# With modern medicine, could Lincoln have survived?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-modern-medicine-could-lincoln-have-survived/510026>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 14, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-modern-medicine-could-lincoln-have-survived/510026 "2009-09-14T14:07:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/with-modern-medicine-could-lincoln-have-survived/510026/21 "2009-09-15T15:19:37Z")

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> [@smiling\_bandit](#):
>
> There are more than just unusual conditions to treat with bleeding. In an age of poor medicine, bleeding would make people with bad cholesterol feel better for a while, and was just about the only thing which would - it thins the blood and improves circulation. And diets in those days were… _excessive_… if you could afford it.

Do you have any sort of cite for these assertions? Because they fly in the face of what I, who was trained as a medical scientist, know about medicine.

AFAIK, bleeding does not thin the blood or improve circulation. The opposite happens, usually. Nor do people with bad cholesterol feel better with loss of blood. Having excess “bad” cholesterol (LDL cholesterol) is pretty much an asymptomatic condition. Hence the term “silent killer” for cholesterol abnormalities.

And were the diets worse than eating at McDonald’s constantly? It takes science to deliver such high levels of fats and salts to people.

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