... and have since been discredited, or treatments that weren’t known?

In thinking back on my life, one significant change over the years has been medical knowledge about common problems. Some of the ones I remember:

Rub snow on frostbite injuries.
Put butter on burns.
Various snakebite treatments.
Tourniquets for severe bleeding were dangerous and discouraged, but if used, needed to be loosened periodically.
Resuscitation of drowning victims was limited to chest compressions and indirect chest expansion with the arms, but once the heart stopped, further efforts should be discontinued because the person was dead and couldn’t be revived.


On the other hand,
Food allergies (other than strawberries) were virtually unknown.
No one had EpiPens for insect stings.
Cold water on burns to relieve pain wasn’t recognized as a treatment until years later.

Mom always said to never plug your nose and try to exhale through your nose or you’ll burst your ear drum

About a dozen years ago, I got an ear infection in both ears and had pressure in both ears for 6 weeks. When the pressure finally went away I had tinnitus. I saw an ENT and he asked, “why didn’t you just plug your nose, exhale through it, and alleviate the pressure?” I replied that I was taught it would burst your ear drum. He said that it won’t and I should be doing it to alleviate pressure. Flying is much better now. Wish I had learned this without first getting tinnitus.

If you eat gum it stays in your stomach for 7 years!

The classic "Don't swim for an hour after eating!"

Swimming after eating.
I was told I could drown.
Navy said otherwise.

Eating fish and drinking milk at the same meal would give you food poisoning.

If you don’t stop you will go blind, where is my glasses at.

Swimming before Memorial Day (cold water) will give you polio.

I remember my first first lay responder CPR course (I was in grade school) teaching the precodordial thump. I remember pressure points being taught to control severe bleeding. And more recently we no longer lift legs to treat shock.

Tilt your head back to stop a nosebleed .

Do not drink milk if you have a fever.

A lot of the ones posted above.

And if you look at someone with Pink eyes you'll catch it.

If you cross your eyes, they might stay that way.

Eating fat makes you fat.

Cholesterol over 200 means you're damn near dead already.

Girls have cooties.

You can get AIDS from pretty much just thinking about it.

Fat is bad.

“Whole grains” are good.

Red meat causes cancer.

If you go bare foot after it rains you will get the ground itch.

Skim milk is better than whole milk.

Castor oil is good for you

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
Cold water on burns to relieve pain wasn’t recognized as a treatment until years later.

I had a severe third degree burn that I treated by putting it in ice water. Doctor told me it may have helped with the pain, but the added shock of the extreme temperature change helped pull away the outer skin layer from the cooked ones below, leading to a blister the size of a softball. He advised me that initial first aid of a bad burn should be running it under slightly warm water at first and decreasing the temperature gradually, as it doesn’t shock the burned skin so badly, while still helping to draw out heat from the burned area. I was also later told the same thing by a chef who had a slip and fall accident next to a deep fryer and managed to put one arm up to the elbow into 350 degree grease. Her burn ward doctor told her the scarring would have been extreme had she ran it under cold water or put it immediately in an ice bath.

The most dramatic change I've noticed is definitely the wholesale embracing of tourniquets.

It went from a last resort kind of thing that most people looked down upon, to a standard piece of equipment that nearly all soldiers and cops carry and go to immediately if the extremity wound is moderate to severe.

Cracking your knuckles makes them grow. I still don't know if there is any truth to this.

quote:

Girls have cooties.

Most of us learned otherwise at about the age of 13.