If you think that the sick were healed with remedy bitter in the past, you will shiver with the matter of today. That's because innumerable treatments previously considered to be effective by medicine, are simply chills worthy.
As you will see in the list we prepared today, skull piercing, bee stings and many other painful techniques were seen as the solution to numerous diseases, from psychological problems to herpes. Most impressive, however, is that the 10 techniques you will see below still exist today, and although they have been overhauled by the experts, they are still as bizarre as they seemed before.
1 . Bee stings
Apitherapy is the use of substances from bees to treat diseases. But the technique, which emerged in the 19th century, is not restricted to the use of honey, for example. The poison of these tiny creatures is also part of this treatment, developed by the Austrian doctor Philip Terc. The professional, by the way, began to think about the medical technique when he was bitten by a swarm and, to his surprise, realized that the pains he felt from rheumatism had diminished a lot.
After proven effectiveness in combating some ills, doctors from all over the world started to use bees, their products and their stings to fight diseases such as arthritis, tendinitis and herpes. There are even researchers looking to find out if bee venom can be used in cancer treatment.
Although the level of effectiveness is interesting, the major problem is in the way the treatment is applied. This is because, many doctors around the world prefer to perform apitherapy in the traditional way, causing patients to be bitten by several bees.
2 . Larvae
Do not panic. Larvae are still used in wounds to prevent infections and to speed up the healing process. This technique was not very beautiful, it was created many years ago and takes into account that the larvae feed on dead or necrotic tissue.
Even if it was a desperate measure, much used in times of war, when the soldiers had no way of treating their wounds; nowadays the technique has returned to "fashion" in some countries. There are cases even of the treatment to be included in the health plans!
3 . Intestinal parasites
It seems unlikely that something so bizarre would work, but in the 1970s, scientists realized that hookworm infection, an infection caused by the intestinal parasite Ancylostoma duodenale, helps in the prevention and treatment of allergies or autoimmune diseases. To date there is no conclusive research on the power of these worms in improving health, but there are physicians who use the parasite to treat some types of diseases.
4 . Burned leaves
Called by the ancients of moxibustion, the technique belongs to traditional Chinese medicine and consists of placing rolls of moxa dried leaves on the ears, mouth or face of the patient and then burn them. As anyone understands the subject, this technique works like a "thermal acupuncture", which applies heat to specific points in the body.
5 . Trepanation
The practice, long used in the past, is to pierce the side of the skull of patients. According to experts in the subject, trepanation has been very common in the treatment of migraines and mental illness.
Nowadays the practice counts on a more restricted use, realized only in cases in which it is necessary to reduce the pressure caused by excess blood around the brain. But even so the technique is less bizarre and scary!
6 . Swallowing live fish
In India there is a treatment, not common, administered by a family for more than 160 years. The technique consists of swallowing a live fish and a ball of medicine, whose prescription is secret; and, in the next 45 days, have a very strict diet.
The Indians believe that millions of people have already been cured of respiratory diseases, such as asthma, after the application of the treatment. According to them, the fish is the secret of the success of this procedure, by cleaning the patient's throat on the way to the stomach.
7 . Thalidomide
This was a medicine widely used in the 1950s to combat morning sickness in pregnant women. It turns out, however, that the substance was stronger than its creators could imagine and ended up resulting in the birth of over 10,000 children with serious physical deformations, such as the little boy in the photo, who was born without hands. In addition, almost half of the children who had contact with the medicine, still in the womb, died in the first months of life.
Despite all the terror created by Thalidomide, the medicine returned to the shelves of pharmacies. Today, however, it is used to treat bone marrow cancer, but in the case of women, this only happens if they are sure they are not pregnant.
8 . Electroconvulsive therapy
Electrical shocks that induce seizures. This was a technique that has been used for decades in treating psychological illnesses, chronic depression and mental disorders. This was a treatment especially in the old asylums but was suspended when the scientific community decided that the practice - which caused side effects such as confusion, muscle aches, bone fractures and memory loss - was not as effective as people assumed .
However, in 2001, the American Psychiatric Association resumed the use of electroconvulsive therapy, and almost every country in the world followed in its footsteps.
9 . Lobotomy
Older than the technique presented above, lobotomy arose in 1930. At that time, people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses were subject to one of the most controversial treatments in history, which consisted in undoing the frontal lobe's connections with other regions of the brain.
As a result, of course, the person stopped having crises, but was astonished and unable to respond for his actions. But, even gradually disappearing from the common medical practices, to date the treatment is used in extreme cases of epilepsy.
10 . Exorcism
In the past - and sometimes even today - diseases and behaviors that run away from the ordinary were classified as influences of malignant beings on the patient's body. There have been countless cases of people with mental illness who have gone through super long sessions of exorcism and, in the end, were given as cured.