Keeping heathy in the Good Ole days

Found in our old barn's timbers

We like to think that life was good in the "old days", when our grandparents were young and WW1 was on the horizon.

Telephones that hung on the wall? Water hand pumped in the kitchen? Wood burning stoves?  

Some of those old days were good in the sense that social life was simpler. The old days were more community oriented. 

But medical care? My mom once told me how Dr. Wells performed her appendectomy on the dining room table. House calls were the only time most people saw the doctor. Prescriptions? Home remedies and readily available self-medications for the most part.

Much of the rural areas didn't have free access to medicine and care. My grandmother spoke about her grandmother who was an herbalist whom people sought out for all the illnesses that affected them. She was apparently was admired and respected.

Moving on to the eras of when all the odd ingredients of medical life opened the realm of possibilities.

At the farm, our barn had been built late 1800s, and was leaning by 1970s When the barn was torn down, an untold number of medicinal bottles were found, all of which were long empty and those few still had small amounts of amber liquid, sealed in by caps melded to the glass. (owner of our farm was a doctor and had the liquid analyzed. It was alcohol.)

Order form

$95 · A rare (Heroin) original 1915 government issued "Order Form for Opium, Etc". A similar form from the 1920s was recently shown on the History Channel during a program on illegal drugs.

one dose should be enough

asthma patients

women diseases

Found treasure

We look at the contents of these cures for common colds and we are horrified by its contents. "Good old days" take on a new view when we think of people of that era. They must have felt pretty good/well after a few doses

Etsy

 Doctors had absolutely no control what his patients took for what ailed them.
Did he have any idea about the contents? Did he even know the effects of the miracle tonics, elixirs?

What about the prescription below? Did Dr. George Nichopolous realize the results of the prescribed meds he gave Elvis Presley? I am betting he did.

Pinterest

Here, in the "good new days", we are aware of contents and need. BUT, there are doctors who are on a paycheck from the rich and famous, who pull out that controlled substance pad. Insurance businesses have so much to say about and to control different medications. Who gets what and how much...

No surgeries on the dining room table, I am guessing.

I posted this in 2019 and I have done some editing and rewriting..  I hope those who enjoyed it then will still enjoy it. Like many posts that I resurrect, I have more understanding now than I did back then (which indicates a learning curve) and my writing skills are different and sometimes better.