Leeches and the Legitimizing of Folk-Medicine
asimov.press
asimov.press
I have pollen allergies, and my eyes itch a lot (plus pollen clog tear pathways, so my eyes get dry too). It's really uncomfortable.
I found that dousing cotton pads in brewed black tea and putting it on my eyes relieve the symptoms and unclog the tear pathways pretty well. I use it as a eye drop sometimes, albeit rarely.
My niece has the same issues. My mom recommended the tea treatment, but my cousin is a firm believer in "modern medicine" and got pretty angry at her, then they visited an MD.
My mom asked what the MD recommended for the symptoms. The answer came with a defeated tone: "Cotton pads doused in brewed black tea. Can use as an eye drop if necessary".
And guess what? It works on my niece too, like it worked on me.
"Folk-Medicine" is not always snake-oil in bad sense. Of course we need to be cautious, but having prejudice against the whole category is ill-advised.
Oh, one more thing: The best anti-allergy nasal sprays I use are all-herbal. And they work better than "synthetic" ones and have no side-effects. The only downside is they are not as "potent" as synthetics and don't make my nose dry as a rock (which is an upside actually).
Even if you don't directly drop it into your eye, it already seeps from the cotton pad to your eye crevice, so the effect is the same.
So you're starting with food grade stuff anyway, and the part which is not going into my eye is going to my stomach.
Of course one needs to be cautious depending on what they have at hand, and yes, tea is harmless at worst and pretty useful at best.
It soothes your eyes too, so you can try it even if your eyes feel a bit tired.
Anyways, it is besides the point I think, so no need to beat the dead horse here. :)
Just to give you some folk-medicine too: we went to a herbal store where the lady is quite knowledgeable in it, and many times she immediately knew what the actual issue was and what the cure is. My grandma kept going to dermatologists, GP about some skin problem and no one knew! Not one doctor! Not even the dermatologist. My grandma visited this lady and she was like "the problem is going to be the bile, grab this tea, drink it, and it should solve the problem". To our miracle, it did!
So... just to think that with regarding to a skin problem not even a dermatologist could help but some random lady without any medical school at a herbal store could, with a tea for bile, is crazy.
I have a question: would this black tea cotton pad thing work to soothe the eyes in general? I keep getting these white things in my eyes for some reason (the production of it right now is wild), and I wonder if it could help. I might give it a try. I know it can't hurt.
We have a lot of "folk medicine" around this neck of the woods, too, and many of them do work great.
That is also one of the reasons why the study of e.g. cannabis for treating epileptic patients, or as anesthesia, has taken such a long time, because once the study is done, you cannot always attribute those effects to your own product, so few will go ahead and sponsor it.
What I'm happy about letting cannabis free is the long tail research done on their effects after recreational use. Putting a finger on its negative effects will allow us to understand it better and promote more responsible use of it.
Maybe we can slow down the "capitalist, line shall go up" machine and be more in peace with the nature itself, and can make better drugs and substances for our needs which are not as expensive and dangerous. One man can dream, I guess...
FN: While it's not about drugs, leaded-gas used lead because it was patentable. However ethanol was cheaper, much safer and easier to produce. Albeit, it was unpatentable hence lacked shareholder value (https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/thomas-midgley-and-t...).
Kid got an earache? Chop up an onion, wrap it in a towel, bind the towel to the kids ear. 30 minutes later, no more earache.
There are tons of these.
"What do you call alternative medicine that works? .. Medicine.