Inca medicine is a complicated mix of many practices and beliefs. Their religion and healthcare were very closely intertwined, as Inca priests were also doctors, and the cures they used were often more supernatural than conventional medicine. Sickness were understood as the work of supernatural forces. They use the earth and cosmic magnetism to interact each other through the frequencies emitted by magical charms, chants, and spells, and try to restore the harmony in the communication. Still, to cure the physical body, they used the appropriate amount of herbs and minerals used as remedies, anesthetics, and antibiotics, with prayers and supernatural spells to restore the harmony in it, since it was considered the vessel of the cosmic force used by the soul of the individual.
If an Inca broke a law, sinned against any deity, or lied, it was enough reason to become sick due to the break of the harmony of the dual forces co-existing in the universe.
They had an extent supply of knowledge about how to treat many sicknesses. The Inca knew the medicinal properties of vary great variety of medicinal plants. The chewed coca leave were used as a painkiller, and also to lessen hunger as the Chasqui messengers did. They never became addicted to any of the herbs used to lessen the pain since they, together with the herb, used wild tobacco, chicha made from fermented maize (alcoholic beverage), and hynosis to make the brain rest during a surgery process, avoiding the person to loose contact with reality while still the mind was under the effect of the narcotics.
They knew how to restore the physical body from, among others, urinary track blockage, respiratory disorders, and how to treat sickness in the immune system by increasing the amount of white blood cells. Also they were able to alleviate dysentery, ulcers, eye problems, and toothache. They also did blood transfusions. The success rate was quite high since the entire population were from the same blood group, type O.
To treat wounds they used boiled bark from a pepper tree placing it while still warm on the wound, and to prevent infection they burned the wound a little bit. To close an open wound they used the jaws from large ants as a clasp to seal it.
Surgeons were highly skilled, as they knew detailed information about cranial anatomy, and not to cut parts of the skull where the brain was injured, bleeding or where infections were more likely to appear. They also managed successfully to take away small pieces of the patient's hand to treat a head injury, and removed crushed or deceased limbs.
The brain surgery was called 'trepanation' and has been carried out since 1000AC. Over the years, remains have shown that the survival rate was around 90% with very low infection levels. They had different methods of operating the skull. Many people underwent this surgery, some even undergoing it more than once. The patients were mostly adult men that suffer brain injury, but also the trepanation was performed to cure epilepsy or chronic bone infection.
There were many different people involved in the Inca system of healthcare. One of them was the 'Hua-Tucc.' Their job was to find out the origin of the negative energy that causes the sickness, then to diagnose the patient, and to examine thoroughly the person's life. Then there was also the 'Ham-Pec,' who had applied their knowledge about all kind of diseases over the physical body and then cure the patient using the appropriate herbs and minerals. The 'Paco' was in charge of the treatment of the soul and to make sure the spirit was healthy. The soul was believed to be in the heart (character / personality) of the person. These different types of doctors were very religious, mystical, and very knowledgeable in the behavior of the natural forces and use of the natural energies of herbs and minerals.
Every village had their own 'San-Coyoc' or surgeon priest who would take care of broken limbs (disruption inside the community or refusal to comply to Inca law), open abscessed wounds (evil talking), and pull out teeth (taking out the root of any negative energy). They were also the 'Hampi Ca-Mayoc,' keepers of the authorized remedies and a state chemist. A 'Colla-Huaya' supplied medicinal plants, amulets, and charms, containing the required vibration or frequencies to restore the unbalanced energies.
Becoming a doctor was not an easy journey. First of all the power was passed from father to son. Then he was sent off to the Inca School of Medicine at Cuzco where he learned about the properties and behavior of the cosmical energies, how them interrelated with the energies of the earth, how to identified herbs and minerals according to their energies, how to recognize the behavior of the negative energies causing sickness and how to treat them. It would take so many years of practice before he was considered a doctor. These doctors were always looking for new energies, new remedies and improved old cures, which resulted in great medical advances and development.
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