# Would you still be alive without modern medicine? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 13, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970 "2012-12-13T22:49:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![geneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@geneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geneb)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/61 "2012-12-14T16:57:13Z")
I was born blue and not breathing, so dead at birth. Likely would have been dead repeatedly since then as well, but that would have never come up. ---
**Author:** ![Renee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/renee/32/287_2.png) [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/62 "2012-12-14T17:56:47Z")
Other than having really poor vision, I think I would be fine. So I guess it depends on whether glasses count as modern medicine. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/63 "2012-12-14T18:00:30Z")
I voted alive and well until I reread the op. Medicine available to a dark age surf. That would have surly killed me even if I just had a headache. So I vote. I am dead due to medicine. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/64 "2012-12-14T19:20:35Z")
I voted alive with minor problems. (Like not being able to see very well.) The only night I spent in a hospital was to have half my thyroid removed, and it was just swollen, not cancerous, so I suspect I’d be fine if I kept it. (I had no symptoms.) I have atrial fibrillation, so I suppose I could drop dead at any second if it wasn’t treated, but I might be doing just fine. Aside from that I’ve been damn healthy for 61 years. Now I might not have any teeth, but that’s a different story. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/65 "2012-12-14T21:06:40Z")
> [@Speak\_to\_me\_Maddie](#): > > Burst appendix from infection at age 10. It would be unlikely that I’d have survived, but still possible. So I vote no. Me too, dead at 14 if the stuff I was immunized against hadn’t gotten me first. ---
**Author:** ![purple\_cow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b487fb/32.png) [@purple\_cow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purple_cow)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/66 "2012-12-14T21:32:22Z")
Alive and quite healthy. I’m the luckiest SOB in the world. 44 years old and other than some minor sports injuries, i’d be peachy. The only sickness i’ve ever had that required a prescription was a tonsil infection. Hurt a bit but certainly not life threatening. The only time i’ve been in a hospital was when I donated a kidney, but before modern medicine that wouldnt have happened. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/67 "2012-12-14T22:13:34Z")
> [@Atakapa](#): > > Think back on the injuries and sicknesses you’ve had to date. If none of our modern technology, medical knowledge, and treatments had been available, would you still be alive? For the sake of the poll, assume the available healthcare is roughly that a “Dark Age” serf might obtain. > > Personally, I’d be alive but miserable. Childbirth was textbook, without complications and on schedule. I have psoriasis, which apparently used to be confused with leprosy, and without treatment I’d likely be covered in ugly red sores. Add in nearsightedness, and I’m looking at life as a half blind leper. If pneumonia at age 6 hadn’t killed me, the burst appendix at age 8 very likely would have. If I somehow survived both of those, the severe myopia would have left me pretty much not capable of functioning in a pre-glasses world and probably dead of some hazard I failed to see. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/68 "2012-12-14T23:49:13Z")
Never mind “Dark Age serf” - if I’d been born in the early 20th century I’d have probably died of the episode of facial infection/cellulitis I experienced 12 years ago (which antibiotics handled nicely). Most people participating in this thread, had they been born in the Dark Ages would have died in infancy/childhood and never had a chance to post. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Hbns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hbns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hbns)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/69 "2012-12-15T00:03:33Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Most people participating in this thread, had they been born in the Dark Ages would have died in infancy/childhood and never had a chance to post. ☹ I’m a little skeptical that childhood mortality was over 50%. Though if the argument is that dopers are particularly more prone to disease and debilitating injury than the average joe, I might buy that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/70 "2012-12-15T00:50:34Z")
Nope, dead at 18 months from pneumonia. ---
**Author:** ![Atakapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Atakapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atakapa)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/71 "2012-12-15T01:40:45Z")
For those of us with terrible vision- is it true that the nearsightedness is acquired, not inherited? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/72 "2012-12-15T01:44:58Z")
