Before the evolution of innovative medicine , mass had no option but to come up with their own legion of remedies and treatments to heal sick or injured family members . Just a century ago , some families had limit access to care because of the distance ask to see a Doctor of the Church ; here in the former twenty-first century , the soar cost of aesculapian care and lack of approach to wellness indemnity may conduct the sickly to skip the trip all . When see a doctor was simply out of the question , these phratry remedies provided quilt .
Now that science and evidence - base practices have given us safer and more effective alternatives , many traditional remedy have fallen by the roadside . But many of the more well - known folk cures are still in usage . get a line why they often do more harm them good , despite the best intentions of practitioners and traditional therapist .
10: Buttered Burns
Burned your hand grabbing a red-hot pot on the kitchen range ? comfortably not give out out the butter . While plentifulness of folks believe butter soothes the nuisance of a burn mark , this common tribe remedy could actually cause more harm than good . Slathering butter on a sunburn introduces bacteria , which increases the risk ofinfection[source : CDC Burns ] . Butter , salves and standardised burn discussion can also trammel heat under the skin , form a burn worse by driving harm to deeper epidermal layers , transforming a relatively minor burn into one that lingers and leaves lasting hurt [ author : Dallas ] .
A buttery coating can also get in the way when aesculapian professionals essay to inspect a burn , check discussion and leaving dupe to suffer longer than they would have if the wound were maintain clear-cut . Fortunately , burn care recommendations are surprisingly mere and do n’t require you to dip into your refrigerator . To comfort the initial pain ofa burn , execute the stirred appendage under cool piss and try professional tending .
9: Ear Candling
Suffering from excessearwaxbut do n’t want to make a slip to the doctor ’s office staff ? While ear candling proponents promise it ’ll withdraw unwanted wax , the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns against the pattern , especially when it involve tike . Fans of pinna candle utilise a hollow cd to dribble red-hot wax into the ear , which supposedly creates a negative pressure that funnels out ear wax and cures a host of other ailments , from venous sinus troubles to cancer .
Unfortunately , not only is there no evidence to support these claim , but there have also been good deal of reports of combat injury consort with candling , from cd wax curing and blocking the ear channel to burns and perforate myringa [ source : FDA ] . If your ear experience a little choked , keep in thinker that the body has its own efficient system for decimate excess wax — and only a physician should poke around inyour ears .
And yes , that means keeping cotton swob far aside from your ear canal too . Sure , they ’re perfect for cleaning the out share of your spike , but they ’re also yoke to punch eardrums , wax impaction and a laundry list of other injury [ seed : Hobson and Lavy ] .
8: Powdered Lead
leash intoxication often come with tragical consequences , including intellectual handicap , illness anddeath . While star blusher remains the chief perpetrator behind American children ’s pic , lead - filled folk redress were the second - braggart source as of 2008 [ source : AP ] . Among members of the Latino residential area , powdered kinsfolk therapeutic make out as greta or azarcon stay on popular treatments for children suffering from bellyache or teethe pain . These bright orange tree powders , which Thomas Kyd devour orally , dwell of up to 90 percent lead , get to themextremely dangerous , especially considering that any amount of lede in the lineage pose a peril [ germ : CDC Folk ] .
Of of course , lead - lace up common people curative are n’t bound to any sealed civilisation . Some Indian immigrants use a okay brown powder called ghasard , which is mixed into a tonic to cure illness , while the Chinese call on to a standardised product they call ba - baw - san . In Thai and Myanmar cultures , this therapeutic is known as Daw Tway and is used to aid digestion . These and other folk cures are often fill with heavy metal , including lead and arsenic , and should never be ingested or given to kid [ source : CDC Folk ] .
More Terrible Folk Cures
7: Flaming Lice
For C , people purportedly in the know have treated principal bird louse by dip the capitulum withgasoline , kerosene , oil of turpentine and other noxious , dangerous chemical substance . While it ’s possible that these folk cure go to relegate bugs , they also come with a host of dangers , including severe burn , scars and even destruction .
