What Were Some of the Diseases and their Cures?

The Medieval world had many diseases and illnesses.  In fact, the Medieval time period has been described as "nasty, brutish and short" because of the number of illnesses, and the lack of available treatments and cures that actually worked.  The people who lived in the Medieval times always had death hovering just outside their doorways, and they were bound to get sick. 

Many people became ill and ultimately died from those illnesses.  Why?  The main reason is that most of the Medieval doctors' treatments didn't work.  For example, how many times would you say you get a bad headache?  How do we cure that headache in modern times?  A pain reliever?  In Medieval times a doctor would actually drill holes in a patient's skull in an attempt to relieve pressure and cure a headache.  Sounds pretty painful, right?

Medieval doctors regularly used herbs in their treatment of illnesses.  They used them as laxatives, for skin ulcers, sore throats and stomach aches.  Even though a lot of these treatments did not truly work, Medieval doctors did have one treatment that did...bone splints.  They would position a broken bone and leave it in a hard, protective "shell" until a patient's bone had been healed.   Despite this one orthopedic success story, however, overall the Medieval illness treatment system was not very effective.