What was the cure for love when it was considered a disease?

Have you ever wondered what love was like in ancient times? This concept of love between people has mutated over time, but in one way or another, it has always existed. For example, in the 12th century, the thinker Andreas Capellanus identified “four types of love.”

There was true love (between people of the same social rank), carnal love, impossible love and dishonest love.

This classification then led to extrapolating the concept to medicine, to arrive at the conclusion that love was a disease which influenced the four humors of the body: blood, mucus, black bile and yellow bile.

So different doctors started saying that, for example, Lovesickness caused an excess of black bile, which affected the brain and was responsible for “intense thoughts and worries in the lover.”

And as with any disease, They also proposed a remedy.

According to a research article by The conversation written by Anna Peirats, from Catholic University of Valencia Physicians such as Constantine Africanus, Boissier de Sauvages and Bernardo De Gordinio associated love with illness.

For example, for De Gordinio there wasto the “love of women” that made a man obsessed with his beloved and recorded images of her in his brain. He even assured that this “dangerous” disease could cause his death.

And that’s it The man’s body temperature could increase, as well as his sexual desire. His skin turned yellow, he suffered from insomnia, lack of appetite, constant sadness, among other symptoms. The disease was named “amor hereos” or “aegritudo amoris.”

Without going any further, even in ancient literature there were characters who lost their minds for love. Like Don Quixote, who searches until exhaustion for his Dulcinea.

And what did you do then, if you were already “sick” with love?

According to the same analysis, the remedy was once a “double recommendation: diet and moral discipline.” The person was to stop drinking wine and not eat red meat, milk, eggs, legumes or red foods.

According to doctors, this was because they “stimulated blood circulation and sexual desire.”

In exchange, The lover had to eat white meat, fish and drink water or vinegar. He also needed to sweat and wash before eating.

Furthermore, Since it was believed that the part of the body where love was found was the kidneys, they recommended placing a cold iron plate on them. to overcome heartache. And the main reason why love became sick was that people were carried away by carnal instincts, which did not allow them to have peace and quiet in their minds.