title: Herodicus, the father of sports medicine.
abstract: Herodicus (fifth century BC: ) is the first person in the history of medicine who actually combined sports with medicine. He used to be a sports teacher, who later studied medicine and managed to succeed Euryphon in the medical school of Cnidos, one of the most prominent in ancient Greece together with its neighbor medical school of Cos (Hippocrates' home). In Cnidos Herodicus formed his own theoretical perspective of medicine. He considered, namely, bad health to be the result of imbalance between diet and physical activity and for this reason he recommended strict diet, constant physical activity and regular training. He believed that this combination was the ideal way to maintain good standards of health and he applied this type of treatment method to his patients. Unfortunately, Herodicus' works are lost today. However, excerpts of his medical system, which can be traced in ancient texts, support the fact that Herodicus can be considered as the father of sports medicine.
authors.affiliation: Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Center of Ioannina, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Ioannina, P.O.BOX 1330, Ioannina, 45110, Greece. oaki@cc.uoi.gr
authors.forename: Anastasios D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Georgoulis
authors.forename: Irini-Sofia
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Kiapidou
authors.forename: Lamprini
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Velogianni
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Stergiou
authors.forename: Arthur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Boland
mesh_terms: D004032:Diet; D015444:Exercise; D000076145:Greece, Ancient; D006304:Health Status; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D010820:Physicians / Q000266:history*; D013178:Sports Medicine / Q000266:history*