Man is a weak creature, he is susceptible to physical diseases, which often cause a lot of trouble. However, despite all the difficulties, “homo sapiens” still learned to overcome them. Today we will tell you about ailments invented by mankind...

In those years when nothing was known about such a science as pharmacology, people acted exclusively empirically when treating diseases; before finding the right medicine, traditional healers “killed” more than one hundred people. Today, some of the methods of treating our ancestors are, to put it mildly, shocking, however, you should not negatively perceive the information that you will now become the owner of.

Syrup for children with added morphine

Hundreds of years ago, children were treated with morphine syrup; if a child suffered from an illness that caused severe pain, doctors “treated” him with narcotic syrup, and for a while the baby returned to normal, plunging into a state of sleep. If he died, and this happened quite often, it was believed that this was the result of an illness incompatible with life, and not of treatment at all.

Heroin used to treat cough

Do you remember what remedies are used to treat coughs today? Quite pleasant potions and herbs, but meanwhile, our ancestors “thought out” to get rid of this illness with the help of heroin; it was enough to take a certain amount of the narcotic substance, and the cough would go away. Naturally, no one suspected the consequences!

Treating depression with an awl driven into the head

In 1949, the scientist who developed such a strange method of treating depression was awarded the Nobel Prize. Almost 70 thousand people agreed to craniotomy to get rid of psychological problems. Of course, after they hit your head, it’s unlikely that you will find the time or desire to discuss far-fetched problems. By the way, this method of treatment was commonly called lobotomy.

Urine therapy

The method of treating diseases of the human body with the help of urine is used to this day, many people really believe that they can get rid of ailments by drinking a glass of urine on an empty stomach, well, that’s their right...

Treatment of female hysteria with vaginal massage

A disease such as female hysteria is rarely discussed in medical circles today, but in the old days it was common and treated with vaginal massage. The doctor used his hands to help the woman relax and get rid of irritability and aggression.

Treatment with poisonous mushrooms

Using the poisonous fly agaric mushroom is still a mystery, but the fact remains that this method is really effective! However, you should not experiment and eat cut into pieces and fried fly agaric, it must be prepared according to a special recipe, only in this case there will be no consequences!!!

The variety of diseases from which humanity has been suffering in recent decades has been growing in direct proportion to the number of treatment methods offered by both traditional medicine and all kinds of “traditional healers”, and, as a rule, ordinary charlatans. Alternative therapy that is worthy of attention and even dubious methods will be discussed below.

Animal-assisted treatment

The help of animals in the treatment of certain diseases has been known since ancient times. This alternative therapy has not lost popularity in our time. Most often, animals are used in a complex of restorative agents - horses, dolphins, bees and others. However, human imagination is limitless...

Phenomenon: Cats Can Relieve Pain

Treatment of wounds with maggots

The development and growth of many larvae occurs solely due to the fact that they feed on dead flesh and all kinds of carrion. Noticing this feature, even ancient healers began to use maggots of flies to cleanse rotten human wounds. Interest in such therapy has revived in our time because many new bacteria have appeared that are not afraid of antibiotics. But microorganisms are unable to withstand physical destruction by voracious maggots. In addition, fly larvae are not infectious.

A strange method: maggots are used to treat wounds. Thus, small white worms are planted on an infected wound and they, liquefying the flesh with special enzymes, begin to eat the rotten tissue. At the same time, they are not interested in healthy flesh. Creepy method? Definitely, however, since 2004 in the USA it has been officially approved and recognized as effective.

Treatment with leeches

The fairy-tale hero Duremar, it turns out, knew a lot about medicine when he preferred treatment with leeches to other methods. Hirudotherapy, like the previous method, is a very unpleasant procedure, however, many experts are in no hurry to write it off as ineffective. The point is to allow the leeches to “drink” your blood by attaching themselves to your body. Little “vampires” improve and restore blood flow, and also cleanse the blood in the human body.

Hirudotherapy is no longer exotic. There are many famous stars among fans of this method. They cleanse the blood and rejuvenate themselves at the same time, for example, Demi Moore and Natasha Koroleva.

Treatment of psoriasis with fish

In Turkey there is an interesting traditional method of treating the skin disease psoriasis. Here they prepare a special bath, which is filled with live fish of a special variety. After this, the patient is offered to plunge into the font. After some time, the fish will peel off and eat all the diseased skin.

Fish treatment goes from unusual to fashionable

Cruel treatment methods

Various cruel methods of treatment have definitely come to our time from the dark Middle Ages, when everything unknown, including illness, was automatically attributed to the machinations of Satan. This means it was destroyed in the most uncompromising ways. However, some modern doctors have gone even further than their predecessors...

