10 Where There Is No Doctor 2011
WAYS TO TELL WHETHER A HOME REMEDY
WORKS OR NOT
Because a lot of people use a home cure does not necessarily mean it works well or
is safe. It is often hard to know which remedies are helpful and which may be harmful.
Careful study is needed to be sure. Here are four rules to help tell which remedies are
least likely to work, or are dangerous. (Examples are from Mexican villages.)
1. THE MORE REMEDIES THERE ARE FOR ANY ONE ILLNESS, THE LESS LIKELY
IT IS THAT ANY OF THEM WORKS.
For example: In rural Mexico there are many home remedies for goiter, none of
which does any real good. Here are some of them:
1. to tie a crab
on the goiter
2. to rub the goiter with
the hand of a dead child
DON’T
DON’T
3. to smear the brains of a
vulture on the goiter
DON’T
4. to smear human
feces on the goiter
DON’T
Not one of these many remedies works. If it did, the others would not be needed.
When a sickness has just one popular cure, it is more likely to be a good one. For
prevention and treatment of goiter use iodized salt (p. 130).
2. FOUL OR DISGUSTING REMEDIES ARE NOT LIKELY TO HELP—AND ARE
OFTEN HARMFUL.
For example:
1. the idea that leprosy can be cured
by a drink made of rotting snakes
2. the idea that syphilis can
be cured by eating a vulture
DON’T
DON’T
These two remedies do not help at all. The first one can cause dangerous infections.
Belief in remedies like these sometimes causes delay in getting proper medical care.