BACKGROUND No study to date has focused on the impact of Greek Orthodox Christian fasting on serum lipoproteins and obesity yet. METHODS 120 Greek adults were followed longitudinally for one year. Sixty fasted regularly in all fasting periods (fasters) and 60 did not fast at all (controls). The three major fasting periods under study were: Christmas (40 days), Lent (48 days) and Assumption (A...

W hen the Greeks won the battle against the Persians in Marathon, an Athenian foot messenger named Pheidippides ran all the way back to Athens to deliver the news. Legend has it that upon arrival at Athens, he shouted, “Joy to you, we’ve won,” after which he collapsed and was pronounced dead on the spot. Even though it was not obvious at that time, this event likely marked the first reported ex...

Bloodletting is an ancient procedure that was utilized for curing the ills of man. This article traces the use of leeches for bloodletting therapy from ancient Greek times to the Chapin Harris era in the 1840s to modern day usage by plastic surgeons. The leech is described as both a parasite and a therapeutic agent. The techniques used by both medicine and dentistry are historically documented.

Science's fascination with bone and its repair processes span for thousands of years since the ancient Greek Hippocrates, the father of Medicine, made the key discovery that bone heals without scarring. Through the centuries, several lucid investigators perceived that the extracellular matrix of bone must be a reservoir of differentiating and morphogenetic factors ultimately responsible for its...

The narrative of caesarean birth appears on several occasions in Greek mythology: in the birth of Dionysus is the God of the grape harvest and winemaking and wine; in the birth of Asclepius the God of medicine and healing; and in the birth of Adonis the God of beauty and desire. It is possible, however not obligatory, that it was not solely a fantasy but also reflected a contemporary medical pr...

L2 production of tones has been widely discussed; however, the role of orthography in the learning process has received little attention. Previous studies suggested that the opaque orthography of Chinese characters plays an important role in both L2 production and perception. The present study further investigates the role of different orthographies (Pinyin vs. Chinese characters) in L2 product...

the iranian-islamic sources have testified to the importance of gundishapour as the largest scientific center, having a medical school and one of the largest hospitals of ancient world in which renown physicians and the scholars of age, from various nationalities, were employed to teach, to do research, and to treat patients. in this scientific centre, greek medicine linked with indian medicine...

Plinio Prioreschi, MD, PhD (1930–2014), the author of this monumental series of tomes on the history of medicine was an accomplished scholar – i.e., physician, scientist, linguist (of classical and several modern languages), pharmacologist, medical historian, and ethicist, as well as thinker, although he did not necessarily claim all of these accomplishments. Prioreschi completed his MD (1954) ...