Method of “treatment” of the ancient Britons

In ancient times, nursing seriously ill people was not an option. Therefore, as a rule, the suffering of the sick person was stopped by the only sure-fire remedy - ancient “euthanasia”. The patient was simply thrown off a cliff when other therapy failed.

Throwing off a cliff is also a method of treatment

Treatment of rabies among the Saxons

Contemporaries of the Britons, the Saxons also invented their own alternative methods of healing. Thus, a dangerous and practically incurable disease in ancient times, rabies, was treated with “physiotherapy.” The patient was tied to a pole and flogged with a whip, although not an ordinary one, but a special one, made from dolphin skin, which was believed to help drive out “demons” from a person. However, more often than not, the whip method helped to expel only the last spirit from the patient.

Dolphin skin whip - an unusual medical instrument

Treatment for stuttering

People with stuttering in ancient times also faced an unenviable fate. To restore speech, doctors burned the patients’ tongues with a hot iron.

Urine therapy, coprotherapy

This method of treatment may not be considered exclusively cruel, however, it cannot be called “soft” either. There is a category of alternative healers who perceive human waste products - urine and feces - as the best medicines. According to these “urinotherapists,” urine and feces can cure cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, asthma and allergies.

Urine therapy is a popular but controversial method of treatment. Naturally, these “products” should be consumed orally. The effectiveness of these methods has not been officially proven, which does not prevent these therapies from existing for many millennia.

The most unusual therapy to date

It would seem that there is nothing to surprise modern doctors. However, completely new revolutionary ideas can shock even seasoned therapists. Recent developments by medical innovators include treatments such as new body transplants and head transplants. If, when transplanting a new body, the patient can consider only the brain “his”, then when transplanting a head, only the body will be new.

Transplantation is still an extraordinary treatment method. Facts are already known when scientists sewed on patients' heads, which were connected to the body only through the spinal cord. And in the 1950s, the Soviet surgeon Demikhov became famous for transplanting dog heads. At the same time, one of the experimental subjects lived with someone else’s head for a month! Now scientists are addressing the issue of regenerating nerve tissue and using this type of stem cells in the process of transplantation. But, according to uznayvse.ru, not all diseases from the list of the most terrible are treated with crazy methods.

Bleeding

The opinion that diseases could be treated by pumping liters of blood out of the patient was based on humoral pathology - a speculative theory according to which the causes of all diseases were a disorder of the body's juices. According to Hippocrates, the body contained blood, mucus, yellow and black bile in equal proportions. The cause of numerous diseases was considered to be an excess of blood, which is why they resorted to using a knife - and patients rarely survived such a procedure.

In other cases, not only blood, but also other juices could be released. For example, the mentally ill poet Friedrich Hölderlin had his forehead burned with fire, inflicting “healing” wounds. The pus flowing from the wounds was revered as yellow bile, which, according to Hölderlin’s diagnosis, was in abundance in his body.

Mercury against syphilis

Modern antibiotics help much better than mercury against the formerly widespread “disease of sensualists,” that is, syphilis. However, doctors of that time had no choice and resorted to the help of toxic metal. It was assumed that mercury should eliminate excess “mucus,” but if the patient did not tolerate treatment with the poisonous metal, this only proved that the “medicine” was working. Internal and external use of mercury, of course, had no effect on the symptoms of syphilis, but led to death due to intoxication. One way or another, even without resorting to radical treatment, patients with syphilis suffered from ulcers and scars that remained for life, and many developed dementia in the late stages, leading later to death.

Trepanation

It is unknown what the doctors were trying to achieve by drilling a hole in the skull: to add something to its contents, or, on the contrary, to subtract from it. What is clear is that the ancients had a specific purpose for drilling into the skulls of their neighbors. Archaeologists report the discovery of more than 450 trepanned Stone Age skulls in Europe. Obviously, trepanning a skull using a flint tool was not that difficult. In most cases, the operation was successful and the patient remained alive. One can only guess about the true meaning of such treatment. Perhaps this was used to treat headaches or brain damage. It is possible that trepanation was one of the religious practices. Scientists have not yet found a definite answer.

Anti-masturbation corset

In the 18th century, you didn't have to be sick to become familiar with dubious medical theories or unreliable therapeutic practices. European medicine at that time created real hysteria regarding self-satisfaction, which was widespread among both sexes. In addition to promiscuity, hair loss and brain liquefaction, masturbation threatened humanity with all possible dangers. Strict educational measures, such as additional prayers and refusal of tight clothing, were supposed to help cope with the “disease,” however, such methods did not always lead to the desired result. For this reason, many parents carefully dressed their offspring in special corsets that blocked the possibility of touching their own genitals. It was more economical and effective than tying a daughter or son’s hands at night.

