Once upon a time, people used plants for healing and it wasn\u2019t referred to as \u201calternative\u201d. Back then, \u201ctraditional\u201d medicine referred to that which had been around the longest, which was healing based on the use of plants and nature. Now, things have changed and we occasionally need a reminder that nature has been providing medicine forever and can still be trusted to provide it today. One of those reminders came \u00a0just a couple years ago when archaeologists discovered a wooden box full of medicine in a 2,000 year-old sunken ship off the coast of Tuscany.<\/p>\n
The ship was believed to have sank around 130 B.C., well over 2,000 years ago. It was transporting wine, glassware, lams, and ceramics. It isn\u2019t clear where the ship originated or what its final destination was, but we do know there was likely a healer on board.<\/p>\n
Inside a wooden box, preserved deep under the sea, was a collection of pills. Using DNA sequencing, scientists were able to determine what was inside these pills, and it wasn\u2019t some lab-created, branded pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n
The pills contained all natural plants and materials including crushed celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa, chestnuts, radish, yarrow, parsley, nasturtium, hibiscus, and clay. Also within the box was a mortar and pestle, likely used to crush the plants and herbs for the medicinal preparations.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a spectacular find. They were very well sealed.\u00a0The plants and vegetables were probably crushed with a mortar and pestle \u2013 we could still see the fibres in the tablets. They also contained clay, which even today is used to treat gastrointestinal problems,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Dr Alain Touwaide, from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington DC.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The finding marks the oldest known remains of ancient medicines. Dr. Alain Touwaide from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington D.C. says that the remedies are those documented in Ancient Greek texts, which were later modeled by Ancient Romans\u2014both of whom can trace their medical practices to Africa, the \u2018true birthplace of medicine\u2019.<\/p>\n
More than likely, the researchers say, the medicine was used to treat general malaise and those digestive complaints common with sailors on the high seas. To this day, many of the components found within these ancient pills are still used to treat modern ailments\u2014including clay for upset stomachs, celery for rheumatism, and onion for infections.<\/p>\n
There are people who would argue that the life expectancy of a person in these ancient times was dramatically less than a person today, and that their herbal medicines weren\u2019t doing anyone any favors. But, this is a narrow-view, failing to look at the shortcomings of sanitation and the spread of disease back then. Now, for instance, we don\u2019t live with open sewage and we all know to cook our foods to a proper temperature.<\/p>\n
There are commendable advances that have taken place over the past few thousand years, to be sure. Better housing, more sound infrastructure, and cleaner living in general are just a few. But, there\u2019s a chance we could learn something from our predecessors\u2014namely, that some things should not be forsaken or left behind in the name of advancement; that some things, including\u00a0natural healing, truly are timeless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once upon a time, people used plants for healing and it wasn\u2019t referred to as \u201calternative\u201d. Back then, \u201ctraditional\u201d medicine referred to that which had been around the longest, which was healing based on the use of plants and nature. Now, things have changed and we occasionally need a reminder that nature has been providing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1915,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-backlinks","category-bad-habits","category-beyonce","category-blog-traffic","category-email-processing","category-empower-network","category-financial-freedom","category-fiscal-cliff-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1915"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowernetwork.com\/recruiters2012\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}