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The Craziest Medical Practices Doctors Thought Made Sense
The Craziest Medical Practices Doctors Thought Made Sense
Source: http://www.ranker.com/list/crazy-med...sktop-also-saw
Modern medicine has seen more development in the past fifty years than in all of human history combined. Many long practiced medical treatments now seem completely insane in retrospect - things like putting animal dung on a wound, drinking urine, carving holes in your skull, or drinking potions made of morphine or mercury. What are the craziest medical practices from all of human history? What was once used as medicine but was later found to be, well, actually super dangerous?
There were lots of weird things used as medicine before the advent of modern science. However, some of these practices continue in one form or another - no matter how crazy they are, if something works, doctors are going to keep doing it.
Here are some of the dangerous medical practices from yonder days, a few of which survive in some form, and some others which almost certainly killed those who partook in them. Upvote the medical treatments that you think are the most nuts and are glad that went by the wayside, thanks to scientific advancements and modern medicine.
Lobotomy
Early 20th century doctors were totally unprepared for the onslaught of patients with mental illness that flooded hospitals at the time. One treatment that became popular in the 1930s was lobotomy, the removal of parts of the brain in order to curb depressive symptoms.
Even at the time, it was acknowledged that this was a dangerous procedure that often left patients with permanent disability - not to mention the destruction of their ability to function in society, their memories, and their personalities. Still, over 40,000 people were lobotomized in the US, often without consent. The procedure declined as ECT and medication became more popular.
The Tapeworm Diet
The "tapeworm diet" was an early 20th century weight loss method that relied on the not-exact science of ingesting a tapeworm and hoping it ate some of what you ate. Sadly, many tapeworm species actually have horrific effects on the human body, resulting in malnutrition, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and anemia.
A Hot Poker in the You Know Where
Virtually everything has a patron saint – even painful hemorrhoids. It was once believed that if a person did not pray to the canonized Irish monk St. Fiacre, who was said to protect one from such maladies, that they would suffer from hemorrhoids. If you chose not to pray to St. Fiacre and came down with them, you were sent off to the monks - who would put a red-hot iron up your anus (presumably while chanting). Alternatively, you could sit on St. Fiacre’s famous rock, the spot where the seventh-century monk was miraculously cured of his own hemorrhoids.
Liquid Mercury
The silver liquid was an extremely popular medical treatment from ancient times until fairly recently. The ancient Persians and Greeks used it as an ointment, and second century Chinese alchemists prized liquid mercury for its supposed ability to increase lifespan and vitality. Some healers even promised that by consuming mercury, sulfur, and arsenic, one could gain eternal life and the ability to walk on water.
Needless to say, this did not work, delivering not eternal life, but an extremely painful death. Even later, mercury was used to treat sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis – again often killing those it was used on.
Radium
The discovery of radium led to a whole industry of radium-infused glowing products, as well as numerous quack medicines. One advertisement touted the benefits of preparing radioactive drinking water at home to cure various ailments.
The risk wasn’t well understood until much later, when workers making radium products started dying horribly.
Intentional Malaria Infection
An early version of “chicken pox parties” involved intentionally infecting syphilis patients with malaria. The theory was that the fever produced by the malaria would kill off the syphilis, and that the malaria would then be cleared up through some other terrible treatment. In reality, the malaria usually just killed the person who had the syphilis.
Trepanning
Trepanning involved boring a small hole into the skull to expose the outer membrane of the brain, the dura mater. The practice was believed to alleviate pressure and cure epilepsy, migraines, and mental disorders. It was also a common “fix” for more physical problems such as skull fractures and blows to the head in combat. The procedure was often fatal, due to the inherently unclean environment brain tissue was being exposed to.
The practice of drilling into the head to relieve pressure and occasionally to treat depression is still used, though with much more grace (and anesthetic) than in the Middle Ages.
Dead Mouse Cures
Dead mice were used for medicinal purposes all the way back in Ancient Egypt, where they’d be blended with other compounds to ease toothache pain. Later, the English in the time of Elizabeth I cured their warts by cutting a mouse in half and applying it to the spots. Bits of dead mice were also used to treat whooping cough, measles, smallpox, and bed-wetting – all to varying degrees of success.
Sex with a Virgin
The troubling myth that someone infected with a “social disease” can transfer it to a virgin through sex dates back to at least the 16th Century, when the practice was first documented in relation to powerful men trying to rid themselves of syphilis and gonorrhea. Sadly, this ridiculous superstition continues in some parts of the developing world, especially Africa, leading to many cases of reported child rape.
Bloodletting
Doctors of the medieval period believed in the four “humors,” the most important fluids in the body. These were blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. They believed that either an excess or deficiency of any of these four humors would strongly influence a person’s health. In particular, many physicians of the Middle Ages felt that sick people simply had too much blood, causing an imbalance in their humors. The only way to treat them was to drain it – either through leeches or cutting the area causing pain.
Indeed, leeches are still used in some legitimate medical procedures, and the alternative medicine practice of “cupping,” popular with Hollywood stars, is a form of bloodletting.
