Has Canadian health progressed from MEDIEVAL TIMES-HUMOUR

What knowledge did medieval people have in the way of health?


There were many myths and superstitions about health and hygiene in medieval Europe, as there still are today. People believed, for example, that disease was spread by bad odors. It was also assumed that diseases of the body resulted from sins of the soul. Many people sought relief from their ills through meditation, prayer, pilgrimages, and other nonmedical methods.
And in Canada today

The health myths continue. The bad odor –of having the best health system in the world –is spread by Ottawa and the health priest cast-along with the message that it is sinful to use health services not provided by their public health temples- that are seemingly self- serving and , overstaffed with high paid health temple workers. Many people make pilgrimages to other lands and places to seek treatment.

Did they really think that all illness was the result of sin?


Sin was regarded by early medieval authors as the cause of sickness in the sense that without sin there would have been no material evil. This obviously does not imply that a sinful individual would become sick. One's own general sinfulness was often given as the cause of one's own sickness. This was more a result of a kind of a "guilt trip" rather than actual cause and effect occurrence.

And in Canada today

It is a sin to use remedies or services that are not sanctioned by Ottawa’s National Health Act or the directives of the provincial Health Temple authorities. In a convoluted way, the message is that if you use the public health system there will
be no sickness.

What was their view on the body and its 'humors?'

The body was viewed as a part of the universe, a concept derived from the Greeks and Romans. Four humors, or body fluids, were directly related to the four elements: fire=yellow bile or choler; water=phlegm; earth=black bile; air=blood. These four humors had to be balanced. Too much of one was thought to cause a change in personality--for example, too much black bile could create melancholy.
And in Canada today

The four elements have been changed to defend the current status quo. fire=campaigns against other health delivery options, Water= the need and right for obscene amounts of public money, earth= the right to legislate laws for the health monopoly, Air= the right to keep health customers waiting and needy .
Many people today think the existing health system is out of balance and needs fixing.

What did they use in the form of medicine?


Medieval remedies were often herbal in nature, but also included ground earthworms, urine, and animal excrement. Many medieval medical manuscripts contained recipes for remedies that called for hundreds of therapeutic substances--the notion that every substance in nature held some sort of power accounts for the enormous variety of substances.
And in Canada today

Major remedies are made from the same ingredient but are sold by major drug companies -often as a adjunct to the “authorized” health temple authority. The cost of the remedy has increased as the supply is artificially limited, and the demand increased through legislation. Many remedies that work are not allowed because that would reduce the need for more expensive legislated alternatives produced by friends of the health temple authority.

The health authorities are trying to control and legislate any alternative healing source ingredients. Fortunately –they have not always been successful. More people are taking control of their own health, taking preventive measures, as they become more cynical of the “expensive” free public health delivery system. The internet and the instant knowledge available have made this personal act of empowerment and defiance of the given monopoly authorities easier.

Did everyone have access to a doctor?

In medieval times, medical treatment was available mainly to the wealthy, and those living in villages rarely had the help of doctors, who practiced mostly in the cities and courts. Many treatments were administered by people outside the medical tradition. Coroners' rolls from the time reveal how lay persons often made sophisticated medical judgments without the aid of medical experts.

And in Canada today

The myth that everyone gets treated equally, whatever the location or class, is propagated- but unfortunately not true. In reality, those who are wealthy can get service by escaping the existing monopoly jurisdiction and avoid the fatal waiting lines- which are free. The world has healthy alternatives that you can choose if you have the means, will and brains to do so.

Lay persons still make sophisticated judgments without the aid of medical experts. These lay persons consume a disproportionate amount of the health budget. There are a lot of these non health productive people in the “health temple system. The list, by no means exhaustive, includes the temple administrators, federal and provincial health bureaucracies, and all the gatekeepers of the status quo.

Fortunately, there are people and organizations, who are feed up with current medieval system of health delivery in Canada. Help them to help you be healthy.
Health Choice is a wonderful right that must be nourished.