Voted before reading the thread, would have most likely died from the massive hemorrhage after having my son. (Could also have died had I been one of those fucking morons who eschews modern medicine to give birth at home, but that was not the poll.) Of course, I was also vaccinated and on birth control, so I might have died from something that prevented before I had a chance to die in childbirth… Oh! And according to **yams!!** I had a whole bunch of scarlet fever. I had no idea! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/73 "2012-12-15T03:12:02Z")
Asthma as a child, may have survived but… Type 1 diabetes in my early 20’s. Would have died at 22. ---
**Author:** ![FlyByNight512](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/82dd89/32.png) [@FlyByNight512](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyByNight512)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/74 "2012-12-15T03:33:47Z")
> [@Hbns](#): > > I’m a little skeptical that childhood mortality was over 50%. > Though if the argument is that dopers are particularly more prone to disease and debilitating injury than the average joe, I might buy that. 😃 A quick search turns up [this](http://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/medieval_child.htm): > [@](#): > > The death rate among medieval children was high by modern standards. It has been suggested that 25% of them may have died in their first year, half as many (12.5%) between one and four, and a quarter as many (6%) between five and nine. Obviously there was no record keeping worth speaking of, so we can’t know for sure. But losing 50% of the population before age 18 seems more or less on track. ---
**Author:** ![Tamex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@Tamex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamex)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/75 "2012-12-15T04:12:48Z")
I’d likely be alive and well. I do wear glasses now for nearsightedness and astigmatism, but I wonder if that is an artifact of modern lifestyles, as I did not need them until age 30, which is not long after I started jobs that had extensive computer work. And I could have gone longer without needing them if I did not need to drive a car. And I might be suffering a bit without modern dentistry. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/76 "2012-12-15T04:29:14Z")
Like my father before me I was a fragile child who suffered from many severe ear and respiratory infections (among other chronic issues). He had a couple close calls even in the 50s, and I am confident he wouldn’t have made through a time with more diseases, less medicine, and higher infant and early childhood mortality, which means I would never have existed. And even if I had somehow I would have been finished off at an early age by some bug or another. I am now a generally freakishly healthy adult. Yay for modern medicine and access to excellent food (which I need a lot more of than the average bear in order to be healthy…) ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/77 "2012-12-15T04:33:40Z")
> [@Atakapa](#): > > For those of us with terrible vision- is it true that the nearsightedness is acquired, not inherited? Certain things, such as nearsightedness and allergies, were much, much less common in the dark ages. It seems that while there is a genetic component to them environment is also important. So… probably most of us allergic myopes would either not have suffered from those things back then, or suffered from much more mild versions of them. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/78 "2012-12-15T04:37:16Z")
Probably dead a few days after birth from an intestinal obstruction that needed surgery when I was three days old. If not from that then probably dead with my first pregnancy when I was unable to keep food or water down without vomiting for two weeks when I was seven months along. I was only alive due to IV’s. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/79 "2012-12-15T04:44:54Z")
I’d have died ages ago. - Stepped on a rusty nail that was hidden under a puddle in a friends garage - Pneumonia - Strep Throat more times than I can count (my grandmother’s sister died of it, way back when) - benign tumor on my liver would have eventually caused some problems - Busted gallblader (don’t know if it’s fatal, but it was relief to get rid of it.) - Whooping cough ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2012, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970/80 "2012-12-15T04:48:51Z")
> [@Hbns](#): > > I’m a little skeptical that childhood mortality was over 50%. > Though if the argument is that dopers are particularly more prone to disease and debilitating injury than the average joe, I might buy that. 😃 The Greeks reported rates as high as 60%. Even as late as 1899 industrialized England reported rates as high as one in five from vaccine preventable diseases like measles and diphtheria. [Cite.](http://www.amazon.com/Inside-Victorian-Home-Portrait-Domestic/dp/0393327639) Smallpox was an incredible baby killer that we don’t even think about today. Mortality rates could be as high as one in three. We’re very lucky today. > [@](#): > > [How Smallpox Changed the World | Live Science](http://www.livescience.com/7509-smallpox-changed-world.html) > > By the beginning of the 18th century, 400,000 Europeans annually and one out of every seven Russian children were dying of smallpox, a disease that had now been killing unhindered for at least 2,800 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medicine/643970.md?page=5)