what to do when it gets what it needs.
In the Bible Job said:
If it were his intention
and he withdrew his spirit and breath (ruach),
all humanity would perish together
and mankind would return to the dust. Job 34:14-15
It is God’s ruach - His breath, His life force - that powers our bodies and continues to give us life.
(7:38) Intro to Hippocrates:
Hippocrates was a doctor trying to get other doctors and people to see that we have so much agency over our own health and that the cures were very simple.
Hippocrates was a Greek physician who lived (460 BC - 377 BC)
He believed disease arose from natural causes and recommended as little interference as possible with the body's own ability to heal. He focused on diet, rest, sunshine and overall cleanliness.
Hippocrates on Medicine and His Unique Views on Understanding God
It all comes down to Faith and love. And as far as health and healing, his approach as a physician is very much aligned with the Genesis Prescription.
I’ve pulled some of my favorite Hipprocrates quotes as a framework and thought we could kind of chew on those today.
(10:17) Health and personally responsibility through the lens of Hippocrates:
“If you are not your own doctor, you are a fool.”
“If someone wishes for good health, one must first ask oneself if he is ready to do away with the reasons for his illness. Only then is it possible to help him.”
We can wish we had more energy or less weight or clearer skin or more strength or whatever it is - but wishing ain’t gonna get it done. Again, it takes action to back it up.
Self-Coaching Christians:
Every October in The Christian Health Club - this is the time to do your thought downloads and your models.
(14:18)“It's far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has.”
You are not your diabetes, your cancer, your autoimmune disease, your autism, your genetic condition, your infertility diagnosis.
No matter what health issue someone might reach out to me for or seek my services for or join F2F or the CHC, they’re coming to me with the identity as a daughter of Christ. It’s very unique and what makes our group so special.
Our common anchor is the Lord and we are all there to better our health in glory to Him and to the plans He has for our lives.
(18:02) FOOD:
“Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.”
Hippocrates didn’t need science to know that our food makes our bodies.
Literally every cell in your body is made from and runs on the food that you eat. Food builds our bodies.
“Just as food causes chronic disease, it can be the most powerful cure.“
You get to decide whether your food is poison or medicine.
You can turn your health around quickly when you use food as medicine. When you start giving your body what it needs from Real Food the way God made it, your body starts cranking out healthy cells.
And because God made our bodies to constantly regenerate, each day is a new opportunity to renew our bodies.
“Each of the substances of a man's diet acts upon his body and changes it in some way and upon these changes his whole life depends.”
Your life and how you experience it in your body depends on the food that you eat.
(21:34) GUT HEALTH:
“All disease starts in the gut.”
Our gut is what takes the food we eat and makes it available to the body to use.
You can be eating a beautiful real foods diet, but if your body can’t break down, absorb it, or transports the nutrients from that food, they’re not doing you much good.
Just because you don’t have any obvious digestive symptoms, doesn’t mean you don’t have a gut problem.
The lining of your small intestine could be compromised and letting food particles or antigens into your blood stream that shouldn’t be getting through.
If you have IBS-D - diarrhea all the time - you’re not absorbing nutrients, you're flushing them out.
If you have IBS-C - constipation - you can’t get toxins out of the body and so they recirculate making you more toxic.
All of these symptoms are the body telling you something is wrong. These are the roots of disease.
Hippocrates had the instinctive knowledge that the gut is what takes food and transforms it into what makes your body and what makes your body work.
“Foolish the doctor who despises the knowledge acquired by the ancients.”
Leave your drugs in the chemist's pot if you can heal the patient with food.
The greatest medicine of all is teaching people how not to need it.
This is so opposite of what happens today. Everything is band-aided with pills. Which create side symptoms that require more pills.
We let insurance coverage dictate what we do or don’t do with our health.
(31:44) FASTING:
One of the healing therapies that Hippocrates regularly prescribed to his patients was fasting. He recommended it for all fevers and diseases in the acute crisis stage, but also for colds and flu, arthritis and rheumatism, digestive issues, and all metabolic disorders.
“But to eat when you are sick, is to feed your sickness.”
Fasting was a regular practice in Biblical times, it was a regular practice in the Greek culture - they used it for detoxification and for mental clarity.
(36:27) EXERCISE:
“Even when all is known, the care of a man is not yet complete, because eating alone will not keep a man well; he must also take exercise. For food and exercise, while possessing opposite qualities, yet work together to produce health.”
“All parts of the body which have a function, if used in moderation and exercised in labors in which each is accustomed, become thereby healthy, well developed and age more slowly, but if unused they become liable to disease, defective in growth and age quickly.”
“If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.”
“If there is any deficiency in food or exercise, the body will fall sick.”
We have got to move our bodies y’all. The more idle we are, the more unhealthy we are. Our ancestors were not sitting at a desk 8 hours a day.
“Walking is a man's best medicine.”
Walking is great for the cardiovascular system. It lowers blood pressure, cholesterol, and reduces the risk of heart disease.
Walking reduces inflammation. If you walk outside and get sunshine on your skin, you will activate your cholesterol to make vitamin D.
Walking releases endorphins - those feel good chemicals. You always hear about that runner’s high that people get, but you can also get a walker’s high too. Walking is also good for bone density. Studies show that postmenopausal women who walk approximately 1 mile each day have higher whole-body bone density than women who walk shorter distances. Walking also slows the rate of bone loss from the legs and helps maintain overall skeletal integrity.
(45:37) SELF CARE:
“The way to health is to have an aromatic bath and a scented massage every day.”
“Wine is an appropriate article for mankind, both for the healthy body and for the ailing man.”
“Rest as soon a there is pain.”
“To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy.”
“Health is the greatest of human blessings.”
(48:52) Outro & Disclaimer
Thanks for listening! Have a healthy and blessed week!