How medical advice differs in other countries. (Lighthearted but perplexing)

[KnopkaPixie]

The other day I was behind a woman in the queue at a pharmacy here in France. She had oral thrush. The pharmacist took quite a while talking to her about her treatment and the various medications she'd been given by the doctor then went into the general advice section of the lecture. The most important thing was not to eat, "Trop salé." (Too salty.)

I thought, "Pardon?" Surely it's the other way around, nothing too sugary and yeasty? It bothered me so I googled and sure enough at least in the English results - sugary and yeasty were to be avoided.

This happens all the time. I've heard an awful lot of strange medical advice in France over the years and the folk remedies of my Russian ex boyfriend for various illnesses were quite bizarre too. Putting your head over the boiling potato water to cure a cold because the vitamin c evaporated into the steam was a good one.

Have you ever been given strange medical advice abroad?

This thread is kind of inspired by the post about the Germans opening their windows all the time for "Luften"

On the other hand, if you're not a Brit, what are our bizarre medical beliefs/practices?

Ooh I've got lots. I'm from an Eastern European country. Modern medicine and high tech hospitals co-exist with all kinds of folk remedies from the olden days.

• for nits: a mixture of petrol, pig fat, vinegar and a type of alcohol specific to that country (usually home made and deadly strong), slathered on the hair. Vividly remember the whole class at nursery having this done when there was an outbreak of nits and my mum having to pick me up as I'd fainted from the fumes. Strings like a bugger too, but is actually very effective at killing nits. Still popular today, there are now shop-bought versions too that are more gentle.

-For colds/flu: breathing in steam from a boiling pan, as it loosens up the phlegm. Camomile tea and spoonfuls of honey for sore throat.
For a fever, wearing cold compresses on the forehead or wrapping yourself in a bedsheet soaked with cold water to quickly bring down the temperature if it's very high, while you're waiting for the Paracetamol to kick in.
Friends of mine also remember being slathered in pig fat and rolled up in a blanket to cure flu - seems to have been more of a country thing and isn't that common now.

-Pig fat and marigold extract on the skin for rashes and insect bites

-For phobias, anxiety and stress: an ancient ritual where lead is heated up on the fireplace until it melts, then placed in water so it solidifies. The "practitioner" interprets what the shape of the newly solidified lead means (there's all kinds of symbolism) and does some sort of chant/meditation thing. You're given the lead to place under your pillow when you sleep. My friend had this done as a child for fear of the dark and said it worked - probably quite a good placebo effect. Still practiced today by the superstitious

Some habits considered healthy
-airing out the house every morning, even in winter. I still do this.
-shaking out your duvet, pillows and blankets out of the window before making your bed, so they can get "aired out". It used to be considered unhealthy not to do so. Though this has lost popularity recently in the cities as it's considered quite "country bumpkin"...I guess it was a hangover from the days when people didn't have automatic washing machines and didn't wash their bedding very often.

Things considered unhealthy (old wives tales)
-sitting on cold surfaces such as concrete/stone steps (will damage your ovaries)
-a draft (you'll catch a cold from it)
-taking a baby out of the house in the first 40 days of its life (until quite recently it was standard practice to not leave the house for 40 days after giving birth)

Where in the UK advises putting tea bags on cuts??

Chicken pox and flu are viral, as can pneumonia and URTI be too though.

sitting on cold surfaces such as concrete/stone steps (will damage your ovaries)

@CollegeApplications , I think our countries of birth neighbor each other at least. Sitting on cold surfaces will definitely give you UTIs, as will not changing from a wet bathing suit right away, or not wearing an undershirt.

Going out with wet hair will result in "an inflammation of the brain".

I still wear an undershirt in all seasons but summer - they feel comfortable - but walk with my hair wet like a carefree American (no encephalitis or meningitis yet).

I have a window open permanently even in the depths of winter. But more generally a lot of housing stock is "leaky" air bricks, chimneys and gaps around doors and windows. These gaps are being filled in as people fit new doors and windows and chimneys are taken down etc, but mostly no houses are airtight so dont get stuffy. Newer houses are made differently with more air tightness. But the old stock is plentiful still.

We were on holiday in Spain and eating breakfast in the hotel. Another guest (nationality unknown) was very agitated that DD (about 15m) was eating beans on toast. Maybe this is why.

Thankyou everybody for all your responses. I start a thread with extreme trepidation thinking, "Nobody will get this" but you've all proved me wrong. I am quite normal after all.

Ha ha @KnopkaPixie I'm not sure it was actually potato water but definitely a bowl of steaming water with towel over your head was used in our house for colds!

Oh my god, the 'catching a draft' thing and 'sitting on cold surfaces'. Also 'not wearing socks'. All deadly in Germany. My mum had kittens every time I didn't wear "Hausschuhe". My grandma had kittens if I sat on something cold without tights.

I think my mum still twitches when she sees my UK-born son remove his socks as soon as he enters the house. He only wears them outside the house under protest to be fair!

Surely Lucozade only works if it comes wrapped in yellow cellophane?

I see that lots of places seems to have a belief focused on sitting on cold surfaces but with different potential outcomes! I remember being told as a kid that sitting on a cold surface could give you piles so maybe that's the British version?!

