Medicine didn't start 200 years ago. Effective practices have existed for thousands of years—alongside genuinely harmful ones. Understanding that history matters.
Not because "ancient wisdom is always right," but because understanding how we got here explains why we believe what we believe now.
This section explores the history of medical thinking and practices—both the innovations that genuinely helped people and the decisions that caused real harm. It examines how practices became standard, why some persist despite poor evidence, and how different healing traditions approached similar problems.
History isn't about recreating the past. It's about understanding the present: why certain treatments became standard, how fear shaped medical culture, what we've learned by trying many different approaches, and what patterns emerge when you look at a longer timeline than just the last decade.
The goal is informed judgment, not historical romanticism.