Ibn Sina's (Avicenna) Wolf Lamb Experiment
Also popularly known as 'Avicenna', Ibn Sina was indeed a true polymath with his contributions ranging from medicine, psychology and pharmacology to geology, physics, astronomy, chemistry and philosophy. His most important contribution to medical science was his famous book Al Qanun Fi Al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine: A medical encyclopedia that became a standard text in medieval universities and remained in use for over 600 years).
Avicenna put two lambs in separate cages. Lambs were the same age and the same weight, and fed with the same food. All conditions were equal. However, at the same time, there was a wolf in the third cage. Only one lamb could see the wolf but not the other lamb.
Months later, the lamb who saw the wolf was cranky, restless, poorly developing, and losing weight. The lamb died whilst the other lamb remained healthy. Although the wolf did nothing to the lamb next to it, the fear and stress that lamb lived in killed it prematurely, while the other lamb that did not see the wolf, was peaceful and developed well with a healthy weight gain.
In this experiment lbn Sına proved the mental influence on physical wellness and its positive and negative effects on health.
Until the 18th century, he provided research-based knowledge to clinical practice. Thinking of medical practice, his greatest contribution was probably in the philosophy of medicine. He created a system of medicine that today we would call “holistic” and in which physical and psychological factors, drugs, and diet were combined in treating patients.
Avicenna, a Persian scientist who lived over 1,000 years ago, conducted a remarkable experiment.
In this experiment lbn Sına proved the mental influence on physical wellness and its positive and negative effects on health.
Unnecessary anxiety, fear and stress! Nothing may harm humans more than unnecessary anxiety and stress. Nothing can do anything like the damage it causes. Sometimes, for a limited time, anxiety can be beneficial in careful measures but the information pollution during this corona pandemic is causing unnecessary anxiety, fear may be harmful.
Keeping away from anxiety and panic is better for yourself and for your loved ones and for public health as well. Health literacy should be a priority for the countries to maintain better preparedness and to put the preparedness plan into practice besides a better mental, for a bio psychosocial health of the whole population.
Note: Avicena (Ibn Sina) never conducted an experiment with a wolf and two lambs. He’s never described it in his works, his biographers never mention it either. A publication in the Journal of Media Research in 2020 suggests this anecdote based on a 2013 publication: https://www.mrjournal.ro/docs/R2/37JMR3.pdf.
Keeping away from anxiety and panic is better for yourself and for your loved ones and for public health as well. Health literacy should be a priority for the countries to maintain better preparedness and to put the preparedness plan into practice besides a better mental, for a bio psychosocial health of the whole population.
Reposted from: https://www.woncaeurope.org/news/view/presidents-letter-ibn-i-sina-%28avicenna%29-and-research
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