Self medicating?

mguar wrote: In reply to 914Driver: This is a subject I know more than a little bit about..

My father will be 80 this year. He gets around well, enjoys a beer now and then but as far as I know he's never been to a doctor. Actually he's never even had a cold that I recall. He thinks it's all phychosomatic. It's in your head. Think you'll get sick and you're sick.

Must be something to it....

914Driver, what were the headaches your sister was suffering from?

Yogurt soothes a burn fast. Of course, so does Burn Jel, then you can eat the yogurt.

One word. Hookworms.

To back up what mcgur sed somewhat: My brother died of pulmonary embolism after 3 visits to chiropractor who of course didn't have a clue. But the last visit to chiro was after being seen in ER, admitted to hospital for a couple of days & being told he had food poisioning. On the other hand, my great uncle died suddenly at age 93. He'd lived alone all his adult life & never been to any sort of health care provider.

tuna55 wrote: A buddy of mine finally found the best medicine for his bad gout - Cherry juice. Does better than anything he's ever had prescribed.

Man, I read that a thousand times. Tried it. Four days later I got the magic pill from my Doctor. Damn gout hurts like hell.

PHeller wrote: 914Driver, what were the headaches your sister was suffering from?

Mmmmm, my sister never had them, Jack did. It was from the medication.

Maybe I type faster than I think.....

Think slower than I type? Yeah, that's it .

spitfirebill wrote: Read in Nat Geo many years ago that some African tribes urinate into other peoples eyes as a means of fighting eye infection. I'm not sure that's what you are looking for.

R Kelly must have the same ancestors as they do.

I have heard of pig parasites being used. The idea being that we are like enought to pigs that they will live most of a year.. but be unable to procreate enough to become a real problem

mguar wrote:

PHeller wrote: 914Driver, what were the headaches your sister was suffering from?

The headaches were a warning about a brain tumor. Had she paid attention and mentioned her frequent and severe headaches to a doctor she might have had time to have it surgically removed.. by the time she finally went in it had spread so severely it had attached itself to her brain stem. The last six months of her life were only brief periods of awareness followed by agonizing pain until the drugs put her back out again..

Back it up guys. I already said my sister didn't have headaches, Mguar is crossing wires or something.

this is true. Friend of mine died of a major stroke. He went to the hospital with major headaches.. three days and a wrong diagnosis later, we were planning his funeral

Medicine is a bizarre science. Everyone's body responds differently, so most medications are blanket statements based on statistics and studies.

I also have no trust for pharmaceutical companies.

I bet that 90% of the worlds health problems could be treated with 0.1% of all available medicine.

To be honest, I do have an irrational fear of medication.

Taiden wrote: Medicine is a bizarre science. Everyone's body responds differently, so most medications are blanket statements based on statistics and studies. I also have no trust for pharmaceutical companies. I bet that 90% of the worlds health problems could be treated with 0.1% of all available medicine.

Probably on that last statement. But we aren't worried about the 90%. We've got that figured out, with the 0.1%. We're worried about figuring out how to get that last 10%.

Also, when the cost of drugs is brought up... Don't forget that when you buy a drug, you are paying not only for the cost of that drug--cost of production, R&D, and some built in profit--but you are also paying for the drugs that didn't make it. For every drug that there is on the market, there are about (kinda guessing here) 50 that didn't make it. Those scientists still need to be paid for all of the R&D that they did there.

I take Prilosec for my acid reflux, but I really have to. My hiatus is so herniated that they don't even want to try surgery.

But for occasional heartburn I have done aloe vera gel, and have also just taken a teaspoon of baking soda with a glass of water.

Super glue is awesome stitching. My pappy taught me to use pine sap as a bandage one day when I stubbed my toe at the lake. Celery seed is good for gout. Ever get a cold sore? Pop one of those vitamin E capsules and smear it on. Vitamin E works well for chapped, cracked knuckles too.

In the winter my nose gets really dry inside and I sometimes get nosebleeds. I just snort some vaseline and its fixed overnight.

Olive oil helps earaches and mild infections.

Garlic (as someone mentioned) is a natural healer. Its (forgive me) great for yeast infections as some of my lady-friends have pointed out. Just pull the skins off of about 3 cloves and shove 'em on up there.

Yogurt is also used for fungal infections. Most fungal infections are the result of a bacterial imbalance. Re-introduce the bacterial yogurt cultures and it can swing things in the other direction.

Jewelweed (usually grows in northern climates) is a good poison-ivy soother. Mash it up into a wet paste and put it on.

My wife's grandmother lived in the Alabama back woods....she told me once;

If I feel a cold or flu coming; take a can of turpentine and put the can up to your tongue and coat your tongue a little bit. She lived to be 90 years old, ate sweet vidalia onions for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, had great blood pressure/chloesterol, and had the most wicked breath.

mguar wrote: Many with cancers/ illness well advanced. Yet they pull the patient back from the brink.. They treat those patients with such care and effort while if you arrive through the front door and only have average insurance etc.. You'll never go near there.. There is a real disconnect between average and the best care in the healthcare field. My Brother trained at Johns Hopkins. An excellent training hospital. However it too has a disconnect between the front door and the rear entrance.. As do most major medical facilities..

I don't really have a problem with this, because even mediocre healthcare nowadays is probably better than the best healthcare any other time in history. I can't afford a first class flight. Why should I expect red carpet treatment at a hospital? I suppose that even with medicine, money talks.

I get a terrible head cold a few times every winter. I take a glass of NyQuil on ice and a sack of White Castle. The NyQuil helps me sleep and the White Castle makes sure I get up for work the next day.

Chivalry vs. classism... In both cases, some human lives are more valuable than others.