Most Disturbing Medical Treatments Of All Time
Going to the doctor or a hospital in general sucks. Knowing you have to get some sort of medical treatment or surgery is often times painful and invasive. 99% of the time it's safe, and you know that, but some treatments are just bizarre.
Sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures, and a pill or antibiotic just isn't going to cut it. Prepare your stomach for this article that outlines some of the most disturbing medical treatments of all time.
Fecal Transplant
Doctors will use fecal transplants to help keep healthy bacteria in the gut. It's a rather unusual procedure to get the poop into the body.
How do they do it? Well, if you were hoping I wasn't going to say colonoscopy, you're going to be disappointed. Yes, it is a colonoscopy.
Breast Milk
If you, or someone you know, has a bladder tumor, you should hit up some breast milk. Swedish researchers have discovered that patients who suffer from these tumors see a reduction in just five days.
They also believe that it could help reduce acne, diabetes and Parkinson's. Now, what benefits does 2% milk have?
Pregnant Horse Urine
If you're looking to lessen the symptoms of menopause in women, look no further than pregnant horse urine. If that doesn't sound appetizing than I don't know what does.
Doctors have prescribed a drug called Premarin. What is Premarin? Well, it's pregnant horse urine. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. That hurts.
Bloodletting
If you get wheezy as soon as you see blood (like me), you're probably not going to like this medical treatment.
Bloodletting was a popular way to cure, well, nothing. In most cases, it's the worst thing you can do. But in some alternative medicine, it's still used for rare diseases. No thanks.
Moldy Bread
You know that loaf of bread you bought three weeks ago that you forgot you had and it went moldy? Well, it actually might have some medicinal value.
A common mold found on bread could help fight infection on wounds. Researchers are trying to find ways to use this mold in surgical dressings.
Hook Worm Therapy
If you have a debilitating disease like Crohn's, MS, or asthma, you would think about using helminthic therapy.
It'll probably gross you out, but it could be worth a shot. Essentially, you drink the eggs of a hookworm and they end up destroying a lot of the bad food in the stomach.
Frog Smoothie
The people in Peru have some really bizarre medical treatments, but none as weird as frog smoothies. They literally take a full frog and blend it up with fruit.
It's believed to help cure them of diseases. There is zero scientific proof to back this up, but that doesn't stop them.
Heterotopic Heart Transplantation
For most people, one heart is enough. But, for one particular patient, it wasn't. He needed two to survive. He was suffering from heart failure and his lungs wouldn't support a heart transplant.
So, his doctor sewed two hearts together so that he could go on living a healthy life. I guess that's one way to do it.
Fish Psoriasis Treatments
If you've ever had this massage done, you know the amazing feeling of all the fish sucking your skin.
People with skin ailments like eczema say that putting their feet in a pool full of flesh-eating fish helps cure their disease. Doctors say that there is no scientific backing, but, it still feels good.
Insulin Shock Therapy
This is also known as insulin coma therapy. It's a type of psychiatric treatment that was widely used in hospitals during the 1930s and '50s.
It involved giving the patient large doses of insulin with the goal of causing daily comas over the course of several weeks. It was used to help cure schizophrenia, but wasn't all that successful.
Urine Therapy
You know how if you're stuck on an island and you're thirsty, you should drink your own urine? Well, I guess there's some merit to it.
Although there's no scientific proof, people in alternative medicine claim that drinking their own urine cures tumors, broken bones and even baldness. I'll pass.
Drinking Blood
If you don't think there are vampires walking this earth, just wait till you hear about this addiction. Yes, drinking blood is an addiction, just ask Dracula.
A woman from Pennsylvania has drunk blood every day for the last thirty years. She says it makes her feel alive and keeps her beautiful. I just feel like there are other methods to achieve those things.
Tooth In Eye Surgery
I kid you not, there is a surgical procedure called Tooth in Eye surgery. If that doesn't sound awful then I don't know.
You take a piece of the patient's tooth and insert the tooth into their cheek for a few weeks. You place that tooth into the eye and apparently, it helps cure blindness.
Maggot Therapy
In 2004, the FDA actually approved the method of using maggots for medicinal purposes. Studies showed that putting maggots on wounds that won't heal would actually speed up the process.
Why? Well, because maggots eat the dead tissue but leave the healthy tissue alone. I would not want a maggot touching me.
Grow Fingertips On Stomach
A man in China lost one of his fingertips in an accident. It was unlikely to grow back by itself, so, doctors had to get creative.
They attached his finger to his stomach, and with the increased blood flow to the stomach, it was actually able to grow back. Cool?
Leech Therapy
I don't care how badly I'm injured, no leech is touching my wound. It's been a therapeutic treatment since Ancient Egypt.
It's used for a variety of illnesses. Today it's a controversial medical treatment used for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and microsurgeries. Nope, don't even think about it Mr. Leech. You're not invited.
Ant Mandible Sutures
Who needs doctors when you can have ants fix you up? Well, in ancient India and South Africa, they would use biting ants to stitch up a wound.
Once the wound was pulled together, they would put ants on it to bite hard and keep the flesh in one place.
Swallowing Fish
To cure asthma in India, some people will swallow a whole fish. The idea is that it will go down your throat and clear it of bacteria.
After swallowing the fish, the patients are told to go on a strict 45-day diet. Doctors have complained the treatment is unscientific and unhygienic.
Tonsillectomy
This procedure is nearly 3,000 years old and is employed primarily in repeated cases of tonsillitis.
The tonsil guillotine that's seen in this picture was introduced in 1828 and looks like something straight out of a horror movie. I feel like this instrument is the main weapon of choice for Freddy Krueger or something.
Lobotomies
This is perhaps one of the most barbaric medical procedures of all time. Well, of the modern era anyway. It involves a neurosurgical procedure that severs the connection to and from the frontal lobes of the brain.
It was another attempt at trying to cure schizophrenia, but obviously was not effective.
