Medical Practicioners of Old

bluestone120 said:

The tales of misdiagnoses/malpractice always worry me the most. It's unfortunate that a doctor's degree isn't a guarantee of excellence and competency.

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kyboots said:

I agree with both of you but let's not just throw the pharmaceutical groups under the bus, but the same claims made by the health food stores and mega vitamins and "all natural" products that cure us all. These are there to make money just like the drug companies. "All natural" is not regulated by anyone in this country. You can sell "mouse t--ds" as "all natural" and get by with it just label it. No one is even looking your way. Makes millions on the late night TV movie crowd. Hopefully won't kill you! Don't let anyone fool you. There are no conspiracies in health care. If there was a cure for AIDS it would be on the front page of the New York Times. This is America we don't hide cures! If there was a $100 a month Health Food Store or Nutrion Center "Mens Vitamin" that was any better then the common Walmart Brand we would all know it. No one hides it or keeps it a secret. Common Sense is in a steep decline in this world.We need to have some when we go into these stores and now even the vitamin centers in drug stores or sales, or Avon, or etc. etc.--John

BTW: Big Man the mental health system was ruined when they closed all the state mental health hospitals 25 years ago and "cured" them all. They gave them "new pills," and made them homeless on Medicaid.

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Lone_Ranger said:

Q: What do you call someone that graduated last, in their medical school class?

A: Doctor

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Hepkitty said:

I have to admit I'm much more interested in vitamins, healthy diet (not that I'm perfect on that I'm a food snob after all), and exercise. Pharmaceuticals scare me, just watch all the lawsuit commercials on tv. A long time ago during a difficult time, I started seeing a counselor who promptly offered me anti-depressants. I was stunned that in the first few minutes he was pushing drugs. I told him no way, this is a situational thing and I'm much better off exercising and eating healthy to feel better than taking some quick mood fix which doesn't help at all to actually fix the situation. He didn't push the issue, wisely, otherwise I wouldn't have gone back. And now, years later, I'm SO thankful I refused. Had I taken that garbage, there is no way I could fly. You can't even get a class 3 medical if you've taken anti-depressants, from what a flight surgeon told me.

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HepKitty said:

I have to admit I'm much more interested in vitamins, healthy diet (not that I'm perfect on that I'm a food snob after all), and exercise. Pharmaceuticals scare me, just watch all the lawsuit commercials on tv. A long time ago during a difficult time, I started seeing a counselor who promptly offered me anti-depressants. I was stunned that in the first few minutes he was pushing drugs. I told him no way, this is a situational thing and I'm much better off exercising and eating healthy to feel better than taking some quick mood fix which doesn't help at all to actually fix the situation. He didn't push the issue, wisely, otherwise I wouldn't have gone back. And now, years later, I'm SO thankful I refused. Had I taken that garbage, there is no way I could fly. You can't even get a class 3 medical if you've taken anti-depressants, from what a flight surgeon told me.

Prien I'm totally with you. People knock herbal stuff now, but for centuries it was all people had. When science can now show us that some contain vitamins and helpful chemicals (eg, white willow bark, salicylic acid + stuff to keep the nausea at bay), why do people get so upset about them? We know that citrus contains vitamin C, so why is it a crime that parsley may have some as well?

That's the thing - it's been used for centuries and I don't quite understand the, what I see as peculiar, attitude towards complimentary remedies. I personally feel that it is the FDA (and perhaps even the pharm. companies) and not the doctors themselves for the way things are in the U.S. On a somewhat related note though, I remember being at a WWII event a few years ago, and I wanted to ask these two G.I.'s (medical) reenactors about herbal stuff - if the Americans used that back then. I was curious because my friend, in her German medical kit, she has a vial that held Valerian in it. This was also used during WWI as well to treat shell shock. The G.I.'s said there was no herbals used as far as the Americans went. I have noticed though that Europe, in particular Germany, takes a whole different view of the use of complimentary therapies. And there (Germany) it is not even seen as 'complimentary' but an actual part of the 'healing regimen'.

Getting back to the historical aspect - essential oils: Lavender for example was used to help sanitize.

"In July, 1910, Dr. Rene Maurice Gattefosse, a French chemist, rediscovered the therapeutic value of essential oils in his family’s perfumery business laboratory when he burned his arm quite severely and stuck his arm in a vat of lavender essential oil thinking it was water. Gattefosse reported that he applied the essential oil of lavender frequently to his “gangrenous burn” causing the pain to cease, and the burn healed without leaving any scar. This experience led him into a lifetime of research into the therapeutic benefits of essential oils.

Gattefosse coined the term “Aromatherapie” in the 1920’s, and published his 2 main works on the therapeutic value of Aromatherapy in 1937. Gattefosse’s Aromatherapie, 1937, was translated into English in 1992 and cites more than 200 relevant scientific works completed between 1680 and 1933.

Gattefosse also shared his studies with Jean Valnet, a medical doctor practicing in Paris.


