Good Old Fashion Pain

Last night I was in a ton of pain and as I was just laying in bed I was wondering what exactly people did in the olden days for this type of pain? I mean they couldn't possibly have popped a couple of asprin, waited for thirty minutes for it to kick in and called it good, right? So what did I do? I googled "History on How to Relieve Pain" and "Old Fashioned Pain" just to see what would show up. Anyway I found some pretty interesting stuff on the history of pain relief.

Throughout most of history being in pain was thought to be a sign that you were perhaps displeasing your god or simply doing something bad. Being in pain was a punishment for your naughtiness, according to some stories it could be punishment from a previous life. Some heathens inflicted pain on you even more to get rid of evil things that might be inside you, or hoping that the more pain you were in the quicker the punishment would be over and you could be on your way.

As time went on people started changing their ways on how to help relieve pain. In the 17th century opiates were introduces in Europe as a way to relieve pain. In the 19th century doctors came to the conclusion that helping to relieve pain through remedies and exercises was a good thing and you shouldn't inflict pain to relieve pain and soon being a doctor and helping the sick and hurting became popular. Doctors took pride in their work and were now happy to help relieve pain instead of practicing a relief of pain through infliction of pain. In fact since germs were an unknown topic doctors were actually much better at helping relieve pain than they were at helping cure a sickness.

These were only a few things I found during my google search. I also found some grave stones that talk about pain. And I thought I would let you read some of them for yourself.

With violent pain and long complaints
I was oppres't full fore
Till God above did me remove
to rest for ever more

With grief and pain I did complain
And sorely was opprest,
Till God in love did me remove
And took me to his rest.


It's all kind of strange, if you ask me.