Alternative Medicine
c. 3000 BCE Ayurvedic Medicine
Ayurveda is a holistic system of medical science and is the oldest science of healing that is almost more than 5000 years old.
What Is Ayurveda? The History Of Ayurveda, https://www.ayurvedicindia.info/history-of-ayurveda/
c. 1000 BCE Chinese Herbal Medicine
In the Western Zhou Dynasty (1066 BC–771 BC), there were already professional Chinese medicine doctors. At that time, people gathered known Chinese herbal medicines for use by Chinese medicine doctors.
History of Chinese Herbal Medicine, https://www.chineseherbsinfo.com/history-chinese-herbal-medicine/
c. 500 BCE: Hippocratic Oath – “First, Do No Harm”
The Hippocratic oath, written in the 5th century BCE, does contain language suggesting that the physician and his assistants should not cause physical or moral harm to a patient. The first known published version of “do no harm” dates to medical texts from the mid-19th century, and is attributed to the 17th century English physician Thomas Sydenham.
N.S. Gill, Is ‘First Do No Harm’ Part of the Hippocratic Oath?, October 20, 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/first-do-no-harm-hippocratic-oath-118780
late 18th century: Classical Homeopathy
The probable origins of homeopathy are fascinating and almost certainly stretch back into prehistory. Many indigenous, shamanic peoples say that medicines must be shaken or struck in order to waken them up. The other cornerstone of homeopathy – that of treating like with like – also has its origins in the distant past, at least as far back as Ancient Greece. However, it was not until the late 18th century that this method of treating illness was turned into a rational system of medicine by Samuel Hahnemann, who is seen as the founder of homeopathy.
Oxford Homeopathy, Origins and History of Homeopathy, https://www.oxford-homeopathy.org.uk/homeopathy-origins-history.htm
1947: The Nuremberg Code
The Nuremberg Code was codified but not adopted globally after World War II to advise the nations of the world to not engage in or condone human experimentation without first obtaining voluntary informed consent.
Evelyne Shuster, Ph.D., Fifty Years Later: The Significance of the Nuremberg Code, The New England Journal of Medicine, https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejm199711133372006