Dr. Jean Valnet (MD) joined the French Army in World War II. When he exhausted his supply of antibiotics during the War, Dr. Valnet began using essential oils on patients suffering battlefield injuries. To his surprise, they exerted a powerful effect in combating and counteracting infection. He was able to save the lives of many soldiers who might otherwise have died."

I had chosen, one day, to try Lavender e.o. on my toe which I had an ingrown toenail and had puss. I cut the toenail back, and applied the Lavender e.o. 'neat' (undiluted) and the pain and the infection went away instantly. I decided to try that because the 'standard procedure' of soaking in epsom salts was not doing me any good. It was then I remembered the properties of the Lavender oil and gave it a try.

Essences are nothing 'new' either, as they were originally created back in the 1930s by Dr. Edward Bach. I use other brands besides those, but they all 'started' with him. One can read his writings here. I'm very sensitive to these, and have been using them for years with success. Some people aren't sensitive to them, and there isn't anything wrong with that.

I know someone who was diagnosed with fibromyagia with no hope ever of recovery. She was told it would only get worse and there is nothing they can do other than give her pain meds and send her stoned carcass to bed (which really how it was for a while). She went to a naturepath who told her that it's parasites and gave her something for it and *poof* no more fibromyagia and no more addictive pharmaceuticals. Don't remember what the fix was though.

That's where I was when I started out...which was close to 10 years ago. There was no 'Lyrica' or anything and the 'standard' treatment was pain-killers and tricyclic anti-depressants...and sometimes with the comment that 'it's all psychological' *eye roll*. Thankfully none of my drs. were like that. But that story about that woman reminds me of my friend's friend who was extremely ill and was being treated using allopathic medicine and it made her worse. She then went to an Ayurvedic practitioner and got much better.

Are there crackhead remedies in homeopathy? Yes. Are there crackhead remedies in modern medicine? Yes. Just do your homework and decide what's best for you [huh]

That's the way I see it.

Bluestone dahling I think there is a thread on "traditional" remedies, some for laughs some for actual help. Could I trouble the bartenders to link to it please? I think the winning "remedy" is radium though :lol:

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V.C. Brunswick said:

Many of these so-called anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac is nasty stuff. I have an acquaintance who was prescribed Prozac and he had all kinds of problems with it including overwhelming suicidal/homicidal thoughts. Now first of all I'd like to point out by way of disclaimer that 1) I'm not a Scientologist, and 2) I think that Scientology is a load of nonsense. But I do agree with them when it comes to their view of psychiatry. I recently saw this documentary that tells the whole sordid story of psychiatry.

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, Part I

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Gregg Axley said:

Agreed.
I take some supplements and I can function better with some of them than pain medication.
Some days (without getting into my whole medical background...) the supplements do all they can but they aren't enough.
Prien you hit the nail on the head with learning what triggers your reflux, and staying away from it.
I push mine every so often, but honestly I have to eat the hot stuff.

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V.C. Brunswick said:

Many of these so-called anti-depressant drugs such as Prozac is nasty stuff. I have an acquaintance who was prescribed Prozac and he had all kinds of problems with it including overwhelming suicidal/homicidal thoughts. Now first of all I'd like to point out by way of disclaimer that 1) I'm not a Scientologist, and 2) I think that Scientology is a load of nonsense. But I do agree with them when it comes to their view of psychiatry. I recently saw this documentary that tells the whole sordid story of psychiatry.

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, Part I

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HepKitty said:

Just watched part 1 and wow it's scary. I'm not impressed by Scientology either but it's well documented that these early asylums were big shops of horrors. So it's not exactly a skewed perspective they're presenting. I agree completely that it's so bad now that merely being human is considered mentally ill. And it astounds me that people are being taught that meds with mile-long lists of side effects are the only way to cope with being human and dealing with normal human problems. I should have asked that counselor "Are you suggesting that "coping" with meds is better than facing and fixing the sitch myself? Do you really mean to imply that you can't help me deal with my problems?" but I'm not exactly the queen of snappy comebacks :lol: It really disgusts me how the world is slowly buying into the idea that fixes for problems only come in pill form and that every little human quirk is an official diagnosis now. All it does is "excuse" people from taking responsibility for their lives and actions. "Oh it's not my fault I'm mentally ill I can't do this and this and this..."

One friend was diagnosed as ADD/ADHD when she was a kid. Her mother told me she determined that it was a reaction to mint in toothpaste and that fixed she ish, but only after the whole Ritalin fiasco. Poor dear now believes that she's permanently screwed up and was recently told she's no longer ADD/ADHD but now she's bi-polar. Sadly she's brainwashed into thinking she's defective as a human and I'm sure is depressed BECAUSE of the nonsense she's been fed. She has been abused and her self-esteem is shot, she doesn't care for herself like she should and knows better. I think she'd be better off eating right and exercising and rejecting the idea that she's messed up.