Electroshock Therapy
Now known as Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), electroshock treatments were first used in the 1940s as an alternative to lobotomizing patients with depression or mania. Before then, the therapeutic use of seizures to treat hysterical blindness or “fits” goes back to the 1700s. But the process was plagued by inconsistency in method, lack of informed consent from patients and not using anesthesia.
It gained extremely negative press due to its depiction in popular fiction and film, along with the suicide of high-profile ECT patients, including Ernest Hemingway. Despite this, electroconvulsive therapy is still used as a legitimate treatment for severe depression, mania, and catatonia.
Smoking for Your Health
Before the dangers of smoking were well known, or at least disclosed to the public, there were numerous ads touting the health benefits of cigarettes. Some even included endorsements from doctors who touted particular brands’ positive aspects. For example, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the inhalation of fumes from burning tobacco was suggested as a therapy for asthma.
These ads were an example of the “appeal to authority” – that is, people in lab coats are smart, and if smart people are telling you to do something, it must be good. In this case, it wasn’t.
Patent Medicine
Medicinal s were touted in the 18th and 19th centuries as cure-alls for everything from influenza to gout to upset stomach. Most of these medicines, given lofty names like “Dr. Bosche’s German Syrup” and “Green’s August Flower,” were usually just concoctions of sugar water, useless herbs, and tinctures of hard drugs. It was common for patent medicines to contain both alcohol and cocaine, heroin, or morphine. They didn’t work, but they made you feel great!
The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 put an end to the patent medicine business quickly.
Vin Mariani
In 1863, Italian chemist Angelo Mariani jumped on the patent medicine phenomenon by creating a healing tonic of red wine treated with coca leaves. He named his brew Vin Mariani, and it quickly became a popular favorite – which wasn’t a shock, given that coca leaves are full of cocaine. Ads of the time claimed the drink was endorsed by 8,000 doctors and was ideal for "overworked men, delicate women, and sickly children." It was enjoyed by luminaries like Thomas Edison, Queen Victoria, the Czar of Russia, Pope Saint Pius X, and Pope Leo XIII.
Later, the combination of wine and cocaine inspired John S. Pemberton to develop what we now know as Coca-Cola.
Paraffin Wax Injections
An early version of Botox, 19th century doctors used injections of paraffin wax to smooth out wrinkles and in breast augmentation procedures. But wax hardens, and in this case it hardened into thick, painful lumps known as paraffinomas. Once this became widely known, paraffin injections quickly stopped.
Medicinal Urine
There’s no more "homemade" medicine than your own pee, and it’s thought that human urine was used for a variety of purposes, including curative and as antiseptic. Romans are said to have used it to whiten their teeth, King Henry VIII’s surgeon recommended that all battle wounds should be washed in urine, and later, it was used to treat black death sores.
Strangely, there might actually be some scientific basis to this madness – urine is sterile when it leaves the body and may have been a healthier alternative than the water available at the time.
The Clyster
Enemas have been a popular treatment for intestinal issues since the Middle Ages, and were performed using a device called a clyster, which was a long metal tube with a cup on the end.
The tube would be entered into the body (you know how) and a medicinal fluid would be poured into the cup, and introduced into the colon by pumping. One of the most common fluids used in the clyster was a concoction of boar’s bile thought to have positive effects. Other fluids might include anything from salt, baking soda, or soap to coffee, bran, herbs, honey, or chamomile. King Louis XIV of France is said to have had over 2,000 enemas during his reign - some even administered as he sat on his throne.
Dwale
The modern science of anesthesia is fairly new, having only become common practice over the last 150 years. Before that, doctors knocked you out however they could. One popular method was to use something called “dwale.” This was an herbal anesthetic made from seven ingredients: bile, lettuce, vinegar, bryony root, hemlock, opium, and henbane. Some of these are innocuous, and some were lethal. Mixing them incorrectly could kill, making the knockout as dangerous as the surgery.
Nonetheless, dwale was a popular anesthetic from the 12th to 15th century, and is even referenced in Hamlet.
Medical Astrology
Medicine in the medieval era was guided just as much by superstition as by knowledge. Medical astrologers were so revered that many thought they were real-life magicians. They were consulted about matters related to weather, crop yields, child rearing, and sickness. Doctors would refer to special calendars that contained star charts in order to aid with diagnosis.
By the 1500s, the physicians of Europe were legally required to assess a patient’s horoscope before their treatment. After the patient’s star chart was examined and compared to the current position of the stars, their ailment could be predicted and treated. Needless to say, it was all bunk, but it was popular bunk.
Animal Dung
The waste of animals was long used to cure various injuries and remedies, even as late as the 19th Century. One Victorian DIY remedy to ease a sore throat once included dried dog dung, and the ancient Egyptians used the dung from a donkey, cow, dog, gazelle, or fly for numerous medical purposes. Sometimes they’d lead to tetanus, but other times, the bacteria in the dung would actually have a healing effect.
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