Folk Remedies

[docB]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Wasn't there a thread that wound up talking about folk remedies? The OP must have pulled it. As I recall ERMudPhud was advocating voodoo chicken dancing in the ED 😛 . Anyway I had a 4 yo M in the ED yesterday with a cough and fever and all these ecchymotic stripes all over him. The nurse came running in and was convinced that this kid was on death's door. I ran back to see him and said, "Oh, that's nothing. They've been coining him." The kid is asian and the dad who's lived here all his life was embarrassed and said that the grandmother (who is very old world) had been coining the kid. I treated the kid for a mild pneumonia. I had to then convince the nurse not to call child welfare for abuse.

Any other people run into stuff like this?

 

[beanbean]

Not really something you would see in the ED, but it worked for me. Cabbage leaves applied topically the breast relieve pain from engorgement a few days after birth when the mother's milk comes in. I know there was a comparison study done in 1993 that supported the theory, but I am too lazy to look it up. The real question in my mind is who was the first person to figure this out? What leads someone to say "lets try cabbage leaves; I'll bet that will help?!?"

 

[Febrifuge]

Please to explain briefly; what is coining?

(50% I'm too lazy to use Google, 50% I'm interested in how folk remedies are characterized by people trained in 21st century Western medicine.)

 

[DrQuinn]

I used to have it done on me when I was a wee child. Being half-Vietnamese, I'll tell you, it felt REALLY GOOD.

Basically, its a Southeast Asian tradition where a parent or guardian will take an ill child (usually a URI) and rub oil on their back. They will then take a large coin, and shall I say, "rubbed vigorously" on the back. Usually you will get some bruises back there, in odd shapes!

Q, DO

 

[Sessamoid]

I used to have it done on me when I was a wee child. Being half-Vietnamese, I'll tell you, it felt REALLY GOOD.

Basically, its a Southeast Asian tradition where a parent or guardian will take an ill child (usually a URI) and rub oil on their back. They will then take a large coin, and shall I say, "rubbed vigorously" on the back. Usually you will get some bruises back there, in odd shapes!

Q, DO

Curiously, it's also a remedy that is practiced among some native Mexican groups, lending credence to the theory that Chinese explorers had been to the Americas before European ones.

 

[Katee80]

My inlaws to be swear by apple cider vineger. Its used as a drink for upset stomachs, and a compress for swelling which actually works. Smells to high heaven but hey.....whatever works. My fiancee recently tore his ACL and these compresses helped a great deal. Also theres this pill you can only get from Russia and its ...I kid you not...bird droppings... cleaned up abit, and now his injury is drastically improved. Strange but true. A few others.....

corn hair tea for liver pain.
the injesting of nits or lice for liver damage. 😱 Yuck.

 

[Sessamoid]

My inlaws to be swear by apple cider vineger. Its used as a drink for upset stomachs, and a compress for swelling which actually works. Smells to high heaven but hey.....whatever works. My fiancee recently tore his ACL and these compresses helped a great deal. Also theres this pill you can only get from Russia and its ...I kid you not...bird droppings... cleaned up abit, and now his injury is drastically improved. Strange but true. A few others.....

Well, any compressive dressing will help decrease swelling and pain from an ACL injury. As far as the bird droppings, the natural progression of a acute partial ACL tear is that it will improve over time regardless of what you do, unless you reinjure it. So bird droppings, voodoo magic, praying to black holes, or whatever will result in improvement of the pain and swelling over time. I should know, I've had an ACL tear.

 

[edinOH]

I expect the Chiropractors to start posting on this thread pretty soon.

 

[DrQuinn]

My mother (Vietnamese) swears by raw ginger whenever she gets GERD or dyspepsia.

I run for my Nexium samples.

Q, DO

 

[SaltySqueegee]

My mother (Vietnamese) swears by raw ginger whenever she gets GERD or dyspepsia.

I run for my Nexium samples.

Q, DO

Whenever, my stomach has been acting up IBS, or GERD, etc. A little pickled ginger has always settled it for me. And I'm only Asian by association with my wife! 😱

Eh, that and a little salt mist in from the humidifier seems to help the stomach as well.

I'm thinking it's a psychosomatic thing. Maybe that's why I like sushi... ... 😕 🙄 😀

 

[docB]

Not really something you would see in the ED, but it worked for me. Cabbage leaves applied topically the breast relieve pain from engorgement a few days after birth when the mother's milk comes in. I know there was a comparison study done in 1993 that supported the theory, but I am too lazy to look it up. The real question in my mind is who was the first person to figure this out? What leads someone to say "lets try cabbage leaves; I'll bet that will help?!?"

I've always wondered the same thing about protamine. Who was sitting around thinking, "Now where can I find a reversal agent for heparin? Hmmmm, I know! Salmon sperm! That's the ticket!"

