I recommend only one therapy listed by Rukovets

While googling for information on insulin, I ran across an article by Olga Rukovets concerning strange medical practices – very strange medical practices. I thought I would share some of the information from the article with you this week. I think you will find the procedures just as strange as I did.
I have diabetes and often search the Internet for information concerning the use of the medicine in dealing with my disease. I will not, however, use insulin in the manner described by Rukovets in her article.
Rukovets lists nine strange medical practices and No. 9 is “insulin coma therapy.” This procedure was discovered in 1927 by a Viennese physician named Manfred Sakel who accidentally gave one of his diabetic patients an insulin overdose, which sent her into a coma. Once she recovered from the mistake, the woman claimed she was no longer addicted to morphine. Sakel made the mistake again with another patient and had the same result.
Sakel began “intentionally” testing what became known as insulin coma therapy on drug addicts and patients who suffered from schizophrenia and psychosis. Sakel reported a 90 percent recovery rate. According to Rukovets’ article, “some experts believe that the hefty dose of insulin causes blood sugar levels to plummet, which starves the brain of food and sends the patient into a coma.” The reason this form of therapy was a successful medical procedure for drug addicts and psychiatric patients was unclear.
John Nash, the mathematician and inspiration for the film “A Beautiful Mind,” was given insulin coma therapy as a treatment for his schizophrenia. The therapy was finally determined to be dangerous. About two percent of patients died from the procedure and it was eventually done away with as a medical treatment – thank goodness.The first procedure Rukovets discussed in her article was one I had heard of and one that might have contributed to the death of our first president, George Washington. The procedure is bloodletting. Bloodletting was a common practice in ancient times and lasted until into the 1800s. The procedure called for the removal of large amounts of blood from a patient and was used to treat a variety of illnesses.
Next on Rukovets’ list was hirudotherapy. This treatment was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2004 and utilizes leeches to remove excess blood and reduce swelling of tissues in a particular area. This procedure is said to allow fresh blood to reach the area to promote healing. Rukovet goes on to discuss the benefits of leech saliva and leech bacterium. Those would not be major topics of discussion for me anyway. And I certainly will not dicuss the possibility of using hirudotherapy in any way, shape or form.
If hirudotherapy isn’t bad enough as a topic of discussion, much less as a procedure, then maggot debridement therapy would be. Maggots may be good at healing wounds, but I will avoid this therapy. The maggots consume the dead flesh and leave live flesh alone. Like leeches for hirudotherpy, the FDA approved the use of maggots in 2004.
Fire cupping was mentioned in the article and it is what it says it is. A vacuum is created by air heated by fire in glass cups that are placed in rows on a patient’s back. This process is described as a “practice of Chinese medicine” and is used to cure bronchial congestion, arthritis and pain. I would think it creates pain rather than relieves pain. According to Rukovets, “available science does not support claims that fire cupping has any health benefits.”
Other strange medical procedures discussed by Rukovets in the article were trepanation, malaria therapy and seizure therapy. Trepanation is drilling a hole in a patient’s skull in order to treat a variety of health problems. Advocates of the procedure believe it is a means to a healthier and longer life. Malaria therapy is not for treating malaria. Instead, it is using the disease to treat other diseases – among them syphilis. Malaria infected blood is injected into a patient to cause a high fever which destroys the syphilis bacteria. I think I would prefer penicillin. Seizure therapy was used in the treatment of schizophrenia. Seizures were induced by injecting coma patients with a mixture of camphor and oil. It was considered too dangerous and discontinued as a therapy.
Finally, the ninth medical procedure Rukovets writes about was laugher therapy. Many people believe in the old adage, “Laughter is the best medicine.” This procedure is the use of humor to promote overall health, says Rukovet. According to Rukovet, the therapy has been used by doctors as early as the 13th century to distract patients from pain and modern research shows that laughter may have therapeutic value. Norman Cousins, who wrote the book “Anatomy of an Illness” back in 1979, claims to have healed himself from serious illness with laughter combined with vitamins. Some hospitals, according to Rukovets article, provide laughter therapy programs as a complimentary treatment to illness.
I am sure all of these therapies held some value over the years. I would discourage my doctor from proposing the use of any of them except the last one. Laughing always makes people feel better. It sure beats the heck out of leeches , maggots, seizures, fire and malaria. Take some advice from this non-doctor and laugh – laugh a lot.