Medieval Life versus Modern Medicine

I’m a pretty big fan of science — and by that, I mean the scientific method and its reliance upon testable theories and repeatable outcomes.  As a corollary, I generally respect modern medicine, and it’s not unusual to think, hey, without modern medicine, where would I be?  To put it another way, if I lived in the Middle Ages, wouldn’t life suck?

My last foray into modern medicine involved a rotator cuff tear, followed by surgery, frozen shoulder syndrome, and six months of excruciating physical therapy.  If I were a medieval peasant, I probably wouldn’t be able to use my arm at all, right?

Well, no, it turns out my shoulder problems were caused by the modern antibiotics Levaquin and Cipro, both of which I was taking for medically dubious reasons (as many people do) and other antibiotics weren’t available because of my allergy to Augmentin.

Augmentin was prescribed to me when I had contracted a horrible kidney infection, and I actually developed the allergy while taking it.  But hey, modern medicine saved me from a kidney infection, right?

Yes, but since I acquired it in a hospital, I’m going to put this in the medieval column.  I was in the hospital due to kidney stones, which were so big, they wouldn’t pass on their own.  After lithotripsy failed, the more invasive laser surgery was required.

Kidney stones are pretty horrible, and it’s easy to imagine myself in a medieval hamlet, blaming demons or whatever for my bone crunching pain.  However, it turns out my kidney stones were caused by high fructose corn syrup, so it’s more likely I’d be dancing around my medieval hamlet in no pain whatsoever, probably wearing tights, which I understand was acceptable back then.

I’d also been in the hospital to have my gall bladder removed, due to gallstones, which anybody who’s had them can tell you are almost as bad as kidney stones.  Oh no!  My medieval self would be unequipped to deal with gallstones … but (by now, you can see this coming) wouldn’t actually have gallstone problems in the first place.  In an ironic twist, cutting high fructose corn syrup and fat out of my diet to avoid kidney stones led directly to gallstones.

So far, the Middle Ages are beating modern medicine by at least three points, and I’m not even counting the clothes.

Not that I’m anti-modern-medicine, by any means, and I’m not about to revive the medieval practice of buying Head-On headache sticks to ward off brain goblins.  Instead, I’m going to give full credit to modern medicine for Imitrex, which is truly wonderful.

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3 Responses to Medieval Life versus Modern Medicine

  1. Courtney says:

    Based on typical life expectancies in the middle ages, wouldn’t you expect to be dead before reaching your present age, anyway?

  2. queued says:

    Not really — part of the reason life expectancy was so low was infant mortality — though I would expect to die of a disease rather than of old age.

  3. Woody says:

    Well my friend..sorry to hear you had such bad luck, my sympathies.

    When you really begin to understand the world these days and how things are run, then only will you know the reasons why many humans have an unnecessary death.. My dear mother died from modern medicine, drugs produced to sustain life only for a short time, but damage the body in other ways. The doctor said she died from cancer, but that was just another lie to keep things looking respectable and above board.

    During medieval times, people died mostly from infections as they had little knowledge of the simple and available cures that were even back then plentiful..
    The local healer, perhaps a solitary old woman than knew of natural cures, sometimes know as the ‘witch doctor’ has been laughed about for centuries. The same people laugh at anybody that has a conspiracy theory, even with supporting evidence!!

    Modern medicine started to evolve around during the 1920’s. As it progressed, the companies realized that they could take over the market & become extremely wealthy, also the doctors that still today take money for pushing the poisonous drugs..

    One of the most natural & non poisonous medicines that had been used for years to treat & cure many illnesses to be outlawed was cannabis. There are probably many more but too many to mention here.

    (Eugenics are not propaganda, there are several people working on how to reduce the world population since the 1940’s.)

    If people would just wake up and realize that they kill themselves slowly though the poison in food & drugs, there would be no more big pharma!!
    Many of the additives to your/our food contains substances that eat away at the immune system & can cause major damage. Fructose is a natural harmless sugar in fruit. High fructose GMO corn syrup is a silent killer that most people ignore. I pity anyone having to stomach living in the US these days, it cannot be easy to find natural food stuffs seeing as they have become almost unaffordable!

    I am nearly 58 years old and have not seen my doctor for many years now, but not due to luck, but good information concerning diet and natural cures. My last bad toothache lasted just 2 days after taking 5 to 6,000mg tabs of vitamin C and flossing with baking powder. I also have frozen shoulders & hips for many years, but through careful diet and rest healing again. Both my knees were operated on during the 90’s..

    In a nutshell..stop putting your trust in the government & read more on the internet. Even from your 1st day at school, your whole education till your last day was censored to keep you dumb, happy & trusting authority.

    Good luck to you and please stay of the fast food & processed crap,

    Cheers!

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