Dangerous Home Treatments

If you have an ailment, pain, or illness, you’ll probably head to a pharmacy to purchase an expensive over the counter or prescription treatment to help you treat your condition. This is a modern convenience. In the recent past, people relied on folk medicine or home remedies to help them when they were ill or injured. Some home remedies are legitimate and useful, but many were actually harmful and should be avoided. Here are three of the most damaging:

#1: Using Kerosene to Get Rid of Head Lice

It sounds crazy to us now, but back in the day people would use a small amount of kerosene to kill head lice in children. They would actually comb this through their children’s hair! Sure, it killed the lice, but it was horribly dangerous.

Talk about a terrible idea. Many illnesses and deaths were caused by this remedy. Not only is kerosene highly flammable, it is also highly toxic. It also absorbs readily through skin.

#2: Treating Your Stomach Woes With “Greta” or “Azarcon”

Years ago, there were two powders that were often used to treat stomach and intestinal ailments, especially in Mexican and Mexican-American communities. These powders, unfortunately, were comprised of nearly 100% pure lead!

If you take lead internally, even a small amount can be harmful. Many people were hurt or even killed from this remedy. Believe it or not you can still sometimes find these powders for sale. Obviously, do not even purchase or use them.

#3: Smearing Butter On Burns

You may have been told by your mother to smear butter on a burn. This comes from when women would be cooking and burn themselves — butter was often handy, and it makes the burn feel better at first. The down side is that the treatment contaminates the burn. If you put butter on a new burn, you are inviting infection because bacteria will grow rapidly in the butter.

Respect and listen to your elders — unless they are trying to talk you into taking a home remedy. Many of the home remedies that people used to swear by have since been proven ineffective or even dangerous.

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