Regimen

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A regimen is a plan, or course of action such as a diet, exercise or medical treatment. [1] A low-salt diet is a regimen. A course of penicillin is a regimen, and there are many chemotherapy regimens in the treatment of cancer.

Contents

History

The work, Regimen in Acute Diseases, attributed to the ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates of Cos, describes the types and usage of medical regimens in his era (400 BCE). This is perhaps the first appearance of the term. [2] [3] PubMed at the US National Library of Medicine lists over 220,000 articles using the term "regimen" from 1892 to January 2013. [4] In the context of medieval medicine, regimen referred to the careful management of habits, diet, and schedule to keep the four humors in equilibrium. By manipulating the six non-naturals (airs, diet, sleep, exercise, evacuation, and emotion) a person could keep track of their physical and mental wellbeing by attending to regimen. [5]

Usage in statistics

In economic statistics, a regimen refers to the selected goods and/or services priced for the purpose of compiling a price index. The most well known example is the consumer price index.

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Medicine in ancient Rome was highly influenced by Greek medicine, but also developed new practices through knowledge of the Hippocratic Corpus combined with use of the treatment of diet, regimen, along with surgical procedures. This was most notably seen through the works of two of the prominent Greek Physicians, including Dioscorides and Galen, who practiced medicine and recorded their discoveries in the Roman Empire. This is contrary to two other physicians like Soranus of Ephesus and Asclepiades of Bithynia who practiced medicine both in outside territories and in ancient Roman territory, subsequently. Dioscorides was a Roman army physician, Soranus was a representative for the Methodic school of medicine, Galen performed public demonstrations, and Asclepiades was a leading Roman physician. These four physicians all had knowledge of medicine, ailments, and treatments that were healing, long lasting and influential to human history.

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A non-pharmaceutical intervention or non-pharmacological intervention (NPI) is any type of health intervention which is not primarily based on medication. Some examples include exercise, sleep improvement, or dietary habits.

References

  1. "Regimen".
  2. Hippocrates of Cos. On Regimen in Acute Diseases Francis Adams, trans. 400 BCE.
  3. Riley, Mark T, "Hippocrates", Great Thinkers of the Western World, HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. 16
  4. pubmeddev. "regimen - PubMed". nih.gov. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  5. Yaguchi, N. (2010). "Non-Naturals in Islamic Medicine". Journal of Japanese History of Medicine. 56 (1): 53–66. PMID   20614733.