ISLAMABAD, September 17 (online): In their search for better ways of curing the human body, healers throughout history have tried some bizarre and, by modern standards, often disturbing and unethical means of dealing with disease. One of the most unsettling is the practice of prescribing mummy powder — for health.
At present, as we search for pathways to wellness that suit our needs and lifestyles, we often come across practices that seem bizarre at best and downright dangerous at worst.
From the spurious yoni eggs to the supposed cure-all drug that was banned by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as potentially life threatening — plenty of so-called wellness products end up raising eyebrows, and with good cause.
And if 21st-century “wellness” territory can sometimes prove weird or even unsettling, it is no wonder that medical practices of hundreds of years ago are strange to navigate.
Trepanation, drilling into the skull to relieve migraine or “release demons,” was a crude precursor to modern neurosurgery.
But the twilight of medical care features some even more chilling practices. One of these is ingesting mumia, mummy powder, or other human remains for the sake of health.
Galen, a Roman physician and philosopher who lived in the second century, “admits the curative effect on epilepsy and arthritis of an elixir of burned human bones,” Noble writes.
And Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist and physician who lived from 1493–1541, “observes that the noblest medicine for man is man’s body and promotes the medicinal power of mummy, human blood, fat, marrow, dung, and cranium in the treatment of many ailments,” she adds.
PM inaugurates the Pak-Austria Institute for sciences and technology
Stay tuned to Baaghi TV for latest news and updates!