Rectal smoking

Tobacco smoke, according to doctors of the 18th century, was also supposed to awaken vital forces, so tobacco enemas were used as first aid for victims of shipwrecks. Those who were caught unconscious from the water were promptly pumped full of smoke - rectally, orally, or from both sides at once, for greater reliability.

Joseph Cox swing

The swing, invented by the English neurologist Joseph Mason Cox, was used to rotate the mentally ill around its axis. The Cox apparatus differed from previous models in that the patient sat with his back leaning back. This situation caused dizziness, nausea and vomiting in patients. Another effect of using such a swing was the fear of repeating the procedure. The swing was supposed to make patients controllable or, on the contrary, open to dialogue - this was also the goal of many other methods of neuroscience in the 19th century, creating in a person the feeling that he was drowning or choking.

Lobotomy

In the last century, the craze for lobotomizing the mentally ill reached unexpected proportions. American physician Walter Freeman discovered that an incision in the frontal lobes of the brain helps patients with schizophrenia with a relatively minimal degree of surgical intervention. He drilled a hole under the patient's eyelid using an ice pick, and then, when making an incision, he navigated by touch, which often turned the patients into “vegetables.” In his Lobomobile, a specially equipped car, Freeman traveled all over America to treat as many patients as possible. However, he was not the only lobotomist. In the 20th century, more than 50,000 people underwent this dubious procedure.

There are many different diseases in the world and, willy-nilly, people get sick. Some people prefer to go to the doctor, others are treated with folk remedies, but in this article we have collected for you the most unusual treatment methods that people use to improve their health.

1. Treatment with leeches (hirudotherapy). No matter how disgusting this method of treatment may seem, it really helps. Even Duremar in the fairy tale about Pinocchio adored this unusual method of treatment. What does it consist of? Leeches are placed on the body, after which they attach themselves and begin to drink blood. What does this give? This procedure improves blood flow and cleanses your blood.

2. Treatment with larvae. This nasty procedure is less a treatment than a treatment of wounds. If a person has a deep wound, then you can use the “services” of fly larvae. Why is this method good? The larvae feed primarily on dead flesh and carrion, which is how they clean and decontaminate your wound. In addition, the fly larvae are clean and not infectious, and therefore safe. Even ancient doctors used this method, and today this method is still used, because antibiotics cannot fight all bacteria, and the larvae will eat all the rot and dead flesh.

3. Urine therapy. Many people have heard about this method of therapeutic treatment. Many people believe that if you constantly drink your urine, you can be cured of many diseases and not get sick at all. True, there is no official confirmation of the effectiveness of this method yet. In general, various waste products leave the body with urine, i.e. in fact, this is the waste of our body, and some people through this drive these toxins and waste back into their body. Well, in general, this is everyone's business.

4. Frost treatment or anti-sauna. It is clear when people are treated with heat, i.e. warming up, inhalation, baths and saunas are all useful, but what is frost treatment? This method of treatment was first tested in the Czech Republic. A person is placed in a cryochamber for a couple of minutes at a temperature of -150 degrees. During this time, a person does not have time to get frostbite, but through such treatment one can get rid of various skin diseases, allergies, depression, and various joint ailments.

6. Beer Jacuzzi. This method of treatment procedures is quite popular in the Czech Republic. The essence of this procedure is that a person lies down in a bath with hot beer (special, not for drinking) and spends there for about 20 minutes. People believe that such a bath helps to heal everything related to the musculoskeletal system or simply relax. In addition to the beer jacuzzi, the price includes 2 beers.

7. Shark cartilage. Many believe that shark cartilage helps treat cancer, since sharks themselves never get cancer. But in fact, this cartilage has no therapeutic effect on the body.

8. Mercury. Until the beginning of the 20th century, many believed that syphilis could be cured by taking mercury. Although irreparable damage was caused to the body, including tooth loss, numerous ulcers and, of course, death. It’s good that today this method is no longer relevant.

9. Ozone therapy. The human body is saturated with ozone (this gas is obtained from pure oxygen) in various ways, mainly by injection. Adherents of this method believe that thanks to ozone therapy, cancer and even AIDS can be cured. Although health authorities consider all this nonsense, they also say that it is poison for the body. Clinical trials show that ozone counteracts fungi and bacteria, but it may also contribute to the development of atherosclerosis.

The phrase became: “Do no harm.”

But in the recent past, doctors and other specialists often resorted to quite questionable treatment methods, including those that we now consider ineffective and sometimes dangerous.

