Subtitles section Play video
-
• From leeches on your privates to holes in your skull to release demons, we count
-
twelve of the worst doctor cures throughout history!
-
12 – Bloodletting and Leeches, • Bloodletting was a common medical procedure
-
prior to the Nineteenth Century. It involved flushing out bad 'humors', which are black
-
and yellow bile, blood and phlegm. In the Middle Ages you could get this done by your
-
local barber or surgeon right after a haircut and some light dentistry work.
-
• Several bloodletting methods involved drawing blood from veins and arteries using
-
barbaric tools, but leeches were the most popular method. The French were particularly
-
mad for this; during the 1800s, they went through forty million leeches a year. They
-
attached them to patients' arms, legs, torso and other more sensitive areas.
-
• Leeches were then be tied to a silk thread, lowered down a person's throat and reeled in like
-
a fish. They were also applied to women's vaginas to relieve uterine disease, sexual
-
excitement and general 'hysteria'. British gentry had their wives leeched every two weeks.
-
• Sometimes leeches wound up lost inside female patients, which certainly didn't
-
help with the old 'hysteria'. However, doctors in these cases didn't sweat it because
-
they were sure the leech would 'find its way out eventually'.
-
11 – Mercury Poisoning, • The silvery liquid Mercury was once used
-
to treat everything from scraped knees to constipation. As side effects were indistinguishable
-
from the symptoms of syphilis, which it was commonly used to treat.
-
• We now know it's extremely toxic and that mercury poisoning comes with a laundry
-
list of symptoms. These can include chest pains, heart and lung problems, tremors, muscle
-
spasms and psychotic reactions like delirium, hallucinations and suicidal tendencies.
-
• Find a new high, kids. Mercury can kill you!
-
10 – Trepanation, • Trepanation is a treatment for mental
-
illness that began 7,000 years ago. It involved making a hole in the skull using an auger,
-
bore, or saw to relieve headaches, mental illness, or even demonic possession.
-
• With no knowledge of brain chemistry, ancient doctors believed the mentally ill
-
had literal demons living inside their heads, so holes were drilled into patients' skulls
-
to allow these spirits to escape. The horrifying thing is that anaesthetics weren't used
-
in a lot of these cases. • The practice still goes on today for a
-
small number of strange and misguided folks. These days a single small hole is sometimes
-
made in the skull to treat brain haemorrhaging after severe head trauma.
-
9 – Impotence Shock Therapy, • Impotence is one of the most embarrassing
-
problems a man can face … or so I hear. Throughout history, men with uncooperative
-
little guys have searched desperately for something that can cure their bedroom woes.
-
• With the late Nineteenth Century invention of electricity, men and their frustrated wives
-
hoped the new technology could take them straight to Boner Town. Doctors devised a range of
-
devices and products designed to get penises to stand to attention. These included electrified
-
beds and complicated 'cock-shocking' electric belts. Just the thing to set the mood!
-
• Other strange treatments for erectile dysfunction have included testicle implants,
-
radium suppositories, ingesting Spanish Flies, drinking frog juice and stimulating blood
-
flow with wasp stings and spider venom. 8 – Female Hysteria Treatments,
-
• According to Nineteenth Century doctors, female moodiness is a symptom of a very serious
-
medical condition called female hysteria. • Any woman who displayed symptoms like
-
nervousness, chattiness, unwillingness to talk, irritability, or disobedience towards
-
their supreme overlord Victorian husbands was ordered to have a doctor-administered
-
vaginal massage until their hysteria subsided. You're right – the Nineteenth Century's
-
idea of treatment does sound suspiciously like molestation!
-
• The list of symptoms for female hysteria was so long that literally any ailment could
-
fit its diagnosis. Doctors eventually invented the vibrator to alleviate hand strain.
