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Healthcare in the Middle Ages

British Literature

Jennifer Vazquez
10/1/2014
Mrs. Thompson B-6

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Jennifer Vazquez
Thompson-B6
10 October, 2014
Healthcare in the Middle Ages
Healthcare in the Middle Ages
Health care in the middle ages is very different from the type of healthcare we have
today. The roles of the doctors and other healthcare professionals such as midwifes are different.
Treatment was also different, they used different methods, and everything was pretty much
underdeveloped back then. People in the middle ages believed that sickness was tied in to
religious beliefs. That id something was going wrong you could pray for some divine
intervention.
People used to believe that the causes of sickness were many. They though that you
could get sick from the simplest of things, such as smelling a bad odor. People with more of a
religious background believed that sickness was Gods way of punishing people, for committing a
sin. The sins that are considered worse the more serious the sickness was for the person who had
sinned.
A myth that people from the Middle Ages was called Blood Letting they believed that
it was good to spill blood. When you were sick they thought that the sickness was in your blood
so to get rid of the sickness they would use one of two ways to take that blood out. One method
they used is that they would cut open a visible vain with a small knife made specifically for that
and collect it in a bowl with measurements on it to know how much blood was being poured out

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which was also made for this particular procedure. Another method they used to get rid of sick
blood was leaches. Barbers always had leaches handy and ready to use. They would just attach
the leaches to you and let them suck the blood. Since they couldnt really measure the blood they
just let the leaches do their thing till they got full and just fell of the person it was attached to.
There were people who would do it even if they werent sick, because they believed it was
healthy and it was preventing them from getting anything. They even took days off from work so
they could have time to recover from that.
Another myth that people in the middle ages believed was to take a bath in a well in one
of many specific locations and you would be healed from any sickness that you had. Upon
arrival to one of these wells people would go in and wash themselves. When they were ready to
leave they would leave an article of clothing behind, believing that they were leaving behind the
sickness along with it. They also believed that there were sacred places and if you went there and
prayed you would be healed. Because of the fact that sometimes the location was far and the
weather conditions werent always at its best, the sick would almost never make it and die mid
trip.
Apothecaries were the middle age version of todays CVS or Walgreens. There you could
find less than you would today in our pharmacies, they didnt sell half the stuff that they do
today. Apothecaries were less of an herbal type of medicine and something that resembled more
for a less modern type of pill. A Wise Woman was typically a woman who provided a more
herbal option for treatments and illnesses. A various combinations of plants were used to, make
teas or ointments.

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Surgeons were considered inferior to physicians due to the lack of their success rate.
There was no anesthesia so they had to operate on patients while they were wide awake. During
surgeries there would be other people there to help hold the patient still while they were
undergoing a procedure. Apart from lacking anesthesia they also lacked antibiotics along with
the fact that back then they didnt really clean the medical interments that they used. They also
didnt know how to properly clean the wounds. Surviving the surgery was one thing but
surviving post-surgery was another. If you didnt die from the surgery you were probably going
to die from infection.
Barbers now a days are known for just cutting hair, in the middle ages barbers were the
dentist they removed teeth and other stuff of that sort. They also were the ones who drained the
blood of people with the leaches and other methods as previously mentioned. The red and white
pole that is associated with barbers was also around back then. The red stood for blood and the
white stood for bandages.
Like today people in the middle ages fought wars but they used arrows unlike now days
that we use guns. When at war there was a group of doctors that traveled with the soldiers so
they could be treated quickly. Since they got a lot of hurt people on a daily bases they had to find
the most efficient ways to treat the soldiers, something that was quick so they could move on the
next person that was injured, along with having the highest survival rate. A common method that
was used to treat soldiers was to use a hot iron, they made sure that even the color of the iron was
red to ensure it was well heated. It was the most common because it was just what they needed
the wound was believed to heal quickly and kept soldiers from bleeding out. A big factor was the
fact that it reduced the likely hood of the wound by a whole lot. This method was also used when
an amputation was done.

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Outside of the war people treaded wounds almost just as similar as we do today with
vinegar or Myrrh believing that it kept the wound clean. After it was cleaned it was then wrapped
in bandages such as cloth. The more serious type of wounds people treated with Yarrow which is
a type of yellow or white plant that grows in clumps. For headaches a mixture of herbs and
yarrow were used.
The Black Plague also known as the Black Death killed just over one third of all of
Europe. In the larger populations the illness spread very quickly because no one knew how it
really spread. It didnt help that they didnt have very clean water systems and poor sewer
drainage. The fleas on rats helped spread the illness even quicker, which was a major factor of
the spreading of the black plague. People died 2-4 days after getting it, they would get large
swellings of the skin called buboes and it would turn black which is why it was called the black
dead, the victims were also always tired, their muscles would hurt, they would be vomiting, they
also had a high fever, along with other symptoms. Treatments for this illness were many but
none worked. One way they thought they could cure it was by mixing lilies, tree resin and dried
human poop and applied to a swelling of the skin. The religious people thought they were being
punished for their sins so to get better they would whip themselves to make up for their sins.
People thought that it could be prevented why hiding in the sewers because they thought it was
airborne and that the clean infected air wouldnt want to go were the air smelled bad and wasnt
as clean. This in turn made matters worse because they would get sick of other illnesses from the
sewer. It was later discovered that it helped to cut open the buboes and to let them drain out but it
wasnt always effective.
Women who were about to give birth were told to confess their sins because they were
likely to die during or short after. Do to infection because of a lack of a clean environment or

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other various complications. If the child was known to not be in the correct position while the
mother was in labor they would lay her down on a bed and shake it vigorously in hopes that the
child would turn in to a more correct position. C sections were only done if, nothing else was
working and they needed to go to desperate measures. The recovery rate of childbirth took about
a month and they stayed in a special room with a bunch of good smelling herbs.
Treatments were very different in todays modern world. We have more knowledge of
illnesses through the modernization of technology and the help of trial and error. So now we
know a list of cures that do and dont work. In the Middle Ages treatment was more of an
educated guess, based upon trial and error.

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Citations
Enriques, (2000, 01). Cures for the Black Death. History Learning Site. Retrieved 10,
2014, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/cures_for_the_black_death.htm
Enriques, (2000, 01). Medicine in the middle ages. History learning Site. Retrieved 10,
2014, from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/medicine_in_the_middle_ages.htm
Morton, D. (2009, 03). 10 Excruciating Medical Treatments from the middle
ages. ODDEE. Retrieved 10, 2014, from http://www.oddee.com/item_96620.aspx
Rendfeld, K. (2006, 01). Medicine: Medieval Childbirth . Unusual Historicals. Retrieved
10, 2014, from http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com/2012/11/medicine-medievalchildbirth.html
(2014, 01). Health. Annenburg Learner. Retrieved 10, 2014, from
http://www.learner.org/interactives/middleages/health.html
(2014, 01). Medicine in the Middle Ages. Middle Ages. Retrieved 10, 2014, from
http://www.lordsandladies.org/medicine-in-the-middle-ages.htm
(2014, 01). Sickness & Health. Homework Helpers investigating medieval Life.
Retrieved 10, 2014, from http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/sickness.pdf
(2014, 01). The Black Death. KS3 Bitesize. Retrieved 10, 2014, from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/history/middle_ages/the_black_death/revision/5