Dr. Quiet, Dr. Merryman, and Dr.

Diet

By Abraham V. Llera

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is dishing out classic modern health care when he claims that having the proper
diet is practically all that one needs to stay healthy.

What will probably astonish many is that precisely the same thing was said by Dr. Anthimus
when he declared Mans health depends on a proper diet. Nothing surprising in that except Dr.
Anthimus said that in the 6th century A.D. Anthimus (A.D. 511-534), the Greek physician of
Theodoric the Great who was the Viceroy of the Eastern Roman Empire, didnt have the
sophisticated laboratories and equipment Dr. Gupta has, yet is saying what Dr. Gupta would be
saying 2,000 years later.

Nor was Anthimus particularly alone in his advocacy. The doctors of Charlemagne who lived in
A.D.742-814 urged the same thing, ordering Charlemagne to refrain from eating too much meat,
or, at least to have them stewed rather than roasted, which Charlemagne loved. Anthimus and
Charlemagnes doctors also believed that fasting was beneficial to health.

As an indication of how respected Anthimus was, his books on medicine were used up to the
tenth century.

Considering that by proper diet even today is meant a diet rich in fruits and vegetables, its
really no wonder that medicine as practiced even from the time of the Roman Empire revolved
around herbs. Extant records show one Cassiodorus who lived in the 6thcentury extolling
medical practitioners then to learn the nature of herbs, and seek to know how to combine the
various kinds for human health. Cassiodorus recommended as useful references the medical
works of Dioscorides, Hippocrates, Galen, and Aurelius Celsus.

And, like today, the use of plants and herbs not only to cure common ailments but to prevent
major ones is often combined with other methods in a way that can only be described as making
sense.
Medieval medicine, for instance, gave importance to religion. The same Cassidorus who
recommended herbs urged his patients to turn to God as well since it is He who restores health.
Popular piety could be the reason why, but the fact that it was the monks who kept alive medical
knowledge (and, of course, every other knowledge during the centuries of mayhem following
the fall of Rome), and it was the monks who had the first hospitals must have helped indelibly
associate God with recovering from illness.

Apparently, not much has changed today. These days, on account of widespread atheism, what
used to be called prayer is now called yoga meditation. In my opinion, however, its the
same.
Modern health basics like exercise and ridding the body of illness by keeping the heart free of
hatred were as true then as they are now. Found in Salerno, Italy was this health reminder:

If you would health and vigor keep

Shun care and anger ere you sleep
All heavy fare and wine disdain
From noonday slumber, too,
Each day to walk awhile you should
For this will work you naught but good.
The urgent calls of nature heed.
These rules obey and you will find,
Long life is yours and tranquil mind.

As if to summarize it all, heres another popular Salernitan health reminder:

Use three physicians still- first Dr. Quiet

Next Dr. Merryman and third Dr. Diet.