 

[mikecwru]

I've always wondered the same thing about protamine. Who was sitting around thinking, "Now where can I find a reversal agent for heparin? Hmmmm, I know! Salmon sperm! That's the ticket!"

... or how the bulbocavernosous reflex was discovered? Hey, while I'm up here, why don't I give a little squeeze....uh...right here.

mike

 

[The White Coat Investor]

Whenever, my stomach has been acting up IBS,

It takes a lot of guts to admit that in an EM forum.

 

[Apollyon]

... or how the bulbocavernosous reflex was discovered? Hey, while I'm up here, why don't I give a little squeeze....uh...right here.

mike

I've mentioned this same thing many times in the hospital, and may have posted my ruminations on SDN - with seemingly EVERYONE in medicine wanting their name on something, no one is jumping on the bandwagon to name the bulbocavernosus reflex, and, moreover, as you say...

In the neuro ICU, though, they told me that, if you pull on the Foley, you get the same thing...still...who would have thought to YANK ON THE FOLEY WITH A FINGER UP THE ASS? What insurance pays for in hospital, people pay for out of pocket for kicks in the real world.

 

[8744]

We have a popular folk remedy down here in for hypertension:

1 Vial Crack, 40 ounce malt liquor po qd x 20 years
Nicotine, Inhaled 1 pack qd

We use fried food as adjuvant therapy.

 

[8744]

We have a popular folk remedy down here in for hypertension:

1 Vial Crack, 40 ounce malt liquor po qd x 20 years
Nicotine, Inhaled 1 pack qd

We use fried food as adjuvant therapy.

I don't think it works very well. But who am I to judge?

 

[docB]

We have a popular folk remedy down here in for hypertension:

1 Vial Crack, 40 ounce malt liquor po qd x 20 years
Nicotine, Inhaled 1 pack qd

We use fried food as adjuvant therapy.

I don't think it works very well. But who am I to judge?

Many of my pts use this regimine for high blood pressure and it work really well. Almost 100% effective. (Hmmm, I don't suppose he means for lowering blood pressure, nah.)

 

[Sessamoid]

We have got to have the funniest board on sdn...

 

[docB]

I'm gonna push this thread in a slightly different direction and talk about supplements. I've had an increasing number (up to ~2/ week) people come in with chest pain and/ or tachycardia and a report of drinking multiple Red Bulls. One guy drank 8 in about 3 hours. HR was 180. Part of this is my location where guys will drink a lot of booze, get no sleep, drink no water, then hike up and down the strip in 105 degrees drinking Red Bull. You could give Lance Armstrong an MI like that. Anyone else seeing this? What does Taurine do anyway?
I've also had one mom who brought in her 15 yo son who was taking Andro. She wanted to know if this might cause him any problems. I listened to that and then asked if she had any actual Emergencies. The irony was lost on her. With Andro in the news anyone else seeing it in the ED?

 

[DrQuinn]

Negatron.

One day as an M2 my buddy and I drank a fifth of Stoly's Vodka and red bull. It was honestly the weirdest buzz I've ever had in my entire life as a slightly positive CAGE questionairre answerer. I did check my pulse at one point and it was 160+.

wheeeeeeeeee!

In my 11.8 months as a PGY-1, I've seen mostly GHB (for date rape but also for body building). No red bull ODs in the Tampa General Hospital catch-area that I've seen.

Q, DO

 

[Sessamoid]

I've seen a few cases recently of Red Bull or other associated drinks causing tachycardia. I generally give em a little benzos, do an ekg, tell them to quit drinking that crap, then send them home.

 

[MoosePilot]

My mother (Vietnamese) swears by raw ginger whenever she gets GERD or dyspepsia.

I run for my Nexium samples.

Q, DO

This is a very common remedy for airsickness in the undergraduate pilot training community. I spent a month or so eating ginger snap cookes to prep my stomach for flights and heard others talk about raw ginger, ginger pills, etc.

 

[beanbean]

Ginger is also recommended for morning sickness.

It amazes me how many people still think you should smear butter, lard or some other awful greasy stuff all over a burn. Yuck!

Another one: drinking whole milk or cream to "coat" your stomach and cure an ulcer.

 

[Baditude]

While the supplement idea was brought up does anyone know anything about ALA (alpha lipoic acid) as a diet aid? I have a friend who has thyroid problems and she heard that ALA will help increase her metabolism .... I cautioned her because she takes synthroid and she also has asthma .... any thoughts?

 

[Sessamoid]

While the supplement idea was brought up does anyone know anything about ALA (alpha lipoic acid) as a diet aid? I have a friend who has thyroid problems and she heard that ALA will help increase her metabolism .... I cautioned her because she takes synthroid and she also has asthma .... any thoughts?

Pepid lists ALA as a hypoglycemic agent, but doesn't list any contraindications with patients taking synthroid. I can't attest to it's effectiveness as a diet aid. It's used in Germany for diabetes.