What was health like in Shakespeare's time?

Answer 1

Shakespeare had the misfortune of living at a time when London was tormented by the plague. In addition, medicine hadn't progressed all that much since the medieval times. While they were becoming more aware of how the body worked, with the dawn of the Enlightenment just a little bit ahead, they still believed in the humoural model of how the body worked. That meant that if something were wrong with you, they thought it was an excess or deficiency of a certain bodily fluid such as phlegm, blood or bile (there was black or yellow bile). They inherited this idea of physiology from the Greeks and Romans who came up with it hundreds of years before, so you can imagine how effective it was. They had no concept of germs or micro-organisms so infection was always a risk and so simple ailments, like an ingrown toenail, were dangerous. In addition, blood-letting was a common cure for a whole variety of illnesses (including love-sickness, which was a recognized disease). Therefore, if you found yourself hopelessly in love, you'd go to the doctor and let out some blood (love-sickness was caused by too much blood you see). Since proper cleaning of equipment was very unlikely, infection was common and often fatal. Love-sickness, therefore, could very literally kill you! In short, their health was not good. Life expectancy did not extend much past fifty. Most people lived their lives in pain and discomfort, which probably had something to do with why they thought everything to do with the body and worldly existence was linked to evil and damnation.

Answer 2

better than todays Americans