Ketchup was originally a Chinese medicine.

Until recent years, people living in remote areas of Afghanistan and Ethiopia were immunized against smallpox by having dried powdered scabs from victims of the disease blown up their noses. This treatment was invented by a Chinese Buddhist nun in the eleventh century. It is the oldest known form of vaccination.

Why is Hippocrates considered the father of medicine?
Unlike Aesop, Homer, and many modern doctors, Hippocrates was a real person, who lived around 400 B. C. It was the medicine of his time that wasn't too real. It was essentially based on the whim of the gods. If your foot was sore, it was because Zeus was sore at you. Hippocrates pioneered the connection of different symptoms with different diseases, recognizing that illnesses had natural causes. He studied them and was able to diagnose and prescribe for his patients.

But let's not get carried away with his modernity. He also believed that there were four basic substances: earth, air, fire, and water. They had counterparts in the four bodily fluids: blood, phlegm, black and yellow bile. These were called "humors." I don't know about you, but I don't find them very funny.  Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK, by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

When did anesthetics begin to be used in surgery?
The first anesthetic was whiskey, but I can't imagine that dealing with more than, oh, maybe a fifth of the pain. Modern surgery begins with a Connecticut dentist, Horace Wells, who in 1844 used - don't laugh -- nitrous oxide to dull the pain of a tooth extraction. Two years later, after progress in developing a mechanism to deliver this painkiller evenly, surgeons used it in removing a tumor from a patient at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Within a year, this anesthetic technique became standard throughout the world.
Source: READER'S DIGEST BOOK OF FACTS

How did people wash their hair before shampoo?
Before the invention of mass-marketed hair care products, households were pretty much on their own concocting family shampoos and conditioners. This suggestion was published in "The New England Economical Housekeeper and Family Receipt Book" in 1847: "Perhaps the best of all shampoos is the yolk of an egg beaten up with a pint of soft warm water. Apply at once and rinse off with castille or other hard white soap.

BEER, IN MODERATION, CUTS RISK IN CATARACTS
When planning for that Super Bowl party next month, be sure to include a six-pack of antioxidants. Beer-in moderation-is chock-full of healthy stuff that can reduce the risk of cataracts and heart disease, according to research presented at the 2000 International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies in Hawaii. The Canadian and U.S. researchers say animal studies may reduce the incidence of atherosclerosis and cataracts by as much as 50 percent. Darker beers have more antioxidants than the lighter lager beers, according to researchers at the University of Western Ontario. Beer was found to protect special parts of cells in the eye called mitochondria, which when damaged, can lead to an increased incidence of cataracts. The scientists say that putting the eye's lens under high glucose stress-similar to what happens to diabetics when their glucose levels rise-damages mitochondria in the lens' outer cells. The researchers believe that this may be one of the factors that's contributing to the lower risk of cataracts in people who have one drink a day.

What's the difference between an ophthalmologist, an optometrist and an optician?
First, I'll give you two quick tests to winnow out the ophthalmologist. Cover one eye. Which is the only one with an "l" in his title? You got it. Now compare bills from each (uncover that eye). The biggest one also comes from the ophthalmologist, who is an M.D., an eye doctor. 

Now let's shop for glasses and we'll separate optometrist from optician. The optometrist is one step down in the medical pecking order from the ophthalmologist. She can also examine your eyes, and in addition make glasses for you if you need them or give you an eyeglass or contact lens prescription that someone else can fill. But she's not an M.D. and can't operate or prescribe medicine.

An optician can make and fit your glasses, but that's all. He's a technician, and can look down only on the receptionist.
Source: THE HANDY SCIENCE ANSWER BOOK compiled by The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

Where did eyeglasses come from?
The Chinese invented eyeglasses. Marco Polo reported seeing many pairs worn by the Chinese as early as 1275, 500 years before lens grinding became an art in the West.

Who invented bifocals?
It could be said that American pioneer Benjamin Franklin did, along with many other things. Anyone looking at a list of Benjamin Franklin's inventions would see a man of many talents and interests. Indeed, it was the scientist in Franklin that brought out the inventor - his natural curiosity about things and the way they work made him try to find ways to make them work better. For example, Franklin had poor vision and needed glasses to read. He got tired of constantly taking them off and putting them back on, so he decided to figure out a way to make his glasses let him see both near and far. He had two pairs of spectacles cut in half and put half of each lens in a single frame. Today, we call these types of glasses bifocals. Although he did make many important discoveries and advancements, Ben did not "invent" electricity. He did, however, invent the lightning rod which protected buildings and ships from lightning damage.

Would a Greek doctor have told you to take two aspirin and call him in the morning?
Sort of - Willow bark, which provides the salicylic acid from which aspirin was originally synthesized, has been used as a pain remedy ever since the Greeks discovered its therapeutic power nearly 2,500 years ago.

WHO INVENTED ALKA-SELTZER?
The idea came from a newspaper editor in Elkhart, Indiana, in the 1920s and was brought to the public by Hub Beardsley, president of the Dr. Miles Laboratories (now Miles Laboratories). Beardsley learned that an entire newspaper staff had remained free of influenza during an epidemic when they took the editor's prescription of aspirin and baking soda.  Beardsley knew he had found a money-making product. Launched in 1931, the tablet was a nationwide success before the end of the decade.

Where did Band-Aids® (the registered trademark of the Johnson & Johnson Corporation)  come from?
Earle Dickson developed what would become the Band-Aid in 1920 for his accident-prone wife, Josephine. Earle was in the habit of attaching small pieces of the sterile gauze produced by his employer Johnson and Johnson, to the center of strips of surgical tape. A colleague of his encouraged him to pitch his invention to the boss. The company became intrigued after Earle demonstrated how easily the bandage could easily be applied by oneself, as opposed to the clumsy gauze available at the time. The original bandages Johnson and Johnson produced, were not only handmade, but were rather large in size at 2 1/2" in width, and 18" in length. But by 1924, Johnson and Johnson revamped the production process of what was now called the Band-Aid by using machines, and by cutting down the size of the product. Sales skyrocketed, and Earle's vision became a reality.  By the time of his death in 1961, after being rewarded by Johnson and Johnson with a token vice-presidency and later with a seat on the Board of Directors, sales of the Band-Aid exceeded $30,000,000, and production to date exceeds one hundred billion. All of this wealth can be attributed to a frustrated husband with an idea, a clumsy, accident prone wife, a piece of sterile gauze, and a piece of surgical tape.

IS IT TRUE THAT ONE SHOULD NOT SWIM FOR AT LEAST AN HOUR AFTER EATING?
There is no scientific evidence proving that swimming and eating produce cramps. Muscle cramps are caused by fatigue and chilling and have nothing to do with digestion or with the body focusing its energies on digestion and drawing blood away from the muscles. Long-distance swimmers will actually eat while in the water to avoid fatigue (and, thus, muscle cramps).