-
7 – Pain and Rotational Therapies, • As the Treasurer of the Mint, signer of
-
the Declaration of Independence and author of various medical textbooks, Benjamin Rush
-
was America's most beloved, trusted doctor. • His biggest contribution was in the area
-
of psychiatry. Rush believed pain and suffering had curative powers, so patients paid him
-
actual money to beat, starve and verbally abuse them – all in the name of medical
-
science! His torturous practices also included pouring acid on their backs, cutting them
-
with knives and keeping wounds open for months or even years to encourage 'permanent discharge
-
from the brain'. • Rush also believed mental illness was
-
caused by poor circulation to the brain, so devised something called rotational therapy,
-
where patients were twirled from ropes suspended from the ceiling for hours at a time. He was
-
one sick creative bastard. 6 – Cocaine Cures,
-
• Cocaine is a symbol of Eighties excess, but it may surprise you to learn that it was
-
originally used medicinally. • In 1884, Austrian ophthalmologist Carl
-
Koller somehow discovered that placing cocaine on a patient's cornea temporarily desensitised
-
the eye to pain, making eye surgery less risky. • When word of his discovery spread, doctors
-
realised that cocaine could be used as an anaesthetic for all kinds of procedures. Sceptics
-
were initially concerned about the drug's addictiveness, but doctors scoffed, claiming
-
it was no more addictive than tea or coffee. • By 1900, Americans could walk into any
-
pharmacy and purchase a gram of pure cocaine for twenty-five cents. The drug was mixed
-
into everything from wines to soft drinks to cigars. Companies offered hypodermic needles
-
kits so patients could inject themselves from the comfort of their own homes.
-
• Cocaine was additionally prescribed for haemorrhoids, indigestion, appetite suppression,
-
fatigue, shyness and toothaches. Even kids got in on the craze until, by 1902, upwards
-
of 200,000 Americans were addicted. The addiction became an epidemic, and states and local governments
-
were forced to intervene. Good times. 5 – Urine Therapy,
-
• Forget rest, nutrition and exercise; an alarming number of cultures and people throughout
-
history believed wallowing in urine was the key to good health.
-
drank, applied to the skin or used to give a nice … bracing … urine enema. I wonder
-
• The sad part is that even though all of these purported benefits have been disproved
-
urine therapy is still practised today. Even peeing on a jellyfish sting has no scientific
-
by accident when a Viennese doctor named Manfred Sakel accidentally overdosed a patient on
-
insulin overdose in 1927. The patient, who was a morphine addict, fell into a deep coma
-
patient and found similar results. He was soon inducing insulin comas to schizophrenics
-
and other patients. Some claimed to be cured of their afflictions, but that was probably
-
and was finally phased out in the 1960s. Sakel wouldn't have been happy. I mean, if you
-
3 – Hot Iron Treatment for Haemorrhoids, • In the Middle Ages, it was not uncommon
-
Century, an Irish monk named Saint Fiacre became the patron saint for haemorrhoid sufferers.
-
accidentally sitting on a pointy stone. The stone is still around today and haemorrhoid
-
physicians conceived the idea their white-hot cautery irons to treat the problem. Pulling
-
• Eventually a Twelfth Century Jewish physician named Moses Maimonides wrote about his disapproval
-
of the surgery and instead recommended the sitz bath, which is still the most common
-
treatment for haemorrhoids today. 2 – Extreme Hot and Cold Therapies,
-
• For centuries, heat has been used to cure mental diseases. In fever therapy, fevers
-
were induced by hot baths, electric heaters, and even deliberate infection with malaria.
-
Before penicillin, it was the most effective way to treat syphilis, but patients had to
-
be closely monitored as it came with a pretty high risk of death.
-
• Extreme cold therapy was the inverse therapy and was just as dangerous. Patients receiving
-
this treatment were sometimes refrigerated three days at a time at temperatures as low
-
as 20° F below a normal, healthy body temperature. • Hydrotherapy was another risky treatment
-
that bears little resemblance to today's relaxing equivalent. Common in the early Twentieth
-
Century, hydrotherapy patients usually suffered mental disorders and wrapped like mummies
-
in towels that'd been soaked in icy water. Other times they were strapped with restraints
-
in a cold tub for days at a time or sprayed with high-pressure water jets – sometimes
-
while bound in a crucifix position. 1 – Lobotomy,
-
• Finally, we have everybody's favourite mental illness cure, the lobotomy. The lobotomy
-
was developed by Portuguese neurosurgeon Egas Moniz, who was inspired by tales of a violent
-
monkey that had become docile following the removal of its frontal lobe.
-
• He theorised the frontal lobe was the source for mental illness, so cut it out of
-
his human patients. The surgeries were a success – relatively speaking – and lobotomies
-
became widespread. Moniz even received the Nobel Prize for his efforts in 1949.
-
• In the US, Dr Walter Freeman made a lucrative business out of driving around the country
-
in his 'lobotomobile', providing on-the-spot lobotomies to anyone who wanted them. Sometimes
-
this was schizophrenics, other times bored housewives.
-
• Dr Freeman's barbaric technique involved inserting an ice pick into the eye socket
-
and swirling it around to 'disable' the frontal lobe. Because his surgical technique
-
was dangerously imprecise and his equipment was unsterile, Freeman was basically a drive-by
