September 23, 2023

The past medicine and their harmful effects


Once upon a time, I faced a little bit of pain in the right side of my lower jaw, probably at the junction where my premolar teeth are present, which paved my way to a nearby dentist clinic to solve dental caries located on my tooth and as usual I received a little bit of medication and a bit of cleansing by the dentists to remove my dental caries and treat the prevailing infection,

but who might have thought that the medication prescribed by the doctor might turn a little bit upside down on its usage. I discovered an extra inflammation on the use of the prescribed medicine, which can be considered a little bit of negligence prevailing in our society in many fields like construction, business, healthcare, law, and many more.

The past medicine and their 6 harmful effects
The past medicine and their 6 harmful effects


Today, we will view a brief history of how medicines that were believed to cure people for more than 2000 years harmed people more than they treated them. Let us put on our glasses of virtual reading and move towards the article explaining how medicines under experimentation and negligence wound people more than they treated them.

The past medicine and their harmful effects


1-Cancer – Do past medicine works?.


In 1885, Lancet, a leading medical journal, published a weird letter about how natural lightning from the atmosphere can cure the invading cancer disease in our body. It was explained how the natural frictional electricity could act as a therapeutic agent in treating patients with cancer, which is odd and fatal if you consider it a treatment for invading cancerous agents.
In some parts of China, people diagnosed with cancer, we’re asked to walk off the flames generated by burning cursed wood, a term used by local farmers who believe in cursed timber to treat prevailing cancer and other disorders.
Cancer sometimes was treated by gulping a liquid containing mercury to destroy prevailing cancer, which is an unacceptable way of dealing with cancer or any other prevalent disorder


2-Depression & Past medicines.


Depression, a leading silent disorder prevailing in our crowded generation, is something to be pondered; in the 19th-century doctors used to prescribe pills that were coated with a tiny blue film that contained mercury, which offcourse is a potent neurotoxin was believed to be taken by many famous, celebrated people including Abraham Lincoln which has levels of mercury about 9000 times more than the present pills available in the market.
Sometimes patients were locked inside metal boxes for few days and were allowed to listen to scary music to remove the so-called depression agent out of their bodies or were asked to burn their fingertips to erase the feeling of depression with external stimuli.


3-Stuttering – Can past medication be the cure?


Stuttering was before considered as a problem only because of the short length of the tongue or incorrect attachment of the language to the mouth, which was tried to be treated by the doctor by mechanical means like pulling the tongue with metal strings or trying to attach the tongue to the floor of the oral cavity with the help of semi folded metal sheets which caused injuries to the patients. Few patients even suffered a complete loss of tongue or speech due to such illogical experiments and surgeries.
Sometimes people were asked to tie their mouths, believing that bad external air is the reason for stuttering in ancient history which sounds really out of the box of logical analysis and understanding.


4-Lice & past medication methods.


The ancient history of medicine saw few illogical experimentations to treat the lice; one of them was spreading a smear made of mercury ashes, a spit of women, and lard to treat the prevailing lice, which sound be uncomfortable for anyone and scientifically illogical for everyone.
Sometimes people were asked to store their urine and mix a bit of animal dung with a tinge of leaf extracts to cure the lice and other bacterial infections, which in reality caused many bacterial, fungal, and other infections due to these practices.


5-Toothaches – Do not try past medication.


Dental caries is something frequently observed in a population with people luring for food filled with slicing sugar. In the ancient times in Egypt, a dead rat was placed on the tooth to be treated of a person suffering from dental caries, or the person having dental distress was asked to rub his tooth against hippopotamus left tooth or the person suffering from dental caries were asked to swallow ashes of a dead wolf’s head. All these practices caused unwanted infections, deadly disorders, and even death most of the time.


6-Schizophrenia – Is past medication is right way to treat?


Schizophrenia is a disorder dealing with a person imagining things that never occurred or hallucinating over few things and thinking that he is the root cause of something which in reality does not exist. At the end of the historical World War 2, the leading psychiatrists and other research analysts gave insulin doses to patients with mental illness to induce coma, which further killed brain cells allowing the reduction of aggression and hostility of patients. This practice was banned six years after it was introduced on the battlefield.


Treating humankind is not a piece of cake. The current medications, surgeries, research, and never-ending scientific breakthroughs are part of an era of trial and error performed by scholars and curious doctors through the ages. Out of this trial and error process, some medications caused harm. Some medications treated the harmed, some never worked, and some were out of an accidental breakthrough.


Medicines can still harm us in today’s generation when prescribed to the wrong patient or a wrong diagnosis. They can be lethal and dangerous if not watch out for before their action. In a world of more than 6 billion people, accidents, negligence, unwanted medicine prescriptions by doctors, unwanted surgeries are all part of our world but don’t worry; our world has a list of qualified best doctors around the corner to treat you in a way like never before, this article is just a brief insight on how medicines harmed in the old times and to make you realize how our world has progressed from the chains of black magic to scientific treatments.

Comments are most welcome and appreciated.