Remember , it takes only a lilliputian spark to inflame certain fuels , so covering any part of your soundbox in gasolene is never a good idea . A simple spark from acigaretteor an electrical convenience can leave you engulfed in flame — making head lice seem like less of a problem . Even if the fuel does n’t ignite , it ’s still much too abrasive to use to the scalp or skin and can cause terrible burning at the stake and irritation .
Some may argue that this down - home plate remedy was unspoiled enough for retiring generations , so it ’s good enough for the more late ones . Keep in judgment , however , that affordable , good louse treatment can be found over the counter at almost any drugstore , offer a much safe and more in effect solution than those useable to previous generation [ informant : Mikkelson ] .
6: Colloidal Silver
Colloidal silver is an substitute medicine used to treat an impossibly large range of ailments , fromskin rashesto enteric disorders to HIV . consist of silver droplets suspended in some form of liquid , it may be ingested by word of mouth as a supplement or applied to the skin . Despite supporters ' claims that this intersection is safe because it ’s " natural " — so are radon and belladonna — this home remedy is not efficacious at treating any disease or condition .
In improver to being totally ineffective , colloidal silver come with some serious side effects because of the way it accumulates in the body — similar to what happens when a mortal ingests mercury . Eventually , the buildup of silver head to a stipulation eff asargyria , where the skin turn a nasty tone of blue - grizzly . Even worse , this blue - gray-headed shadowiness is irreversible , leave victims with a permanently strange pallor . Just reckon at Paul Karason , a man the metier dubbed " Papa Smurf " thanks to his blue hue , which he build up after drinking 10 Panthera uncia ( 0.3 liters ) of colloidal silver grey a day for several old age [ source : James ] .
This discolouration can also circularize to the eyes and nails , but worse , too much colloidal flatware use can damage major organs like the kidneys and liver [ rootage : NCCIH ] .
5: Poisoning Remedies
Almost every bit of medical folklore related to poisoning is matt wrong , and many pop home remedies for toxic condition are actually more dangerous than the substance originally ingested . For example , force someone to vomit after swallow the wrong affair ? Nope , high-risk plan , as some substances can cause even gravid wrong on the way back up , especially caustic substances .
What about swallow a morsel ofbaking sodato neutralize the toxin ? Even worse , as too much baking sodium carbonate consumed on its own can be fatal . It would take only about 1 tablespoon to badly falsify consistency chemical science in an infant , and yes , baking pulverisation is as as ineffectual and serious in term of dealing with accidental poisoning .
Other concoction , includingdrinking Milk River , eating butter or slurp cutting eggs are n’t inevitably harmful , but they do short to help someone with a belly full of poisonous substance and are potential to make an unpleasant experience even less pleasurable for the patient . In a case like this , it ’s time to throw folk remedies to the wind and call the expert at your local poison control center [ informant : Illinois Poison Center ] .
Even More Awful Folk Cures to Avoid
4: Sunken Soft Spot Solutions
If you ’ve drop any prison term around anewborn , you ’re probably intimate with that slightly scary - looking soft spot at the top of its chief , which bear until the small fry is around 2 age old . While this soft arena , or fontanelle , is perfectly lifelike , some cultures worry that sure action can cause it to drop , resulting in extreme accidental injury or death .
In parts of Mexico , for example , mother dread pulling the baby from the bosom or bottle too presently , as this is think to cause tocaida de la morella , or fallen fontanel . When this happens , some folk remedies to treat the consideration include shake the babe , reaching into the sass and press up on the palate , or holding the baby upside - down and discover its foot [ germ : Bernstein and Bernstein ] .
All of these so - called cures can be grievous and will do nothing to unsex a purportedly fall soft topographic point . A truly sunken fontanelle — when the spot noticeably dips down on its own instead of gently curving inward when touched — can be a medical emergency brake , often convey on by malnutrition ordehydration[source : NIH Fontanelles ] . If you think your babe has suffered an injury to the fontanel , or something does n’t seem quite correct , make haste to the nearest doctor ’s office and lay off the doubtful folk cures .
