For as long as people have existed, they have always needed medical assistance. Sometimes our ancestors possessed such advanced knowledge that even modern medicine cannot crack it.
However, most of the methods of the past were quite strange, if not dangerous. We researched some of them and decided to share the results with you.
Ancient Medical Treatments
6. Toothache Was Treated With Smoking Goat Fat
Even in ancient times, people knew how to make dental fillings and prostheses. A human tooth found in Italy with signs of dental work, approximately 14,000 years old.
Some ancient methods were quite unusual. Avicenna recommended smoking the patient with a burning mixture of goat fat, bebane and onion as dental treatment.
Pliny the Elder believed that the only way to get rid of toothache was to catch a toad at midnight, spitting in its mouth, and say special “curing” words.
5. Mothers Delivered Babies Standing Or Sitting On Their Haunches
In ancient India, they knew how to change the position of the fetus in the utero. And in some African tribes, healers were able to perform a cesarean section with their primitive instruments.
In the medieval period, most of the ancient knowledge was lost due to the influence of the church. Midwifery was underdeveloped and many women and their newborns died in childbirth.
4. They Used Juniper And Mandrake Extracts As Anesthesia
Our ancestors achieved excellent results in surgery. In ancient Mesopotamia, doctors used alcohol and opium to help patients not feel pain.
In ancient Egypt, they prepared extracts of mandrake fruit. In India and China, juniper, cannabis, and aconite were used as anesthetic agents. It is difficult to say how effective they were.
3. Chronic Diseases Were Treated With Physical Exercise And Holy Water
In the time of Hippocrates (460-370 BC), they believed that epilepsy was caused by the will of God. He was convinced that the reasons for this illness were wind, cold, and sun.
In the Middle Ages, people with epilepsy were believed to be demonically possessed and treated with prayers and holy water.
Ancient physicians treated diabetes with exercise and medicinal herbs, but this did not yield positive results, and patients often died.
Skin diseases such as psoriasis were considered incurable. Patients had to use a bell as a warning to keep others away.
2. Almost All Diseases Were Treated With Bloodletting
Bloodletting was very popular in India and the Arab countries and was mentioned in documents from ancient Greece and Egypt.
It was believed that blood contained “bad humors,” which needed to be released to heal the patient.
In medieval times, barbers took care of the bleeding. It was popular until the 19th century. Even George Washington had his tonsillitis cured this way, although he later died.
1. They Used Snake Venom And Poisonous Herbs
Before antibiotics, people tried to fight infections with drugs based on plant poisons and viper poisons. Modern scientists have concluded that the reasons for its antibacterial actions were small proteins called disintegrins.
In ancient Egypt, they used cannabis, opium, and henbane. In the Middle Ages, doctors added snakes and scorpions to their potions.
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