GCSE > History > CIE > GCSE History: Medicine and Health in Britain (1000-Present) Topic Summaries > Medieval medicine > Medieval cures and prevention
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Summary table
  • Religious methods: praying, fasting, going on pilgrimages, and flagellation (whipping oneself to seek God’s forgiveness).
  • Humoural treatments: involved trying to balance the Four Humours.
    • Purging: patients were given emetics (to make them vomit) and empty their bowels to clear out their systems. Some apothecaries even gave their patients poison.
    • Bloodletting: involved using leeches, cupping, or cutting a vein to drain out an ‘imbalance’ of blood.
    • Herbal remedies: patients were given spice-based mixtures to drink, smell, or bathe in to clear out blockages and remove ‘miasma.’
  • Astrology: star charts and almanacs (books about astronomical and meteorological events) were used since astrology was believed to affect health, with planets thought to influence different parts of the body.
  • Miasma prevention: people carried sweet-smelling herbs and flowers or burnt pleasant-smelling substances to purify the air.
  • Regimen sanitatis: a famous poem containing advice on healthy living, such as diet, exercise, and hygiene, to avoid illness.

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