Crosspost from r/AskHistorians: AMA: The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living

AMA: The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living

Hello! I'm Dr Katherine Harvey and I'm a medieval historian based at Birkbeck, University of London. My work focuses on the history of the body, and I'm the author of books including The Fires of Lust: Sex in the Middle Ages (Reaktion, 2021) and The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living (Reaktion, 2026). I'm here today to answer your questions about medieval wellness- covering everything from hygiene to healthy diets, stress to sleep, and babycare to bloodletting.