I'm Dr. Matt, and I've got the perfect cure

for that headache, backache, toothache,

heartache, handshake, corn flake, tummyache.

It's called meth! (laughs nervously)

Ride the snake!

All right, well, obviously I'm not a doctor,

and prescribing that sounds nuts.

But, there have been some insane treatments

prescribed by medical experts who,

arguably, didn't know better.

And what's really disturbing is that these were all commonly used in the past.

If a physician used any of the methods

you're going to hear about today, they'd be in jail.

So, what exactly are they?

Here are 10 banned medical practices

you won't believe existed.

Number one is Mercury.

It definitely sounds crazy, but there was a time

when people thought that the best way to treat syphilis was to ingest Mercury.

Side effects included losing your teeth,

damage to internal organs, or simply death.

Using Mercury as a cure began as early

as 1500 B.C. in Egypt, and was believed

to cure ailments, heal wounds, and even prolong life.

(laughs)

It turned out to be the exact opposite.

They also used to use Mercury ointments, pills,

and lotions to treat all sorts of ailments,

attributing the side-effects and deaths to the underlying condition the patient already had.

Nowadays, we're weary about Mercury in fish.

Back then, they were drinkin' it like it was an ale.

Ah, gimmie some Mercury!

Yeah, I feel great! (groans)

Number two is radioactive water.

It's hard to believe, but in the early 1900s,

Radium was all the rage.

Today we know that exposure to Radium causes cancer,

but back then it was used as a cure for mental illness,

diarrhea, malaria, and was even thought to prevent aging

due to increased cell activity.

And what better way to get this stuff into consumers' bodies than to sell it as bottled water?

That's right, Radium-infused water could be purchased in many stores

alongside Radium-infused chocolate, radioactive toothpaste, and,

why not, radioactive suppositories.

Up and at 'em.

(grunts)

Number three is whirling chairs.

Between 1850 and 1900, in an attempt to stop the practice of restraining the mentally ill

and locking them in dark cells, yes, that actually happened,

doctors turned to a method they genuinely thought could help:

Strapping patients into a chair and spinning them until they lost consciousness.

Yep.

That'll get the voices to stop.

They used a simple chair with a lever system to spin the person around.

The belief was that this would shuffle

the contents of the patient's brain around,

knocking out conditions like schizophrenia.

Used alongside other unbelievable practices like high-dose laxatives, insulin comas,

and ice-water baths, it took far too long for doctors to learn that this really wasn't working.

Just made a whole lot of vomit...

Just...just...buckets.

Buckets of vomit.

Number four is the lobotomy.

Often declared as one of the most barbaric mistakes ever perpetrated by main-stream medicine,

lobotomies involved driving a large ice pick into a patient's head.

Follow me on this.

Entering through the eye socket,

the spike was pressed into the prefrontal cortex of the brain,

and then struck with a hammer.

Doctors truly believed that whatever the outcome,

the patient would still be better off than they were pre-lobotomy.

Side effects included severe brain damage,

or even death, which was the case with

John F. Kennedy's sister who, after a lobotomy

was reduced mentally to an infant, and never recovered.

How...how did they ever think that driving an ice pick

through the eye into the brain was ever a good idea?

Just...

It's scary stuff.

Number five is the electrical impotence cure.

By the 1900s, everybody and their brother had a miracle cure for anything.

And disturbingly, many of them were for male...

(clears throat) issues....

Down there...

Wit' ya dick.

Anywho, as fascination with electricity was on the rise,

medical practitioners turned to it to solve impotence.

By shocking the hell out of a man's...

package.

It was widely believed that a shock provided energy

to a man's body which he could use to...

rise to the occasion.

Of course, what they didn't tell you,

until after they were paid, was that

not only was there no real science involved in it,

but it was incredibly painful!

Dudes these days be buyin' these online enhancement pills,

and all they really needed was a car battery and some jumper cables.

Science!

Number six is trepanning.

The twisted cousin of lobotomy,

trepanning was used for many years

and it involved drilling into a mentally ill patient's head.

As one of the oldest methods of treatment,

trepanning dates all the way back to 6500 B.C. in France,

and consisted of drilling burr holes

into a patient's skull to let the evil spirits out.

