Alright … This article may very well shock you out of your wits. Some hard to believe facts about the branch of medicine has to offer that you probably never knew about are listed out here. Medicine is a very vast branch of study ranging from ancient medicine to the most modern medical procedures that are carried out. Most of these medical procedures are highly complex and some the most absurd. So absurd that you might just stay wondering even if they made sense, performing them was a different story altogether. This article puts out to you some of the weirdest, scariest and the yuckiest and yet existent medical procedures of the present as well as ancient times.
The Top 10 weird medical procedures that will make you go “What the hell?” are below.
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10. Leeches and Medicine … There is a Connection …
Leeches drink blood and this is no news but what is news is that leeches are used in the medical profession even now and were used even in the ancient times. Leeches were used to draw out contaminated blood from a patient’s body. They were also used for improvement in blood circulation. Yes, leeches when they are used under proper medical supervision to cure illnesses and draw out bad blood can lead to stimulation of the process of blood circulation.
9. Dead Mouse Paste
Dead mouse paste was used as a medicine by the Egyptians in ancient times. It was used to ease toothache. It was either consumed or applied. There were used with a few other ingredients at times to cure other illnesses or disorders like whooping cough, measles, smallpox, bed wetting.
8. Tiger Phallus Soup
The ancient Chinese medicines comprised of ingredients like snake’s blood, bear’s paw to cure diseases. One such ingredient is the male tiger’s dried phallus. The male tiger’s dried phallus is boiled along with soup for virility. In recent times, with the awareness that the number of tigers is dwindling at a very fast rate and they need to be seriously protected as they are heading towards extinction, this practice has almost come to a closure.
7. Arsenic
Arsenic is very poisonous in nature and it comes as a shocker that this poison was used as medicine. Centuries ago, Arsenic was used as a cure for Malaria and Syphilis. Moreover, Donovan’s solution has arsenic and this particular solution is used as a reliever for people suffering from arthritis and diabetes. Arsenic is also used in the manufacture of cosmetics in certain cases.
6. Paraffin wax
It is no secret that we live in a world that lays a lot of importance on how you look. There are a lot of people who pay a fortune for anti-aging treatments and go under the knife for better looks. Botox injections are the present day solution to such enhancement of looks. But, it was different in the 19th century. Paraffin wax injections were taken by people to smooth out wrinkles. It was also used for breast augmentation techniques. This medicinal procedure was stopped when it was found out that painful lumps were forming in the breast of women who underwent this treatment.
5. Urotherapy
Urotherapy refers to the consumption of urine to cure medical conditions. Drinking urine is believed to be a homeopathic cure. Urine consists of antibodies that can help in staving off everything ranging from Cancer to AIDS. And one more interesting piece of information, did you know that astronauts drink recycled urine.
4. Hemiglossectomy
Hemiglossectomy refers to the treatment of stuttering. It doesn’t end here, the treatment involved cutting of the half of the tongue of the patient. This treatment could never cure stuttering but it led to a lot of major mishaps where the patients usually bled to death. After a whole lot of such incidents, this medical procedure was bought to a stop. This is still conducted in the present day sometimes, but not as a cure for stuttering but for the cure of oral cancer. In modern times, this procedure is performed with proper precaution and the patient is administered with anesthesia before performing this surgery.
3. Bloodletting
Bloodletting refers to withdrawing blood or to be specific bad blood from a person’s body. It helps in curing medical problems like acne, black plague. It is usually done by a barber-surgeon. It is a procedure that involves the puncturing of an artery. It also is helpful in curing hemochromatosis which is a condition in which a person absorbs the excess of iron.
2. Cryogenic Chamber Therapy
Have you ever been in a very cold place? Yeah, this is exactly what this therapy is all about. It involves the patient to step into a room only with a bathing suit on him. He isn’t supposed to be clothed. The room is cooled down to a temperature as low as -150 degrees Celsius. The patient is required to stay in the room for a period of 2-4 minutes maximum. This treatment is used to cure pain in the muscles and joints. The logic of sending a person with pain in his joints or muscles into a chamber with such low temperature is that the human body secretes a substance called endorphins when the human body feels cold as a medium of protection from cold. Endorphins are natural pain relievers. This treatment is usually used by athletes to get rid of all aches and pains.
1. Full Face Transplant
This happens in very rare cases where you have a full transplant face but yes, it is very possible. The proof of this would be the first time where a full face transplant was successfully carried out in a hospital in Barcelona. So, a full face transplant is very possible provided the conditions needed for it are fulfilled which sometimes can be very hard to fulfill.