My wife and I currently use a Nasal Rinse (Neil Med) and are very happy with it. She recently found many reports (in numerous medical journals/publications) about the effectiveness of the nasal rinses and about how the ENT docs have known this for years. We had noticed that no primary care docs have provided us with that info.....

It got us to wondering about the other old 'real medicine' treatments that we 'don't yet know about' (because we are forgetting them). We're not looking for any "weird" contorversial treatments.....we were thinking about the type of stuff that "the real doctors" used to treat their patients....or used to have the patient help to treat themselves.

Especially now in this world of "resistant" 'bugs', we were looking for some old world treatments.....does anyone have any source ideas for us?

Izzy-

(OP- Sorry to make the thread swerve a bit)

I had that nose surgery, and it's actually not that bad. It looks worse than it feels. You have a really sore nose for a few days- about the same feeling as if you had taken a hard punch to the snout. There's some blood, and gauze, and big globs of bloody stuff you blow out... again, it sounds worse than it was. In fact, it was sort of a gross but interesting experience. I can share some close-up photos I took, if anyone's interested...

All right, I better contribute something to the original poster's thread about old fashioned medicine. How about soaking? I had a boil type of thing that wouldn't go away, but finally a long, hot Epsom salt soak seemed to really dry it out and finally make it go away. An Epsom salt paste is kind of interesting, and seems to draw moisture out of skin that it's applied to.

Hot soaks in general seem to be useful for a variety of things.

Dave

We are familiar with the Neti Pot...(research has found that the 'positive pressure' methods (squeeze the bottle) vs the gravity feed (ie. pour in pot style) are much more effective....)

What we are looking for is for OTHER types of treatments for OTHER problems. Ultimately...we'd like some sort of reference material (preferred medium:book or internet) that provides for those simple but effective treatments (again not weird or controversial off the wall stuff).

It's not exactly something pleasant to discuss, but it is an old time cure. I first heard of it from and engineer that worked at sea with me. He told me he learned it from his father in Mississippi in the 30s. And recently, I was watching an episode of Survivorman. He was deep in the Amazon (The Jungle not the online retailer) and had a nasty case of foor fungus. All I was thinking about was "take off those stinking boots and pee on your feet." Although I use and prefer chlortrimazole, urine works as a cure for fungus. See: http://chetday.com/blog/2005/01/urine-therapy-and-foot-fungus.htm; If I were out covered in sweat anyway, whats a little pee on your feet.

The link seems to be broken. Sigh

You can start with Where there is no doctor. Really a back to basics medical text (downloadable in PDF format).

http://www.hesperian.org/publications_download_wtnd.php

Bill

Puzzling. I cut and pasted it from the url address is was looking at. It was the first site that came up when I googled "foot fungus urine" without quotes.

Try this one: http://www.ehow.com/how_2075188_use-urine-cure-fungus.html

Look to rural medicine or medical treatments in under-developed areas, mainly for minor ailments/treatments. Some of treatments we have used in Ecuador are materials/supplies the locals can obtain or have on hand:

Use of yogurt (locally produced having active cultures), papaya or ginger for intestinal ailments

A hard-boiled egg daily for vitamin deficiencies

Vinegar mixed with a little alcohol for ear hygiene

Boiled rice (mushy) mixed with a little diluted milk or yogurt, sugar and a dash of salt following bouts of vomiting or diarrhea


Pete

CJ, the docs are all out to get you.

My dad had a sure-fire remedy for just about every physical complaint that I might have had. He would suggest that he stomp real hard on my foot to help take my mind off of whatever was bothering me.

I have been using Manuka honey for treatment of infections. I only use manuka honey with a UMF(unique manuka factor)rating 15 or higher. It is effective aginst MRSA, Helicobacter Pylori(stomach ulcers), and e-coli. It is not a miracle drug everything has it limits once infection enters the blood only antibiotics can help.

I also use oregano oil p76 for a variety of things. It is a little pricy a small vial of it is about $20.

I am a big fan of fish oil as well.

Old medicines and treatments are a mixed bag.

