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Learning about the medieval period is so much fun. I constantly marvel at how anyone survived at all (and why they would want to survive). Even medieval music, especially religious choir pieces reflects just how miserable they were and how dependent they were on religion to persevere.

I had a friend on Molokai who was friends with some of the last Leprosy patients left in Kalaupapa in the early 80's. They took myself,my cousin& her Fiance on a tour,(we were all young college students then). We got to meet the handful of elderly remaining patients (who were a delightful friendly bunch), it was a once-in-a lifetime visit I will never forget! The history, & stories were amazing!

I'm reminding myself by watching this that although I get frustrated with drs today I'm lucky to live in this time. I've realized more than once that had I lived in these times I would have died young. Crazy to know how things in medical suffering have gotten better , though they aren't perfect ,even today we tend to overlook how well we have it today compared to early times in history. We are a spoiled ungrateful people

What is awe inspiring and profound to me, as I’ve been studying, is each of us here solely because of a lineage of survivors. If any one individual had died before having children- so many of us would never have been.

"We call them non-adults. Because they're not adults in age." Thank you for breaking that down for me doc! I would have never pieced that puzzle together on my own.

I think if I had to contend with one of these awful diseases, I would view death as a mercy and I am sure lots of people back then did too. I dont see many wanting to live to ninety or a hundred with some painful condition that made life hell on earth. I think we forget that they didnt have such easy access to pain relief as we do, and even nowadays some people fight through the courts to be allowed euthanasia. What would it have been like back then. Its horrific! But its very heartening to think people werent ostrasized and were cared for within their own communities.

Thanks for uploading more Medieval Dead! The fields of Paleopathology, Bioarcheology, and GenoGraphy are so fascinating. They’re adding much to our understanding of history, especially of the commoners / peasants who rarely leave detailed records and have few artifacts, if any, buried with them. edit: I love Prof. Charlotte’s office! You can tell she just adores her work or at least has a good humor about it.

Lepers in Molokai formed their own close-nit community and sometimes didn't leave once cured. My great aunt was imprisoned (quarantined) for more than 2 years in the mid-1920s when she had tuberculosis. Some bacterial infections were deadly and contagious until recently.

Forty one years ago I started working in the NHS, having spent 6 months in the Emergency Department of a children's hospital I moved to a specialist geriatric hospital. I cared for a man with tertiary syphilis, over the months the disease slowly destroyed his mind and he finally died. I have since seen the signs in several patients but fortunately it is now rare.

“How Victorians Avoided Disease” They didn’t.

Our history is so interesting. It shows just how far we have come. Those times had to be horrible. How they survived at all is a wonder.

This documentary inspired me to go brush my teeth

These documentaries in this channel are excellent, very high quality. But the audio isn’t loud enough. I can barely hear it even with the volume up all the way, I sampled 3 different sources and each time too quiet.

Thank you for uploading this video. I appreciate the respect the scientists show and express for the humanity of the people whose remains they examine. It's not only scientific data they are after, but an understanding of the society and the life experiences unique to those individuals. The way history should be studied, in my opinion.

That would be my dream job. I love history/archaeology, infectious diseases, and forensic pathology. It must be so hard to specialise in, though.

Oh my gosh! I just learned that not all syphilis are STDs, and there are other types. I never knew about that. They all seem equally awful diseases, too. Maybe I never heard about it because I don't have to worry about endemic syphilis, but still.

"sometimes it's a necessity, sometimes these people are turned up by accident, and we have to do them a service by allowing them to tell us their story." I mean if you had to dig me up I'd appreciate you attempting to understand me too. Thanks archaeologists and paleontologists

One of the most fascinating times of history. IMO. This was remarkably well done. I wasn’t even raised religious but was traumatized by religious stories about leprosy that religious people would talk about. Thank you.

I have heard of a cave in the USA that was used as a leper's colony. At the time I actually learned about it, there were tours being given, and food being served because the tours were so long. I'm not giving place or name, because things might have changed. However, I do distinctly remember I had no fear of catching it. This was in the early 1990's I learned about it. I have wanted to go there ever since I first learned about it, despite having read horrors about lepers. Given war, poverty, and nuclear plants blowing up, I didn't much fear disease except cancer. Again, this was long ago. I still very much want to visit that cave.

Life expectancies have (or I should say had) grown higher just since I was born. I remember when it was rare, very rare, to see someone's obituary, who had lived to 100. Now it's fairly common. Even here in the U.S. where I believe life expectancies have declined, you see centenarians quite often.

I read a book by Dr. Paul Brand. He was a Dr. in India who treated Leprosy. He said the reason they lost fingers and other parts was because when the disease affects the nervous system, they lose feeling. They may burn their hand causing finger or hand damage, or may break their foot because they can't feel changes in pressure when walking. Their digits didn't just shrink by themselves.

