Huumoris

Huumoris, also known as humorism, is a historical medical theory that proposed health and temperament are determined by the balance of four bodily humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. According to the theory, each humor is associated with a specific temperament and set of physical or mental traits, and disease results from an imbalance among them.

Origins and development: The idea traces to ancient Greek medicine, with Hippocrates often credited as an early proponent and Galen shaping the later framework. The humors were linked to elements and to seasons and ages, producing four temperaments: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. The system guided medical practice for many centuries and influenced ideas about physiology, psychology, and personality.

Clinical implications: Physicians looked for signs of excess or deficiency of particular humors and used diagnostic labels tied to temperament. Treatments aimed to restore balance rather than target a specific disease, involving dietary changes, exercise, purgatives, bleeding, and adjustments to environment and lifestyle. The approach was holistic in its emphasis on balance within the body, though it lacked the experimental methods of modern medicine.

Decline and legacy: By the 17th to 19th centuries, advances in anatomy, physiology, and chemistry undermined humorism, leading to its abandonment as a medical theory. Nevertheless, the concept influenced medical thought for centuries and left a lasting imprint on language, literature, and popular understandings of personality and mood. Today, huumoris is primarily studied as a historical groundwork for the development of scientific medicine.