(groans)

The mentally ill were often mistaken to be possessed

by demons, and, as we all know,

the only way to get a demon out of your head

is to make a little hole for it to get out of.

Long after science recognized mental illness, however,

trepanning was still used when all other treatments failed,

as doctors just drilled a few holes to see what happens.

Uh, science, doctors, if I ever become ill,

please, don't treat my head like a bowling ball.

If there's demons in there, you just let 'em chill.

Just let 'em chill.

I don't want no holes, okay?

Just let 'em chill.

Still livin' and then I'll die.

I'll die, that's cool, I just...

I don't wanna be a Matthew Santoro bowling ball.

That's...

That's disturbing.

Number seven is bloodletting.

A treatment used for over 2,000 years until the late 1800s,

bloodletting was the act of draining blood from the body.

Now, while this is still done in a way today,

it's nothing like it used to be.

Many doctors used to believe that

blood would pool in certain places,

and that was why people got sick.

Vast quantities of it would be drained from the body for ridiculous reasons like a stuffy nose,

or even a headache.

Obviously, this caused many deaths,

but, once again, practitioners just chalked up loss of life to the illness itself,

or, state of mind of the patient.

Fun fact:

Barbers were the most common blood-letters,

and that's the reason they use red and white poles.

Disturbing, I know.

Think about that next time you walk by a barber.

Nightmares for days.

Number eight is urine therapy.

Urine therapy was the practice of using one's own pee to cure them of ailments.

Sometimes, it would be the patient's own urine,

but other times it was a healthy person's.

Or even the doctor's.

How generous.

It was thought that by drinking urine, or applying it around affected areas,

it could help heal broken bones,

clear up strep throat, cure acne, or even whiten teeth.

(laughs)

Don't get any ideas.

Though technically debunked, there are some people

still in the world that claim to gain the benefits from this truly bizarre form of therapy.

So, careful where you go in the world,

because that's...that lemonade...

may not be lemonade.

Number nine is Ms. Winslow's soothing syrup.

Hey, want a quick way to stop your child from throwing a temper-tantrum?

Well, don't worry, with Ms. Winslow's soothing syrup,

they'll be calm and cool,

and halfway to a coma in no time!

Sold in the early 1900s as a remedy

for children with ailments such as cold,

fever, rambunctiousness, or even if a parent just wanted to catch a quick nap,

Ms. Winslow's remedy was fast-acting

mostly because it contained heroin,

cannabis, powdered opium, morphine,

and an insane slew of other substances.

The cocktail proved deadly to those children

who didn't mellow out, and, to top it off,

it was marketed to parents of babies who were teething,

and thus, always crying.

Mom and Dad can finally relax by putting your child to sleep...

forever.

That was a scary time to be alive, medical science.

And, number 10, the tobacco enema.

Let me just say, first of all, that all the remedies

you heard of today are 100% true.

I am not blowing smoke up your ass.

Although, if you lived in the 1700s and

needed emergency, life-saving treatment,

that's exactly what they'd do.

It was actually believed that tobacco smoke

could warm up a person's body just before or immediately after death,

and could jump-start the respiratory system.

Of course, the best place to jump-start the lungs and the heart is through the butt!

Using rubber rectal tubes.

Doctors claimed that this practice

would combat hernias, typhoid fever,

and even headaches.

And then, in 1811, it was discovered

that this is really doing just way more damage

than helping, and tobacco enemas were discontinued.

I think the moral of the story here, friends,

is just don't try to smoke with ya butt.

Don't smoke with your butt.

Leave the anus...

Don't smoke with your butt.

Yes.

It's a helpful tip.

You're welcome!

And those were 10 banned medical practices

that actually existed.

Thank you guys, so much, for watching this episode.

I really hope you enjoyed it.

If you have a recommendation for a topic

of a top ten, please leave a comment below,

and I'll be reading through your comments.

Remember to click that red subscribe button

to be notified of my future videos on this channel.

On the right, you'll find an annotation to my last video,

as well as an annotation to get some merch

if you feel like pickin' up some cool shirts.

As well, you'll also find an annotation

to my second channel, where I make vlogs, unboxings,

and much more, so be sure to subscribe to that,

and I will see all of you next time

with a brand...new...video.