Posts Tagged ‘practices’
If you have an ailment, pain, or illness, you’ll probably head to a pharmacy to purchase an expensive over the counter or prescription treatment to help you treat your condition. This is a modern convenience. In the recent past, people relied on folk medicine or home remedies to help them when they were ill or injured. Some home remedies are legitimate and useful, but many were actually harmful and should be avoided. Here are three of the most damaging:
#1: Using Kerosene to Get Rid of Head Lice
Can you imagine putting kerosene on your head? Most of us would never do this, because we know how dangerous it would be. In previous generations, parents would sometimes kill lice in a child’s hair by applying kerosene.
Kerosene is of course flammable, which is one danger of using this remedy. Worse, it’s also very toxic, and it absorbs easily through the skin. This is one home remedy that was far worse than the condition it was meant to treat. At least head lice don’t kill you.
#2: Treating Your Stomach Woes With “Greta” or “Azarcon”
Years ago, there were two powders that were often used to treat stomach and intestinal ailments, especially in Mexican and Mexican-American communities. These powders, unfortunately, were comprised of nearly 100% pure lead!
If you take lead internally, even a small amount can be harmful. Many people were hurt or even killed from this remedy. Believe it or not you can still sometimes find these powders for sale. Obviously, do not even purchase or use them.
#3: Putting Butter on a Burn
When you smear butter on a fresh burn, you aren’t helping. It may seem like you are because it makes the pain lessen. But you are contaminating the burn site when you do this. Bacteria loves the butter and will grow quickly. You’re actually encouraging the burn to become infected with this home remedy.
We all know we are to respect and listen to our elders. If your elders recommend home remedies, however, you may want to take this with a grain of salt. Often modern medicine knows best.
Besides unsafe practices, the writer additionally frequently contributes articles about office paper recycling and used trash trucks.
Our modern world, we depend on large pharmaceutical companies to provide remedies for our various maladies and problems. Whether over the counter or prescription meds, they can be expensive. In the recent past, people relied on home remedies and folk medicine techniques when they needed relief. Although there are a few of these treatments out there today, there are some that should stay forgotten.
One amazing trick to kill head lice was to apply kerosene to the head.
There was a time in our medical past when people would dump kerosene over the heads of their kids to kill lice. It actually worked, but it was incredibly dangerous, and the dangers were more than the benefits.
Kerosene gets absorbed quickly through the skin and it is very flammable. It is also very toxic, and many people were either sick or died because of using kerosene as a treatment for lice.
For treating stomach problems, the second thing to avoid is taking greta or azarcon.
Lots of older people, especially from Latin American backgrounds will know about these two powders that were dispensed to relieve symptoms of empacho. Empacho describes a variety of digestive and stomach conditions. However, this cure was horribly toxic because both powders contained almost 100 percent lead.
Acarcon and Greta are both available today, but should be avoided. Even small doses of these powders can lead to lead poisoning and death. Lead has killed many, many people over the years.
The next thing to try and avoid is to put butter on a burn.
Putting butter on a burn is a great example of what not to do, and this home remedy should be wiped from memory. While butter will reduce the pain for a short time, butter contaminates the burn site and is a breeding ground for growing bacteria. This will cause the wound to become infected and cause all kinds of problems.
Most of us are taught to revere the wisdom of our elders while maintaining and keeping certain traditions alive. However, when it comes to treating problems with home remedies, getting a professional opinion first may save your life.
Aside from health, this author additionally regularly shares writing on giant ladders and emergency ladder.
