You Wake Up and Find Yourself back In The 11th Century

[BAYLOR]

Infant mortality greatly reduced the average life span. If you survived into your teens, the chances were that you would live well beyond 30.

When it comes to life expectancy, the median is probably more representative than the average.

There was no such thing as good medical care in that time frame. you could be felled by appendix or simple staph infection.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There was no such thing as good medical care in that time frame. you could be felled by appendix or simple staph

Most couldn't afford medical care, and if they could, they would probably prescribe bleeding or leeches; both of which would probably be more detrimental than beneficial.

Its interesting because medical science seemed to take a downturn in the medieval period. Go back further and brain surgery was bring used. In the medieval period, prayers were just as - if not more - important than the medicine

 

[Ambrose]

As some say above, knowing Latin would be an asset. In the 70s I was with a friend staying with other friends in eastern Hungary. Our host spoke Hungarian and Russian. He also knew Latin. I had some Latin having done it at school, and thereafter at University as a class and when learning Roman Law. We managed, just. In difficulties he looked up the Septuagint, and I crossreferred to the Authorised Version. It worked the other way as well.

 

[BAYLOR]

Most couldn't afford medical care, and if they could, they would probably prescribe bleeding or leeches; both of which would probably be more detrimental than beneficial.

They had this silly ignorant notion good humors vs bad humors balance of the blood and infection was due to increases in bad humors and they bled people to put the blood back into balance which the thought bleeding would remove the bad. I wonder how many lived were lost because of this kind of stupidity . Ironically leeches have come back into modern medicine because their anti coagulant silva is useful in certain medical prceeduse like re-attaching fingers and toes that have severed in accidents.

Its interesting because medical science seemed to take a downturn in the medieval period. Go back further and brain surgery was bring used. In the medieval period, prayers were just as - if not more - important than the medicine

Simple Ignorance and illiteracy and a general suspicion and mistrust and persecution of Scientific inquiry which came after Rome fell.

 

[paeng]

Infant mortality greatly reduced the average life span. If you survived into your teens, the chances were that you would live well beyond 30.

When it comes to life expectancy, the median is probably more representative than the average.

I think part of preferred living conditions includes most of one's infants surviving.

 

[BAYLOR]

I think part of preferred living conditions includes most of one's infants surviving.

The infant mortality rate was pretty high in those times .

If you made it to 35, you were considered to be old .

 

[Pyan]

There was no such thing as good medical care in that time frame. you could be felled by appendix or simple staph infection.

Simple Ignorance and illiteracy and a general suspicion and mistrust and persecution of Scientific inquiry which came after Rome fell.

Not everywhere in Europe:

The Many Marvels of Medicine in Islamic Spain

 

[Pyan]

If you made it to 35, you were considered to be old .

No, you weren't - high infant mortality skews the perception of life expectancy. Most people who got through the dangerous early years lived to be 50-60.

Old age isn’t a modern phenomenon

 

[paranoid marvin]

No, you weren't - high infant mortality skews the perception of life expectancy. Most people who got through the dangerous early years lived to be 50-60.

Old age isn’t a modern phenomenon

This is true, but the expectation for a long life was much lower. Death could take you at any time, with famine, plague and sickness constant companions. And that assumed that you lived in peaceful times, and weren't been conscripted into your lord's military force as arrow fodder for the knights and nobles.

 

[THX1138]

There are many treatments that where both proven true and false in the advent of science.

Pharmacology has its bases in herbal remedies that where proven to be true. Eating/use of moldy bread to stop infections. a.k.a Penicillanic. Or drinking the broth made from boiled White Willow Bark to relive pain. a.k.a Aspirin. (Later through science found to be the white powdery substance in the inner bark of the White Willow's bark.) Ever noticed the woodies flavor of real Aspirin?

Many modern medicines and treatments are based off of what the 'Common Folk' knew and some, true, from some of the Ruling Classes from around the world.

If it works in low doses, concentrate it for faster, stronger results. The Good, Bad and Ugly of science and its effect on Pharmacology and health... or lack there-of. There is a lot of 'Snake Oil' out there, even today.

