1250-1500 - Medieval approaches to prevention

in Medicine in Britain 1250-present

Medical approaches to treatment and prevention and links to ideas about disease and illness. Did any actions actually have a beneficial impact? Religious actions: prayers to appease a vengeful God and to prove your faith, pilgrimage, even religious wars (crusades) , contributions and indulgences, flagellation. Main source of caring was the church. Hospitals were run by the church and tended by monks and nuns. Direct Actions:- bloodletting and purges to rebalance humours. Barber surgeons, apothecaries and doctors - expense. Wise women and healers. Air purification to defeat the miasma they believed spread disease. Even killing pets and animals at time of epidemic. Government decree to deal with sanitation and clean water issues of the growing towns and cities. Remedies like poultices and herbal remedies. Hippocrates and the Druids advocated the chewing of willow bark long before salicylic acid was isolated and identified in 1763 but other suggestions much more questionable!