When I lived in the Middle East they would prescribe a literal carrier bag of medicines for even the most minor ailments. I was once sent to my boss' doctor as I had an awful cold which came on the day before we had to fly to an important meeting and he gave me two injections - some B vitamins and what I think was a steroid of some sort. I felt much better for the next two days and then crashed quite badly when we got back but was surprised that injections for a cold could even be licensed. Generally speaking, you would also be referred for scans at the drop of a hat too - there was definitely a culture of overtreatment driven by the private insurance system making it lucrative for the hospitals to intervene as much as possible. It was also common amongst the mums I knew for them to be pressured into elective C-sections so that the OB-GYNs didn't have to deal with a weekend/out of hours birth.

Some differences with the UK:

-antibiotics at the drop of a hat and a prescription for a whole arsenal of various remedies from the pharmacy, even for just a standard winter virus (you pay to go to the doctor and for prescriptions though, so I suspect a lot of that is for profit)

-people take sick leave for colds and children aren't allowed in nurseries with runny noses or coughs. Many nurseries bend this rule though, which is the current most controversial topic in the mum groups. You're pretty much considered the work of the devil if you take your child out when they've got snot/cough and let them mix with other children.

-lots more preventative medicine - yearly smear tests and a full blood test to check for all the most common problems

-for a small sum you can get a test for pretty much everything - you don't even need to go to a GP, you can just go directly to a lab and order any test you want, then you get the results on an online portal.

-Waiting lists aren't really a thing, unless it's something like a transplant

-You can get a referral to a spa centre, for all kinds of conditions and chronic pain - there are various spas and convalescent homes in regions with mineral water springs. It's called balearic treatment.

-Medical staff, especially the older generation and especially in state hospitals and clinics, can be very brusque. In state hospitals you have to bring your own bed sheets, toilet paper and food. Private hospitals are very nice though.

-Cold is the enemy. As soon as the temperatures dip down to 20C people are in jeans and long sleeves. At 17-18C it's big puffy jackets and thick socks. In winter the heating is cranked up to the max. You might as well be committing child abuse if your child isn't wrapped up warm at these temperatures or below. It's strange because winters are much harsher than in the Uk.

Dont think the potato one is that weird, I've heard it with chamomile rather than potatoes. Supposedly good for the skin too. I actually think we've lost a lot of folk knowledge about the way nature can help with small ailments.

I'm not British and while it's not official medical advice when I first moved I'd get colds all the time as I wasn't used to the damp climate and people kept telling me to drink lucozade

it's not that daft -caffeine has several medicinal uses, and can affect cerebral perfusion. Macdonald's (any of it!) will give you a whacking dollop of sodium, which may also be useful post op after neurosurgery.

I'm amazed nobody has mentioned the aerosolo in Italy, which is basically a nebulizer that everyone has in their houses which you hook your kid up to if they have cough or chest infection. Also being put on la dieta if you're putting too much weight on in pregnancy. I asked my gynaecologist about gas and air for during labour and she said 'what, like oxygen?' It was my choice to go for vbac or repeat c section and that was what made me decide to have another section!

It's a little known fact that the reason so many British women are hugely defensive about HRT is that they were weaned at 4 months old in the olden days when everyone got it all wrong.

That's just silly.

When i was a kid,lucozade was the cure-all for everything
Had a cold-have a swig of lucozade
Limb hanging off-gobful of ludozade
You died in the night-open wide,your having a drink of it

I still can't drink it

My grandad used to boil a random can of pop
He'd warm it up just enough to get rid of the bubbles,leave it to cool and if you where ill enough,you Drank it
Neck that back and you where guaranteed the day off school the following day

It was foul

When I first moved to UK I remember I once morning I woke up with a very sore neck, I couldn’t move my head any way.. It was horrendous and I was sent by my old landlady who made me GP appointment. When I walked into the waiting room, no coat hangers, nothing.
Soi went into the GP room , again nothing to put my bag or coat on, he told me to put my things on the floor. I was shocked, in my home country we have coat hangers, umbrella holders, couches at GP and we leave it all in the waiting room.
He didn’t even look at me, said buy paracetamol. If that would be in my home country I would be seen instantly with XR, and have a proper examination.
In the end my friend who was originally a nurse (also from another country) seen to me and helped me.

I might be wrong but I think it’s to do with duty of care. So one particular pharmacist hasn’t sold you enough to take a fatal dose.

Isn't Advil just ibuprofen?

What did your friend do @Soreleggs?

Yes Advil is ibuprofen

😂😂😂

Advil is Naproxen which is slightly different from ibuprofen (though both are NSAIDs).

Sometimes one will be recommended over the other if it's acute v/s chronic pain or concerns over stomach irritation, etc.

A couple of differences in medicines between the UK and USA

USA you can buy guafenesin as a mucus thinner (its v effective) at doses of up to 2400mg per 24 hrs. In the UK you are lucky if you can find it in any multi-symptom relief and if you can its mixed so that you can only get a max of 600mg per 24 hrs

In the UK you can buy dissolvable aspirin, in the US its not available at all

A couple of old English health things from my DM
gargle with salt or asprin to help a sore throat
dont sit on a heated seat (or put the seat warmer on in your car) as it will give you piles 🤣. The first one is disgusting but helpful, the second one, not so much!