Cures that Did Not Work

It was very common some time ago to perform sacrifices in case you were sick. This happened in many cultures such as African and Judeo-Christian ones. It is unknown how exactly did those people come up with the fact that you must kill a being in order to get better. Things seemed to follow this rule: in case you were sick, it is most likely that you are sick because of a god who is angry at you. In order to make the god stop hating you, you had to sacrifice an animal. By doing so, you would please the god and things went back to normal. It all makes sense now.

It seemed that dung was used for many things by the ancient Egyptians. They used it as a contraceptive, and they also used as a mean of curing their illnesses. The fact is that dung was loved in many regions of the world. For example in England the people used dung to cure their baldness, and in India dung was used to cure many things, from acne to cancer. It is unknown why they loved the feces so much. They small bad, they have bacteria, and they are disgusting.

Smoking was also used by many people in order to cure certain illnesses. Sure, you are aware of the fact that cigarettes can cause lung cancer, and can cause many other diseases, I mean it is written on the cigarette pack. However, some time ago, 40 or 50 years ago, the doctors recommended the cigarettes. They actually believed that they are good for curing certain illnesses. Get this, back then the doctors believed that the cigarettes can cure cancer, asthma, shortness of breath, and many other illnesses, which has been found that they actually cause. The reality is that the Native Americans used the tobacco for medicinal purposes, and things remained like that for a long period afterwards.

It is without a doubt that sex has benefits. It makes you euphoric and improves your overall health. However, in the times of the Ancient Romans, sex was required because if women did not perform it, they could have suffered from a very terrible disease. That disease is called “moving the womb”. Have you ever heard of it? Me neither, but it was said that the wombs of the women could move, and in order to fix the problem they needed to become pregnant. If that did not happen, the woman could become very sick. In case this sounds like an excuse to have sex, it probably was.

Another very common cure for many diseases was the bloodletting. What’s that you ask? Well that is when you get rid of the excess blood, because everyone knows that the blood is the root of all evils right? It is very easy to do it, all you need is a knife, and then you can start carving. If you do not like this approach then you could always use the old reliable leaches. Just apply them to your flesh and they will do the rest; easy as pie. Leaving the joke aside, bloodletting can be useful in certain cases, but very small quantities of blood are being removed from the body.

Mercury was one of the most popular cures some time ago. It has the power of curing many things, from indigestion to old age, to syphilis. Abraham Lincoln used it in order to cure his ill temper, and the first emperor of China used it as well. He died because of it, but that’s not the point. Once it can get in the blood it can cause paralysis, loss of motor control, insanity, and even death. At least you will be cured of syphilis if you die.

I am certain that you might have seen many movies in which they presented the custom of lobotomy. It happened in One flew over the cuckoos nest, Shutter Island, and many others. If you think about it, it all makes sense. If the brain is not working in the proper manner, take a piece out of it. The lobotomies became very popular in the 30s and the 40s and they were used in many cases, such as “youthful defiance”, and so on. They did more wrong than good, as in most of the cases; the patient was left in a very bad state.

Similar to the lobotomy, the trepanation was also used to cure many diseases. The process of trepanation requires a hole in the skull, which would have the potential of increasing the volume of the brain, eliminate the anger, and eliminate the demons. You can imagine how advanced the medicine was back then, if they believed that the demons cause certain diseases. The scary thing is that the process is still used in Africa nowadays.

Once we found out about the radioactivity, we thought that it could help us. Alas, the radium water. The patient would be placed in radioactive water in order to be cured of certain illnesses. The result: decaying bones, fatigue, loss of hair, and cancer. The doctors swore that the water was full of energy that helped the body.

Exorcism was one of the worst cures ever. In case a demon was inside you, sure, it was a great solution. The problem is that the custom was used in many instances, even in the simplest ones. You were rude? It must have been Satan. Were you depressed? The devil told you to be like that. The process is still used in some churches of the world.11