There are certainly some “old fashioned” medical techniques that never should have been done. If you don’t believe me just ask some of the patients from the middle ages who found out that a “good bleeding” would solve virtually every problem from a headache to a fever.
However, it was a long long time ago that blood-letting was in favor as a medical solution. I was a bit surprised to hear that there are other methods that might fall more into the old wives tales category that were (or are) still being used today.
I was speaking with a colleague who told me that when he was young he had an ulcer treated in a rather unusual way. The solution he used was that he drink vodka but vodka that had been treated so it should not be drunk. How was it treated? Kerosene was added to ensure it was used for its intended cleaning purpose not for extra curricular consumption.
Well, apparently this does make you sick and your stomach hurts but then his ulcer was gone. I am a bit skeptical about that one but he did have one other piece of medical advice for me. I came into work with a red bloodshot eye, which my doctor told me was a viral infection – ie. nothing that can be done about it. My colleague suggested that I boil up some water and brew a cup of tea and when it was cool to then put a few drops into my eye.
My doctor was not exactly horrified but did suggest that in that situation I could take the tea bag from my tea and once it was cold I could put it on my closed eye. The two solutions don’t sound too terribly different nor all that desirable. In the end I just suffered through it and decided I wouldn’t be adding any black tea to my eye or drinking any denatured alcohol.