3: Smoked Ear Canals
One popular common people therapeutic in the United States postulate using baccy to cure a painful earache . While most version of the discussion want you to simply take a puff of a cigarette and blow the smoke into the affected capitulum , some more extreme version need you to stuff a wad of moist tobacco into the ear canal itself .
Of naturally , blowing tobacco smokeinto the ear does nothing to heal or conclude an earache , though it ’s unlikely to harm the patient role all that much , and some even argue that it promotes hold fast between parent and child [ source : UAMS ] . Of naturally , this remediation comes with the same risks associated with all used locoweed photograph , so it ’s belike not the best solution for long - terminus health . Obviously , stuffing anything into the ear canal — including tobacco — is a Brobdingnagian no - no and likely to do much more damage than unspoilt .
Interestingly enough , some subject have shown that child expose to second - hand fume in reality report more frequent earaches than those who forfend tobacco smoke , so it ’s potential that repeated attempt at this classic ethnic music discourse could in reality make earaches bad [ source : Lee et al . ] . For best results , keep tobacco smoke far from minor and flummox to more traditionalearache remediesfound at the pharmacy or Doctor of the Church ’s position .
2: Medium Rare Ice Pack
In the world of toon , the best way to treat a black eye is to slap on a big slab of beef — preferably a naked steak . In some fashion , it kind of make sensory faculty : The meat can draw out the fluid , reduce swelling and informality pain .
But while the stock blackened eye can well be treated at home base in most font , you should never putsteak — or any other meat — on the heart . Not only is it a waste material of an expensive piece of beef , but there ’s perfectly no evidence that a steak will help reduce the pain , swelling or duration of a inglorious eye . Even worse , the bacteria in the meat can actually go to unspeakable infection , transforming a unproblematic grim eye into a lingering stipulation [ source : AAO ] . rather , cleave to a basic ice pack , or snap up a handbag of stock-still veggie in a touch .
So where did this meaty myth originate ? It ’s potential it date back to the days before infrigidation , when meat was comparatively rich and shabu was tough to obtain . In those daylight , it may have made sense to preserve the valued ice-skating rink supply and address a black eye with a bit of beef [ source : Israel ] .
1: Troubling Teething Treatments
When faced with a shout babe , many hoi polloi will do absolutely anything to make the tears stop , peculiarly when the baby is in hurting . In many cultures , rubbing a bit of brandy or whiskey on hurt gums is the good way to soothe a teething babe , at least accord to folklore .
Despite its bass - seat roots , this advice in reality runs contrary to adept opinions warning that parent should never rub alcohol on a child ’s gum tree . There ’s just no dependable amount of alcohol for trivial ones , and even minor exposure can do serious health concern in young youngster .
Instead , gently chafe the gums with a cool , wet washcloth to soothe the pain and bail with your small one , or expend stale — not frozen — teethe ring to ease the baby ’s uncomfortableness [ source : NIH Teething , Shu ] . If your child is struggling with eternal sleep - disrupt tooth and gumwood pain and these DIY remedies are n’t quite cutting it , ask your doctor whether it ’s secure to use an over - the - counter pain reliever or a gelatin made specifically for teething babies .
Lots More Information
I had my first child eight calendar month ago and have been avail her through some painful teething for the retiring two month or so . While she is now the proud owner of five tooth , these pearly-white White did not come slow . Throughout the process , I ’ve been faced with frequent suggestion from well - intend friends and family — include other young moms — that just a bit of brandy or whiskey would be just the matter to comfort her aching gums . I get laid that this simply is n’t the correct choice for my girl , but I ’ve been surprised to learn just how vulgar the practice is , and how many citizenry I make out used it with success on their own babies . It ’s sure enough made me curious just how many fry out there are treat with other potentially dangerous family line cures — from " cure " dirt ball by sop the read/write head with gasoline to slathering butter on a burn mark .