 

[paranoid marvin]

There are many treatments that where both proven true and false in the advent of science.

Pharmacology has its bases in herbal remedies that where proven to be true. Eating/use of moldy bread to stop infections. a.k.a Penicillanic. Or drinking the broth made from boiled White Willow Bark to relive pain. a.k.a Aspirin. (Later through science found to be the white powdery substance in the inner bark of the White Willow's bark.) Ever noticed the woodies flavor of real Aspirin?

Many modern medicines and treatments are based off of what the 'Common Folk' knew and some, true, from some of the Ruling Classes from around the world.

If it works in low doses, concentrate it for faster, stronger results. The Good, Bad and Ugly of science and its effect on Pharmacology and health... or lack there-of. There is a lot of 'Snake Oil' out there, even today.

And leeches. Don't forget the leeches...

 

[Dave]

The anticoagulants produced by leeches, and the lowering of blood pressure by blood loss, might have have improved some patients, but I think it had eventually become a one-size-fits all placebo by the time it was stopped. Also the use of some very strong poisons (Mercury, Arsenic) to kill human parasites would seem like a hammer to crack a nut to us today, but it was probably a lesser of two evils. In the future, we might look at some present treatments today (Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy) in the same way. There were those Dr. McCoy jokes in Star Trek: The Voyage Home, especially the joke about dialysis and growing a new Kidney.

 

[Oligonicella]

... by the time it was stopped.

Leeches are still used in medicine.

Leeches are still used in modern medicine for specific purposes12345:

• Healing skin grafts: Leeches help remove pooled blood under skin grafts and restore blood circulation in blocked veins.
• Reattaching body parts: They've been used in reattaching fingers and other body parts.
• Preventing blood clots: Leeches secrete peptides and proteins that work to prevent blood clots.
• Reverse transfusion: Leeches are used as a sort of reverse transfusion in cases of imbalanced blood circulation.
• Biotherapeutical practices: Leeches are used to treat several diseases and injuries with a high success rate.

 

[Dave]

Leeches are still used in medicine... ...for specific purposes.

I knew someone was going to say this when I wrote "it was stopped", but you've answered it yourself with the (for specific purposes) part, rather than for "removing bad humours by bloodletting". When they were really into that "Heroic Medicine" in the 1700s and 1800s they believed that the closer to death you came, the more successful the treatment must be. They were bloodletting with leeches, but also ingesting emetics for vomiting, diuretics and laxatives. I'm not sure the majority of those patients close to death, saw any of the benefits of leeches. And they certainly weren't applying skin grafts or re-attaching limbs then.

I do feel the conversation is wandering away from the 11th Century now when the balance or imbalance of the four humours would have been the established theory since the ancient Greeks. That is what I meant when I wrote "by the time it was stopped," and I think you knew that. But it must surely have originally begun with some "folk" knowledge of an improvement in particular cases.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

in the 1700s and 1800s they believed that the closer to death you came, the more successful the treatment must be. They were bloodletting with leeches, but also ingesting emetics for vomiting, diuretics and laxatives. I'm not sure the majority of those patients close to death, saw any of the benefits of leeches. And they certainly weren't applying skin grafts or re-attaching limbs then.

John Hunter who lived 1728-1793 didn't reattach limbs but he did experiment with inter-species transplants, but I've never seen the process sufficiently described to know if it involved leeches. He did use bloodletting on his patients, so perhaps. He was quite a colorful individual (I based a character on him).

 

[paeng]

The general view is that for hunter-gatherers around a quarter of infants died, and of those remaining, half died before adulthood. The average life span was around 30-40 years, and this went up to around 50-60 years given farming, and even more given industrialization.

 

[Oligonicella]

I knew someone was going to say this when I wrote "it was stopped",

Yes. Just adding clarification.

 

[paeng]

In addition, the quality of life is not equivalent to life span or life expectancy rate. Industrialization has brought about lots of tech to minimize suffering.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Well, I know that if I go to the docs and he prescribes me a course of leeches, I'll be telling him/her what to do with them!