This topic is one of my absolute favourites. So incredibly fascinating.

The truth is that leprosy isn't as contagious as thought from others with it, but rather from an animal host. For instance, in armadillo populations in the western hemisphere it is rampant and there have been quite a few contractions of it in the southern US even.

seeing this, i honestly have no idea how humans survived that period of time to be where we are today

Syphilis was brutally horrific in ancient times. A living hell.

I think because of this compassion towards the diseased we were able to overcome the horrors of rampant disease

The opening basically sounds like the rules set out for all of us social distancing during covid.

Anyone else watching this during Covid?... I’m going to go brush my teeth now, shower & wash my hair, put on clean clothes, wash my sheets and towels. I feel so unclean, but happy to be alive. Thanks for the upload 🦷

Medieval Dead is amazing. With there were more and more. The narrator, presenters...top notch!

The title is misleading...it's not about how disease plagued Victorian life, but the life of people in the Medieval Era.

Thank you. I don't know about abroad but in England there was a law against keeping a dirty house. It was a serious law and reportedly strictly enforced at least in some areas during medieval times.

This documentary is so good! Just think, how we view diseases from back then, how will people 500 years from now view how we handled diseases?

"It is not the aim of science to open a door to infinite wisdom, but to set a limit to infinite error." -Bertold Brecht

I can only imagine the pain they went thur with no pain killers. Having babies with no pain killers. Teeth pulled with nothing to numb you extra

If I remember correctly tuberculosis and leperosy are related and their is disscussion among scientists as to which is older. Tuberculosis is "fun" to learn about, it was brought by infected seals to the new world before the columbian exchange.

Can't be grateful enough to live in todays day and age.

Why does it say Victorian but then also medieval... two different time periods.

I have just stumbled upon this site and found this absolutely fascinating. Thank you. I’m obsessed with history 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺

As someone who's ill most of the time. Im happy i was born in this era. I'd have died years ago

I actually did a college thesis on medieval health focusing on medieval Christian and medieval Muslim world. The reason Europe had so much plagues was basically hygiene and dogma. The reason the Muslim world didn’t have much plagues was because of their religion. Take for example a saying by the prophet Muhammad, ““If you hear that it (the plague) is in a land, do not go there, and if it breaks out in a land where you are, do not leave, fleeing from it.” So what he is generally saying in 600 A.D is quarantine, probably the reason why the cannon of medicine that Europe used for 700 years was written by a Muslim, Avicenna. They (Muslims) also have ritual ablution, they wash themselves five times a day. Meanwhile in Europe the kings and queens used to twice a year. They also would assume diseases were caused by the devil or sin. I remember reading a letter a Muslim doctor from medieval Spain about his interactions with Europeans. He said when a person was sick they used to drill holes into his head or neck or beat him assuming he was possessed. He wrote, “I have seen the medicine of the Christians” sarcastically. Why were there such a difference in behavior when it came to health between two religious groups? That’s above my pay grade but what I realized after I finished my senior paper was, that the world is such an complicated place. Anyways, I usually fall asleep to videos and I just had to comment on this video. Forgive me for any mistakes in spelling or grammar, I’m literally falling asleep as I write this lol

Such valuable information. Glad that I found this channel!

Love these videos, but please give the person in charge of the audio mixing a firm slap.

As a dental hygienist I'm facinated by this!!

Great documentary! Only if the music could just be an undertone except overscreaming the voices etc... I hate how tv and youtube turns on music to hell proportions for impression. It impresses already. But the info was great.

I'm surprised humanity survived with all these horrible incurable diseases, wars where thousands died..plus the plagues.

Leprosy was a fearful, very contagious disease. I read it is still around in some countries.

So they can't calculate the age of death from a skeleton passed the age of 46 yet they are saying there weren't many old people around. Big assumption if you can't date a skeleton past middle age. Many skeletal remains are of children because this is the most vulnerable time of life. Once passed childhood, the chances of living to a good age were quite reasonable

My old parish church was built on a hospital for people affected by leprosy and where the monks treated them.

Lepers weren't just avoided in Victorian times. They were always shoved off to somewhere due to fear. I must be missing something or they just worded it a bit iffily.

Music was a bit much but overall another enjoyable history lesson

This channel is a treasure!

Archeologists in a 1000 years: 'damn those toothbrushes!'

"We can't age skeletons past 46..." The fact that she still had TEETH, would like a word with you...

I’m only 7 minutes in and I have a strong urge to clean my house.

Did the exile and isolation of patients with leprosy result in the rarity of leprosy in the modern first world?

Myth #2 that leprosy was incurable was not a myth but true in the middle ages

This was a cheery and uplifting way to spend my Friday night. :-/ At least I'm smarter now I suppose.