The history of medicine has seen the use of many strange tonics, drugs and treatments, ranging from mercury to heroin.

History of medicine

1. Moldy bread

Moldy bread was used in ancient Egypt to disinfect cuts. Even though this sounds like a crazy treatment, it actually makes some sense. As the famous French microbiologist later discovered Louis Pasteur, some types of fungi inhibit the growth of disease-causing bacteria, such as penicillin.

2. Methamphetamine

This method became popular thanks to Adolf Hitler, who was a hypochondriac. His doctor gave him vitamin injections, sometimes laced with the drug methamphetamine. The injections kept the Fuhrer "energetic, alert, active, talkative and allowed him to stay awake for many hours at night."

3. Gases in a jar

In the Middle Ages, doctors believed that “like cures like” and during the plague, which was believed to be caused by deadly fumes, some doctors advised storing intestinal gases in a jar and inhaling them more often.

4. Dead mouse paste

Ancient Egyptians rubbed a paste of dead mice along with other ingredients to treat toothaches.

But the Egyptians were not the only ones who resorted to treatment with mice. So in the Elizabethan era in England, a mouse cut in half was applied to warts. Mice have also been used to treat whooping cough, measles, smallpox, and bedwetting.

5. Crocodile excrement

In ancient Egypt, crocodile excrement was used as contraception. Dried manure was inserted into the vagina, and when it softened at body temperature, it was believed that this created an impenetrable obstacle to conception.

Other contraceptive methods also included tree sap, lemon halves, cotton, wool, sea sponges and elephant excrement.

6. Arsenic

Arsenic is known as a poison, but has been used as a medicine in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. It also became a key ingredient in the treatment of malaria and syphilis in the late 18th century, as well as arthritis and diabetes. Victorian women used arsenic as a cosmetic.

Ancient medicine

7. Snake oil

For centuries, Chinese water snake oil has been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat joint pain and is still used today.

Snakes are now known to be a source of eicosapentaenoic acid and omega-3 fatty acids, which have anti-inflammatory properties.

8. Uroscopy

In medieval Europe, doctors made diagnoses based on uroscopy, in other words, by looking at patients’ urine. Some patients brought their urine to the doctor themselves, while others sent a test. The doctor would usually observe the smell, consistency, and even taste of the urine.

9. Wine Mariani

Mariani wine was invented by Italian chemist Angelo Mariani in 1863. The tonic consisted of wine and coca leaves. The drink became very popular, probably because coca leaves contain cocaine. The advertisement claimed that Mariani wine was approved by 8,000 doctors and was ideal for “overworked men, weak women and sickly children.” It was enjoyed by Thomas Edison, Queen Victoria, Pope Pius X and others.

American pharmacist John Pemberton later created a similar drink, which became known as Coca-Cola.

10. Diagnosis based on sheep liver

In the absence of blood tests and x-rays, ancient healers resorted to unusual methods of diagnosing the disease. So in Mesopotamia, doctors judged the health of a patient by studying the liver of a sacrificed sheep.

At that time, the liver was considered the source of human blood, that is, the source of life.

11. Cutting the tongue

In the 18th and 19th centuries, doctors tried to treat stuttering by cutting off half the patient's tongue. This method is now used to treat oral cancer, and the procedure is performed under general anesthesia, which is not the case in the past.

In addition to the fact that this method did not work, it caused unbearable pain and some patients bled to death.

12. Electroshock

One of the most commonly used but controversial treatments is electroconvulsive therapy, or electroshock. The method was invented in the 1930s to treat mental illness. Today, electric shock is still used in the treatment of severe forms of depression.

13. Ketchup

In 1830, Dr. Archibald Miles(Archibald Miles) claimed to have found a substance in tomatoes that would cure diarrhea, nausea and indigestion. The tomato extract he released was later declared a hoax. As you know, tomatoes actually contain beneficial lycopene and antioxidants. However, modern tomato products, such as ketchup, also contain a lot of salt, sugar and preservatives.

Alternative medicine

14. Dog excrement

Dried dog excrement was once used to relieve sore throats. They were mixed with honey to clear and reduce inflammation in the throat. This medicine was also used as a patch to heal wounds.

15. Shark cartilage

The idea of ​​using shark cartilage to treat cancer arose in the 1950s, after it was discovered that sharks do not get cancer. However, modern research has shown that shark cartilage does not have a significant effect on human health.

16. Dirt

Mud is used in numerous pharmaceutical drugs, including tablet coatings. NASA has also used this treatment to counteract the degenerative effects of weightlessness on bones.

17. Cigarettes