I think this can go hand in hand with the 'victim mentality' - to what extent I don't know, but I think the connection is there. They can make people feel like it is all psychological or something, when it could be something else entirely, and that right there messes people up - I should know because I've been there.

Another friend with a tough life of being abused... is pregnant and has been on all sorts of medications and is currently taking some sort of mood med. She repeated to her doctor (small town in ID, this will be scary) that she's concerned about the meds causing birth defects but she doesn't believe that she can exist without them. Doc says that they'll both be fine no nothing to worry about at all. Wait a few years and we'll probably see this one on the idiot box tied to yet another lawsuit for birth defects too.

Oh lovely.

Here's my take, and I say this because good people believe the worst about themselves because of situational things: we can't always control what others do to us. But we CAN control how we react and how we deal. Knee-jerk reactions do happen and mistakes will be made but we are human.

Exactly. This is often discussed in spiritual boards which I've been a member of.

Some people are more complacent and some more intense, and depending on our beliefs and experiences we will react differently. But we can move on and stop dwelling on the bad stuff or at least try to view it in a more positive light and try for better next time. Here is an example: a foreign movie called Mad Love (warning: this is an adult movie). Watch it and ask yourself, is she "crazy" as all the men tell her repeatedly, or is she just intense and courageous enough to protest the abuse? Unfortunately for her, society didn't allow her to exist on her own so she was essentially a prisoner. Ultimately, the more you tell people they're nuts and the more you claim that they can't exist w/o meds or fix their own problems, the more they will believe it and yes the more money the rx companies will make.

That reminds me of something regarding Hitler...the more you tell a lie the more people will begin to believe it. I understand it is a very extreme connection there...but, coming from experience in dealing with these 'meds' (I use the term lightly - again from experience), I just feel that there is a connection.

Sad to abuse and rip people off that way. Guess the philosophy is to create problems in people to scam them out of their money. And later on more money when they need more meds to combat the health problems that the first meds caused.

I feel the same way. One takes x for such and such, and x causes this sort of side effect so z is prescribed to help counter the side effects of x. I recall the intestinal problems those pain killers caused me...went down a list of NSAIDs (the more 'mild' opiates, like Ultram that I had been on made me sick) so I had to switch to NSAIDs. My mom didn't like me being on that stuff either and she was glad to see me get off of it.

Question: read an article recently about sociopaths having smaller amygdalas than average or appropriate for the size of the rest of the brain. What to do about that? Will rx companies try to come up with medication to magically give those people some sort of conscience?

Oh that's interesting. I have read about the amygdala where it concerns a specific essence, so I do understand that part a bit.

Ok tangent over

Lavender is good stuff. Better is tea tree oil, it can also be used neat as a disinfectant, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal. It's the bomb. Also helps to heal burns. Kinda stinks though.

I've used Tea Tree - supposed to be good for acne too.

Valerian is a good muscle relaxant, I've taken it before when my back was out. Germany is an excellent place for homeopathic stuff. In my experience there (1995-1996) I found that doctors were just as likely to prescribe a homeopathic remedy as a pharmaceutical one, and when you go to the Apotheke you will find both kinds of treatments there.

I have homeopathy to thank for getting me off the painkillers. A woman I met via a spiritual board, who lives in the UK, sent me a jar of Arnica Gel. Never heard of the stuff before getting that. I put that stuff on and it was like Heaven. Worked better than all the painkillers I was on over the years. I was gradually able to go from something like Toradol, to RX Ibuprofen and then off. This was late '04. Then some years later, probably 2, I tried Rhus tox (Poison Ivy) and again, that worked like a charm for me. When I took that, that was the first time I hadn't felt 'deep' pain (the Arnica I think helped the trauma but the Rhus tox worked on a deeper level for me) in years. I was thrilled.

For muscle relaxing, I actually like Vetiver essential oil.

Interesting stuff on Gattefosse and Valnet, I will check them out. PM me if you're interested in another herbalist, I don't want to post her here because of her religious life and religion doesn't belong on the board. Good call on the peppermint tea, I couldn't drink enough of it when I was pregnant. That book looks excellent, thanks for the info

Ok. I will PM you. I like to drink Peppermint tea cold on hot days like we are having now. It's a refreshing way to have a nice cold healthy drink too. You're welcome by the way.

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V.C. Brunswick said:

Part 3 of Psychiatry: An Industry of Death explores the role it played in Nazi Germany (where 40% of psychiatrists were members of the SS), and particularly how psychiatry gave rise to the eugenics movement which in turn greatly influenced and inspired Hitler.

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V.C. Brunswick said:

Part 3 of Psychiatry: An Industry of Death explores the role it played in Nazi Germany (where 40% of psychiatrists were members of the SS), and particularly how psychiatry gave rise to the eugenics movement which in turn greatly influenced and inspired Hitler.

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bluestone120 said:

Does anyone have any golden-era medical stories (doctors/nurses/weird remedies) to share?

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