Some work well and, in a few cases, are the original 'miracle drug'. A few thousand years ago people were making tea with willow bark and treating headaches and pain. A closely related compound is aspirin. A thousand years ago honey and lemon was the cough medicine of choice. Recent research has shown that in many cases it is at least as effective as cough medicine with dextromethorphan. The Neti pot is a thousand year-old way of irrigating the sinuses. Human anatomy and physiology hasn't changed much and it still works.

On the other hand some medicine and treatments were useless or so dangerous that we are better off without them. Mercury pills for syphilis had a good side. If you survived the treatment regime you were cured. Down side was a lot of people didn't survive.

Bloodletting, the draining of blood as treatment was pretty much counterproductive. Except in a few rare cases where the person is suffering from a disease that causes overproduction of red cells.

Related but effective and still used: leaches.

Lobotomies have been pretty much relegated the ash heap. Of the methods used, given a choice, go for the 'icepick' lobotomy. Less invasive and likely to kill the patient. It is equally useless but at least you can do it with tools you have in your toolbox. If your going to do something counterproductive not having to buy a tool to do it is a plus.

Herbalism is full of old treatments. Ginger for nausea. Tobacco and/or wormwood for worms. Peppermint for a queasy stomach. Soaking in tea helps with for sweaty and stinky feet.

Before general anesthesia it was known that exsanguniating limb made amputations less painful and less bloody. The limb was tightly wrapped and elevated to push out the blood and numb the limb. A tourniquet was applied to keep the blood out and the operation proceeded in the normal way.

An old, and fairly effect, treatment for the sting of raw skin, like after a large blister breaks, is to apply urine to the raw area. Evidently it is the urea that causes the injury to skin over and stop hurting.

Anyone know which bark/plant produces a smoke that helps kill fungus? Or is it the stuff termite mounds are made out of? Can't remember.

My late mother-in-law had a big book, she would smack whatever hurt with it. Supposed to make things allbetter, but it reportedly did not. She was a mean alcholic by the way.

My mom was a big fan of honey and a little whiskey for a sore throat. I have been known to skip the honey part.

Vics vaporub in boiling water, head over pot on stove, towel covering the whole thing. Helps with a realy bad head cold...

Termite mounds are local sawdust and termite juices, not sure from which end. I'd hazard a guess that any anti-fungal effect is due to the type of sawdust.

The problem with herbals is that your mileage will vary depending on location.

maggot therapy - Actually this one has come back into the spot light in recent years. I hear it's used in some Hospitals now because the maggots are better at removing only the dead flesh than a surgeon is. Either way maggots are a lot cheaper to come by than surgery.

There is a book that I saw in someone's home about twenty years ago, called Old-Fashioned Health Remedies That Work Best: Low Cost Natural Time-Tested Health Boosters You Can Use at Home for Successful Self-Care by L. L. Schneider.

I never even opened it, and have no idea if it's any good.

But they have it used at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Old-Fashioned-Health-Remedies-That-Work/dp/0136337015

Sue

And don't forget Leeches.

"maggot therapy"

I remember reading an account by a prisoner in a WW2 POW camp. A prisoner would come to the 'doctor', it is unclear what his qualifications were, and 'Doc' would unwrap the wound and spend a considerable amount of time examining the festering wound. Then they would wrap it in whatever rags they had on hand. A lot of major, and massively infected, wounds healed after these examinations.

The efficacy of the examination came from Doc observing the flies landing on and depositing their eggs. In a few days the tissue was crawling with maggots and a few days later it was cleaned and on its way to healing.

The maggots only eat dead tissue. It is also said that the maggots excrete chemicals that moderate pain and fight off reinfection by bacteria. Some people reported that maggots in the wound was entirely painless and most people were unaware they were in there until they looked under the covering. Seeing maggots happily dining on their wound was quite shocking to the uninitiated.

One of the large health organizations in our area publishes a fairly decent review of supplements and gives their recommendations on many different CAM (complementary/Alternative Medicine) approaches. Unfortunately they don't have a public web address that you can download the pdf from. If you want one you can PM me and I could send you a copy.

The good news is that NIH are beginning to do well-designed studies with heretofore poorly-studied alternative medicine techniques. I would start with their website at http://nccam.nih.gov/ They will let you know if there is any scientific evidence behind many of these ancient approaches.