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Very little is known about prehistoric medicine apart from fossils, implements and cave drawings. Ill-health shows its marks on human remains and broken bones were a common problem. It is thought that prehistoric humans did much like animals, licking wounds, resting when sick or having been injured, seeking heat when cold and coolness when hot.

Divine intervention certainly preceded prehistoric medicine. Possible evidence shows that what we call holistic medicine today has always been a perhaps an instilled part of human nature. There seems to have always been a unanimous awareness of good and evil in all ancient cultures. From the dawn of recorded history, medicine and religion co-existed and by necessary inference, prehistoric medicine and religion.

Humanity likely blamed evil spirits for disease and pestilence. Petition to divine authorities included prayers and rituals in behalf of well-being. This is one of the earliest tenets of prehistoric medicine that has persisted even to this day. It is one that has been omitted from modern Western mainstream medicine, making it incomplete despite its scientific advances in human health.

A cave drawing shows a figure depicting a human body with the head of a deer possibly representing a shaman or medicine man. Such professionals in prehistoric medicine relied on human sacrifice, incantations and chanting to the Supreme Being(s) in behalf of the ailing person, infusing inanimate objects, such as a bones or sticks, with the evil spirit from the ill or diseased person, thus removing the evil spirit from that person.

Man became aware of the healing properties of certain plants and incorporated that into his growing knowledge of medicine. Perhaps the scene of the Adamic garden as well as some Chinese pictographs that have survived from ancient times showing garden scenes in striking detail depicts prehistoric medicine at its dawning.

The setting broken limbs do not appear to have been practiced in prehistoric medicine though this may have been done using wooden splints. Herbs were one of these, as well as the religious incantations and prayers for the removal of evil spirits and petitions for well-being. The very little understanding of human anatomy probably came from the cutting open of human carcasses.

Fossil human skulls with holes bored or ground out of them have been found, some of these are quite large. There is evidence that some of these unfortunate souls survived this ordeal. This process is known as trepanning and is thought to have been done to release evil spirits from the body. Cave paintings depicts the relieving pressure from migraine headaches, seizures and mental disorders. The portion of bone taken from the skull is said to have been worn as an amulet for warding off evil spirits. Albeit there may have been some medical significance for this practice.

The earliest American inhabitants which are said to have ventured out of Africa and ancient European cultures and migrated into the Far East as it was in prehistoric times. If these people settled in the Far East for any length of time, they may have brought medical knowledge as it was known there to the American continent during the Ice Ages. Migrating throughout the American continents they brought their medical knowledge with them and adapting new ones making ado with the resources available to them. For the most part, these peoples became cultures lost in time, remaining in prehistoric though holistic living.

Europeans would make landfall on the North American much later and native American medical knowledge passed on to their still primitive and quite medieval medical knowledge. It is known today that many of the native American therapeutic procedures were superior to those of the Europeans at the earliest times. Indeed, some of these have come down to us in conventional medicine today.