Podcast, 29 mins
Four Humours: Fluids everywhere
It’s important to keep everything balanced. This philosophy was even more true in ancient Greece where it was thought that diseases were caused by fluids in your body being out of balance.
Part of Good in Theory
12 Feb 2026 09:00
Four seasons, four elements, four directions... four humours.
In ancient Greece it seemed clear that just as our world was built from four elements, our bodies must be regulated by four vital fluids. When these humours fell out of balance, disease and bad moods followed. For centuries doctors practiced medicine based on this idea: identify which fluid is winning and remove some of it until the patient stops complaining.
It wasn’t until the 20th century that a discovery truly revolutionised medicine and finally laid this theory to rest.
Credits
- Created and Produced by: Rita Neves (Research Associate at the University of Sheffield)
- Created and Produced by: Sofie Ried (PhD Student at the University of Sheffield)
- Intro/Outro Music: Andrew Glover