Strange Health and Medicine Practices of Today

In my last Wellness post, I explored some of the most peculiar approaches to health and medicine throughout history.

While medicine, healthcare, and the surrounding technology have certainly progressed at a staggering rate in the last century, there are still some very strange approaches to medicine in the world today.

Some of these methods are timeless forms of healthcare and some are contemporary types of medicine, but they are certainly all interesting and unique.

Pan-Fried Placenta

Human birth is one of the most miraculous phenomenons on Earth--there’s no doubt about it! While childbirth still has a list of possible complications, we are fortunate to live in the time period that we do. Mothers-to-be have a host of options for how they want their baby to enter the world, as well as a wide range of prenatal and postnatal care options.

When it comes to postpartum care, perhaps the most controversial idea is the concept of eating the placenta for sustenance. This act is known as a placentophagy.

The placenta is filled with uncommon, super-healthy vitamins, minerals, and hormones. Most importantly, afterbirth contains prostaglandin, a fatty hormone that helps the uterus shrink back to its former size. many mothers choose to have the placenta dried and encapsulated. Pill-form methods of placentophagy are particularly useful due to convenience. Simply take one like you would a multivitamin, or add to your favorite smoothie!   

However, this is where things start to get a bit controversial. Some people swear by it, others regret eating the placenta. Some people have afterbirth encapsulated professionally, others fry it up and make it into a taco.

Most people just stick to encapsulated placenta pills as they are deemed the safest option, but if you want the more adventurous organic approach, just consult your doctor before you say ‘bon appetit!’

Eating Live Fish and Sea Cucumbers

When you think of asthma, you likely envision a person out of breath, puffing on an inhaler. But not all cultures use this form of contemporary medicine to treat the breathing disorder.

In parts of India, a bizarre tradition, which spans almost two centuries, is used to treat asthma. This process involves taking a live sardine or other small fish, filling its mouth with a yellow herbal paste, and swallowing down the swimmers whole. Indian families claims that their tradition helps long term; that three years of this practice will cure asthma.  

But sea creature medicine doesn’t stop at gulping down live guppies!

Austria scientists have recently discovered that an untapped substance found in the Caribbean Sea cucumber can be used to help treat malignant pleural mesothelioma. Who would have thought?!

Maggots, Leeches, and Bees: Oh My!

Many other creepy crawlies are also surprisingly relevant to medicine.

Maggot therapy is surprisingly common, and uses fly larvae to assist in the treatment of skin and soft tissue wounds. Medical maggots are 100% FDA approved in the US and are used for a plethora of unique skin and tissue injuries.

Medical leech therapy is also popular in the world today. After conducting much research, I discovered that leeches can be used to treat far more illness and issues that I’d ever imagined. An article on Medhi Leeches Therapy points out that leeches are used to treat all of the following conditions:

• Vascular/cardiovascular disease
• Alopecia and baldness
• Arthritis
• Diabetes
• Ear and hearing problems
• Endometriosis
• Eye and gum diseases
• Kidney diseases
• Migraines
• Skin grafts

Finally, the health practicalities that our winged friends, the bees, possess. Bee venom is most commonly used to treat arthritis, allergies, and herpes. The process is most commonly administered through ‘herbal acupuncture.’ Instead of patients being stung by bees directly, venom is extracted from the bees, so they don’t have to die just to help us! Remember this next time you swat at a bee: they not only make delicious honey for us to eat and pollinate plants around us, their venom is ironically treating our illnesses and making us more comfortable.  

Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

While this seems like something out of a sci-fi flick, cryogenic chamber therapy is actually widely used today. I discovered this through an episode of Shark Tank, in which the startup known as Glace Cryotherapy unveils their chambers capable of reaching subzero temperatures of -100 degrees Celsius.

Cryotherapy involves short exposures to extremely cold temperatures for a few minutes at a time. This disrupts diseased tissue and is also used to treat several other disorders, most commonly skin conditions such as warts and moles. There’s also a link between short term cryogenic headband therapy and a reduction in headache and migraine pain and duration.

Do any of these methods of healthcare exist in your culture? Or perhaps another form of interesting, experimental care. If so, please add to this discussion in the comments section below.