History of Bloodletting: When Doctors Bled Patients to Save Them

For over 2,000 years, bloodletting was considered the gold standard of medical care.Doctors across Europe and America believed disease was caused by imbalance—and the cure was simple: drain the excess blood.From ancient Greece to George Washington’s deathbed, this practice shaped medicine, education, and authority itself.This episode of The Caduceus Files examines why bloodletting made sense to intelligent physicians, why it survived for centuries, and how logic without evidence became lethal.This is not a story of ignorance.It’s a story of confidence, urgency, and the danger of action without proof.