Disease in the Middle Ages :: Health

In the Medieval and Renaissance conviction periods, health conditions were extraordinarily poor for the European nations. Many different diseases and ailments arose to kick up these unfortunate people. Luckily for them they had their much esteemed doctors, scholars and the highly religious clergy members to athletic supporter rid them of their affliction. They offered solutions to the suffering souls seeking answers and a cure. Many of these illnesses were spread by dint of prostitution, consumed grain, animals or too much of a bodily snappishness. It could be concur upon that the health check education of these times were few and none.The most popular affection of the middle ages was the four bodily humors. This physiological philosophy was brought close by Hippocrates, who was wrongfully regarded as the Father of Medicine. As history does, the ideas of great medical practitioners of ancient Greece were passed d receive through the Unani peoples to the Europeans. The four t ypes of bodily humors are vitriolic bile, yellow bile, inanition, and blood. The idea was that too much of one of these humors would upset the parallelism of a persons temperament. The humors were also associated with the four genes and assuages and have their own qualities. Yellow bile had the component part of fire and the season of summer, it is said to coiffure irritability and anger and is characterized as hot and dry. Too much phlegm or water would make one sluggish or lazy, its season is winter and its said to be heatless and moist. Black bile, having the element of earth and the season of autumn is said to make one disturbing and melancholic and is characterized as cold and dry. Next theres phlegm, associated with the element of water and the season of winter. Having too much phlegm results in lethargy and is characterized as cold and moist.Lastly is blood, just like phlegm this bodily humor is somewhat self-explanatory. Blood, with the element of air and the seaso n of summer, is said to bring about temperament and disposition and is characterized as, of course, hot and moist. This is also where the term hot-blooded is derived from. These behavioral unbalances were interact through diet, exercise, and activity prescribed to purge the body of the demented humor. For example a person with the symptoms of yellow bile (hot and dry) would be treated by increasing its opposite, phlegm (cold and moist). The patient would be told to take cold baths until the symptoms decreased, but if this prescription did not work they were told to take hellebore, a poisonous substance with the side effects of vomiting and diarrhea.