Medieval Cure for a Sore ThroatSo as soon as my bought with the flu was conquered I immediately star

Medieval Cure for a Sore ThroatSo as soon as my bought with the flu was conquered I immediately started suffering from a sore throat with a nasty dry cough.  I tried the usual remedies of gargling saltwalter and soothing tea’s, to no effect.  Today I finally broke down and visited my doc, who put me on a prescription of Amoxicillin, a nice modern anti-biotic that should clear it up by the end of the weekend.  Anyway my healthcare experience had me thinking about healthcare a thousand years ago and how much things have changed. If I had a sore throat around 1066, what would have I done?During the Middle Ages there were two basic outlets of healthcare, the barber surgeon and the local medicine woman.  The barber surgeon was a physician you would typically go to if you had a serious medical condition such as a broken bone, wound, or serious diseases such as plague.  During the Middle Ages medicine revolved around the theories of Galen, an ancient Greek physician who theorized that illness was caused by an imbalance of the bodily fluids (humors).  There were four basic humors; blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile.  If my sore throat became really serious, say to the point that I couldn’t eat, he might taste a sample of my urine to determine what kind of imbalance of humors I might have.  Determining that I have too much blood in my body, he may try to drain out a few pints of it, either through the use of leeches, or by cutting open a vein and draining it out directly.  Bloodletting was perhaps the most popular cure-all for disease from the Middle Ages well into the 19th Century.  Our most popular founding father, George Washington, died after having almost four pints of blood drained from him when he had a sore throat.  If the problem was caused by a bile imbalance, a good colonic might be necessary to get things back in order.  Incidentally, the barber surgeon was a barber as well as a surgeon.  The reason why was because only the town barber would have a collection of small delicate sharp instruments.  It was not uncommon for a physician to moonlight as a barber, or a barber to moonlight as a physician.If I were a little short on cash or my throat was just a minor illness, I might visit the local wise woman instead.  Unlike the barber surgeon who based his knowledge on ancient Greek science, the local wise woman based her craft on local remedies, herbal cures, astrology, and various forms of superstition and mysticism.  Often times, medicine woman had to beware, as many of their cures may border on witchcraft.  From the wise woman my cure could be the worm necklace.  I would be ordered to wear a necklace of earthworms tied to a string around my neck.  When the worms died, I would bury the worms and voila! No more sore throat.I am glad my medical treatment was not as strange or humiliating as what it would have been a thousand years ago, though I would bet I wouldn’t have to wait as long for an appointment.Source: Worst Jobs in History; Episode 2, Middle Ages. -- source link

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