Why was bloodletting so popular? - Stephanie Honchell Smith

On December 14th, 1799, former US President George Washington woke struggling for breath, his throat searing with pain.

Em 14 de dezembro de 1799, o ex-presidente dos EUA George Washington acordou com dificuldade para respirar, sua garganta ardendo de dor.

He died later that day, from what’s suspected to have been a badly infected epiglottis, but not before he was prescribed an enema, steam therapy, and rigorous bloodletting.

Ele morreu mais tarde naquele dia, do que se suspeita ter sido uma epiglote gravemente infectada, mas nao antes de lhe prescreverem um enema, terapia a vapor e sangria rigorosa.

During four bleeding sessions, Washington lost approximately two liters— roughly 40%— of his body’s blood supply.

Durante quatro sessoes de sangria, Washington perdeu aproximadamente dois litros - cerca de 40% - do suprimento de sangue de seu corpo.

And yet this wasn’t totally out of the ordinary for the time.

E, no entanto, isso nao era totalmente fora do comum para a epoca.

Bloodletting was a pervasive medical practice that dated at least as far back as ancient Greece.

A sangria era uma pratica medica difundida que remontava pelo menos a Grecia antiga.

Physicians like Hippocrates believed good health came from balance among what they called the body’s four humors: yellow bile, black bile, phlegm, and blood.

Medicos como Hipocrates acreditavam que a boa saude vinha do equilibrio entre o que chamavam de quatro humores do corpo: bile amarela, bile negra, fleuma e sangue.

They attributed bad health to humoral imbalance, so treatments included purging, peeing, enemas, and bloodletting.

Eles atribuiam a ma saude ao desequilibrio humoral, entao os tratamentos incluiam purgacao, diurese, enemas e sangria.