The odd history of asthma

Here are a few unusual facts about asthma and the way doctors used to treat it.

The origin of the word asthma comes from an Ancient Greek verb, aazein, which means to pant, exhale with the mouth open or to breathe sharply. The term is known to have first been used in Homer’s Greek epic, The Iliad, during a scene that describes the attack of Troy.

According to Medical News Today, historians say that the word was first used within the context of health by Hippocrates (460-360 BC) in Corpus Hippocraticum. Although, it is unclear whether Hippocrates was speaking of asthma as a condition or as a symptom. The Greek physician merely referenced asthma as a circumstance happened often among fishermen, metalworkers and tailors. It wasn’t until a few centuries after the death of Hippocrates that the subject was broached by Galen, an ancient Greek Physician who outlined asthma as a bronchial condition which he treated with a mixture of wine and an owl’s blood.

In Ancient Rome, according to AllergyandAsthma.com, a scroll was found saying “if from running or any other work, the breath becomes difficult, it is called asthma.”

Pliny the elder, a physician of Ancient Rome, noted that pollen was often the cause of respiratory difficulties and recommended the use of ephedra mixed with wine as a remedy. Although Pliny was ahead of his time with the use of ephedra, a precursor to ephedrine which is still used today to combat asthma, he would also occasionally suggest his patients ate 21 millipedes soaked in honey to help.

Before the condition was cited as an inflammatory disease in the 1960s, around the time when anti-inflammatory medicines were beginning to take off, the illness was even considered psychological and was treated via psychoanalysis and talk therapy.

If you’d like to treat your asthma symptoms by improving the air quality in your office or home, US Air Purifiers Direct 2U can help you understand the benefits of air purifiers and which ones are most appropriately suited to your needs.