I really love this channel but I just wanted to point out that the volume is really low, please limit the audio more in your videos

honestly on an island like britain which is so old and has such a large population, the concept of digging up old cemetaries is understandable. you gotta bury the new dead somewhere, right?

I would like to propose that the “filthy” conditions in which Europeans in the Middle Ages lived contributed to within the general population an overall sound (read: successfully challenged) immune system, which contributed to survival. I believe, just as in today, some humans back then became more susceptible to infectious disease by aggravating conditions such as diabetes and cancer. Not saying that things were perfect before the advent of modern antibiotics and pharmaceuticals, more people did die from preventable infectious disease, but now most people die from preventable chronic diseases, such as from the physical debilitation associated with diabetes, and heart and lung diseases. Historical social improvements in general cleanliness have contributed less to humanity’s overall health than inherently healthy human immune systems.

Sometimes the music over powers the voices. But very informative

This documentary shook me to the core of my skel ee ton. Lol

I wouldn’t at all want to live in those days by any means. But if I could go back in time for a few hours & be protected fully & immune to any diseases.

First time I’ve ever seen people get exited over bad oral hygiene.

I love these documentary stories. FYI? To me, the background music was often louder than the narrator. Keep that in mind, next time. Thank you!

Let's not ignore that the roll malnutrition and starvation also had in killing people during pandemics during that time.

I enjoy your content. I would enjoy it so much more if your titles were accurate. Please put accurate titles and not just something that applies to 45 seconds somewhere near the middle of the video.

Great interesting documentary, the work being done is helping undo old myths regarding leprosy , Seems to be little interest by males in this work ? . Keep up the good work ,

Well it had nothing to do with Victorians but it was interesting none the less!

Wonderful doco, very informative. But the music in places almost drowns out the audio.

That was a good video. Thank you. I got a picture like the one at the beginning. Lady on sofa dead. Mine has a angle coming to get her. Yours is the only time I've seen another. Mine came from a diary/photo album from 16??. Can't remember much about because a lady brought it to work an showed Me. A priest gave it to her. I was the camera girl at a print shop an she let me take 2 pictures out an blow them up. It was maybe 5 in. Square made of dark brown leather inlaid with a design of ivory. It was thick with alot in it. Usually the volume on my phone is to loud on high but I was having trouble hearing your video. Just thought I'd let you know.

I tried very hard to garner as much information from this video. But the imbalance in music to narration audio levels was very distracting. Plus I think the title is misleading. I understand its part of series, but since this episode/video is specific to the medieval period, the title/thumbnail should have reflected that better

"Uh oh, i just got a splinter..... well, it was nice knowing you all" - Medievel Person

A wonder anyone made it through to be our ancestors.

The old artwork is amazing.

I met an elderly man who got syphilis from his wife...after they divorced and reunited... It resulted in him being blind... The wife was long since dead...

York Centre For Medieval Studies. My alma mater!

'These we would call 'non-adults', so they're... not adults... in age' Nope, I still don't know what you mean

By analyzing her dna you could potentially identify her relatives alive today?

In summary: It's a miracle we are still here.

I love that the first 10 minutes is weirdly focused on that one person’s office decorations

This is interesting information and does not need the obnoxious music that supposed to increase drama. It cheapens the experience.

Fascinating. Thanks for sharing.

So much of human history will never be known!

I’ve never wanted to have a shower this much in my life

42:15 "...because they think the end of their life is the end of everything for them." ...well, it is isn't it? Everybody has only one life- it's your life and everything in it is dictated by it's quality. So if you lose your life, you lose everything and have nothing; no morals, no materials, no thoughts, no disease... you literally lose it all ...there's no "they think" about it :)

If you continue watching, they do get better at editing the music.

What if they caught some ancient disease from handling those bones?

About what you said about the calculus, do we avoid a lot of diseases by brushing and flossing, then?

I can’t watch this because the audio of the commercials are really loud compared to the audio of the documentary. =(

Ahhh the beauty of raising 8 youngins..I automatically tune out unnecessary noises..didn't realise there was background music until I started reading comments 😂🤣🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Curious to see what having covid does to my bones. Too bad I won't see it.

My 12 year old daughter fell asleep watching this tonight. Not your average bedtime story haha

Them: penicillin will save your life Me who’s allergic: guess I’m a goner

I am interested in back then times like medieval times, victorian times,and so on does anyone know more sights to got to besides this one ?and way back then times too

If the background music is going to be so loud, could you please include captions? It's hard at times to focus on the narrator. Please and thank you!

Okay but the soundtrack is amazing at the beginning is there any title to the piece or os it an ost?

Hmmm están hablando del 2020? Suena muy parecido a estos tiempos!

VERY MUCHENJOYED THIS VIDEO......LEARNED ALOT. THANK YOU.