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Step back into the bizarre world of historical medicine where the cures were often worse than the disease. In this episode, we explore some of the strangest and most dangerous medical practices in history: milk transfusions, Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup (yes, the one loaded with morphine), cocaine for hay fever, a whale hotel for rheumatism, and even John Wesley’s book of natural cures that claimed to treat almost everything. And of course, no tour of old-time medicine would be complete without a little bloodletting.

These so-called “treatments” raise questions about how far medicine has come—and just how questionable it used to be. From patent medicines that preyed on desperate families to bizarre experimental therapies, we’ll uncover the weird, the dangerous, and the downright deadly side of medical history.

Resources:

https://www.science.org/content/article/ultimate-blood-substitute-us-military-betting-46-million

https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/pharmacys-past-the-soothing-syrup-known-for-causing-death-in-thousands-of-babies-

https://digirepo.nlm.nih.gov/ext/dw/101640177/PDF/101640177.pdf

https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/04/10-strange-medical-practices-from-history/

https://ancientwarhistory.com/medieval-medicine-the-dark-ages-of-healthcare/

https://wesleyscholar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Primitive-Physick-14th-ed-1770.pdf

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In this episode, we dive into the messy world of bioethics through two infamous cases: Henrietta Lacks and her immortal HeLa cells and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. We unpack how a woman’s cells were taken without consent and changed medicine forever, while an unethical government study left hundreds of Black men untreated in the name of “research.” These stories raise tough questions about informed consent, racism in medicine, and the dark history of medical research in the United States.

Resources:

https://www.britannica.com/science/HeLa-cellulture | Britannica

https://www.biography.com/history-culture/henrietta-lacks

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/who-was-henrietta-lacks-heres-how-hela-cells-became-essential-to-medical-research

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/the-stolen-cells-of-henrietta-lacks-and-their-ongoing-contribution-to-science#A-lack-of-trust

https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/timeline.html?CDC_AAref_Val=https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

https://www.history.com/articles/the-infamous-40-year-tuskegee-study

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What happens when a doctor’s prescription pad becomes more powerful than a drug cartel? In this episode, we dive into the controversial story of Dr. William Hurwitz, the physician once dubbed a pioneer of pain management — and later accused of running what many called a pill mill. From handing out OxyContin, Percocet, and other narcotics like candy, to the legal firestorm that made him both a hero to chronic pain patients and a villain in the opioid crisis, we break down the blurred line between treatment and addiction. Was Dr. Hurwitz a reckless prescriber, a scapegoat for Big Pharma’s sins, or just the wrong doctor in the wrong era? Tune in as we explore the darkly comic side of America’s prescription drug epidemic.

Resources

https://managingpain.org/2024/02/11/archive-physicians-under-fire-the-case-of-william-hurwitz-md/

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/feb/22/rosalia-nurses-license-suspended-after-deaths/

https://www.nursys.com/LQC/LQCViewReport.aspx

Dr Feelgood Documentary

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