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Medieval Life - Health
By Med | February 9, 2006
Health was a major issue during the Medieval Times. Doctors were very scarce and the few who actually exerted their job were very commonly unskilled to perform that important task.This was mainly because it was a common belief that health problems were caused by God and men had no power over them. This slowly changed as time passed, but nevertheless; it was too late by then because too many avoidable deaths took place.Many babies died because there was no much knowledge in having a safe practice for both the mother and the baby. This led to a very slowly-increasing population during the Medieval Ages.
Food:Food played a very important role in medieval health as a famine would often cause the death of thousands of peasants. This rarely happened, but nevertheless; medieval people had to be very careful in knowing when a famine could take place. Additionally, food was seldom cooked correctly which in turn brought many infections which were unknown and accounted for something else. During a siege, food was conserved for many months which made most of it begin rotting. Since there was no option, medieval soldiers had to consume that food which brought the castle’s end sooner. During times of peace, consuming rotten food was very rare and it only happened when there was a famine - which, as stated above, almost never happened.Another major factor which accounted the demise of thousands of peasants was the bad nutrition during the Dark Ages. This was caused because of ignorance and lack of food as most peasants would eat a lot of bread and water, but would miss many nutrients which are required for a healthy life. This led them to a state of weakness which combined with the hard labor, brought diseased and ultimately death.
Winter:Winter was a major cause of death as most poor peasants would very often find themselves struggling against the cold and very often catching diseases which now seem unworthy - but back then deadly. Health-related scrolls and manuscripts were very valuable and scarce. It has been recently discovered that most of them were very inaccurate because of the numerous translations that they were subject to. The most common way of translation was from Greek to Arabic and then to Latin - which was then translated into the country’s language. This led to many erroneous translations which, in terms of health, resulted in an even more inaccurate way of dealing with patients.This slowly improved as many doctors realized newer and more effective methods to cure their patients, but this rarely happened as the church would very often forbid such practices and would account everything to God’s power. Many scientists were burnt at the stake for attempting to make new cures - which significantly slowed the development of medicine and healing methods.
Plague:Another major fear were the plagues which were very common at the time. They could often kill a whole village and could spread widely. The case of The Black Death is impressing as every fourth person in Europe died. Imagine walking on the street and every fourth person you see - dies. That’s how the Black Death, which took place from 1347 - 1351, was.Most doctors would resort to give their patients whatever herb they could think of. This was almost never sustained on a study as very few existed, so doctors would give their patients what they thought would help them - which very rarely helped and caused even more deaths when a plague struck.Plagues were deadlier in cities as the plague could be transmitted easier between the narrow streets from inhabitant to inhabitant. When many deaths occurred, and most people were sick, there was an even greater danger of rotting human flesh which would result in an even greater number of infections and more deaths. In order to dispose bodies, huge holes were made in the ground and corpses were thrown by the hundreds without any proper burials.
Babies:Since there was bad care for a pregnant woman during the Dark Ages (specially in lower classes), many babies with brain traumas were born. They were very often accepted into society, but sometimes when the church got in the affair, they had crosses shaved into the back of their head or were given to the monastery in hopes for God to heal them.Obviously, nothing could be done for these babies, reason for which they were mostly a burden and poor families got rid of them.
Diseases:The most feared disease during the Middle Ages was leprosy which killed thousands of people. Leprosy was looked at as an act of God to punish a person, and thus; the church believed that he had done something wrong and when someone had leprosy he would be investigated and sometimes killed.Diseases were very numerous and often deadly. For this reason, it was recommended to stay warm and to try not to go out to the cold. Nobles very rarely went out without proper clothing - and would request to have warm water delivered to them for their bathing purposes.
General Medicine:Doctors usually relied on traditional knowledge to cure their patients. They would normally use knives, scissors, etc. to perform surgeries which made them more contraproductive than the original disease per se. Additionally, most of these instruments were very poorly washed which led to infections transmitted from patient to patient.Hospitals began to be built during the XIII century. In the same time, many medicine schools were built in order for doctors to have a proper education. A doctor could generally graduate and begin performing surgeries and giving advice after just five years of studies and two exams.As time passed, doctors were better prepared. Nevertheless, during the Dark Ages, nobody fully believed in them and they were not taken seriously.
When a doctor’s attempt to cure a patient failed, the church would take care of the patient by attempting exorcism or prayers for the patient.Many nobles believed that Eastern doctors were better - reason for which they were frequently called and asked to heal patients who were thought to die. Unfortunately, there is no much evidence to support this fact as it is even believed that Western doctors were more efficient due to a better understanding of Greek medicine. Eastern doctors would very often resort to magic and useless herbs which leads to believe this.As time passed, more hospitals were built and more education given. The bond between religion and health was never broken during the Dark Ages and, though tolerated later on, at first religion was the only way.It took medieval doctors hundreds of years to acquire the knowledge that was lost when Alexandria’s library was burnt.
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