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?

just ordinary its the tannin the stronger the better

Original Coke (has to be from a can) is a lifesaver if I have a particularlu bad sinus headache, it's the difference between my being able to get out of bed or not. My friend had surgery on her skull here in Ireland and she was advised to drink Coke in the first few days.

My childhood was dominated by herbal/natural medicine.
Virus of any sort? Boiled onions and garlic in milk.
Deep cut from a rusty/dirty implement? Poultice of garlic and crushed lavender.
Upset stomach? Flat 7up or hot red lemonade
Abscess? Hot poultice with epsom salts and bread.
Mumps? Fresh air
Measles? Fresh air, chicken broth and rest.
Shingles? Another bloody poultice ( thankfully a GP family friend intervened resulting in a hospital admission)
Chicken pox? Chicken broth with lots of garlic.
Ear infection? Warmed olive oil dripped into ear.
You can tell I never had childhood vaccinations😂
Interestingly, many prescribed meds have their root in plants.

The one that makes me giggle is that the Italian diet advice is pretty much "kids are having too much protein" but the UK advice is "kids are having not enough protein"

I never gave my DC baby tea as babies, but did give them the occasional camomile tea from a bit older. DS1 likes a lemon tea when he has a sore throat.

I know many people disregard homeopathy, but when I was diagnosed with IBS as a student in my final year of university, my Dad bought arsenium album, and took me on a weekend away. My Dad, always had the opinion that digestive issues stemmed from stress.
Thankfully, my IBS is very well controlled but when I get a flare up, I reach for the arsenium.

My dad’s side of the family live in Poland. My Polish cousin told me that when she was pregnant with her first child 20 years ago, her doctor advised that she drink one glass of wine every day.

Unfortunately ( said as a HCP who has a broad specialism herself) that system does mean you end up with the “ jack of all trades,master of none” approach…it’s impossible to assess back pain adequately in a 10 min GP appointment . the NHS is very shoddy in many areas and so many people fall through the cracks. That aside, I use garlic and onion for colds and immunity, arnica for bruises, Agnus castus ( herbal) for irregular periods, and have used St John’s wort ( herbal) for low mood in the past , and was recommended camomile tea for babies teething by Polish women in my post natal groups…seemed to help! we shouldn’t dismiss herbal remedies although homeopathy for me is a bit unexplainable.

Its rarely squeamishness, more often a reaction to assault and rape. And yearly is very often when in the UK it's a smear 3 yearly.

You CAN buy hay fever tablets in Spain without a prescription, I do it every year because I suddenly start suffering and haven't been organised enough to get a Dr appointment. You can buy branded or generic otc. I usually just get generic loratadina.

Also you can no longer get 600 mg ibuprofen without prescription, in fact that's been the case for a couple of years at least.

Miss Ambrosia- it was exactly the same in Denmark - very little 'off the shelf' medicine indeed

I had my babies in France. Homeopathy a gogo, and they had never heard of a tens machine. Five days in a private room in hospital was standard and you get ten free pelvic floor training sessions with a specialist midwife post-birth, with more on prescription as needed.

Chickenpox is a virus. As is flu, and most pneumonia.

If you think it works for you, then the placebo effect is doing its job and that's fine.

Just bog-standard ibuprofen!

@TheBoots But if you have a bacterial infection then it makes more sense to prescribe the correct antibiotic rather than a broad spectrum one, as it will be more effective from the beginning.
With viruses, some are more serious than others and can cause complications so might need more monitoring, especially if the person has other pre existing conditions.
Some might require a quarantine, for example chicken pox. When DD had a rash and temperature we phoned the GP and were told "it's probably chicken pox", it was a phone appointment and the doctor wouldn't even see her face to face to confirm what she had. So I still don't know for sure if she did have chicken pox or not, and therefore whether she has immunity against it.

There were (are there still?) magnets that you put in your knickers for period pain/menopause. My mate at the end of her tether tried one and stuck herself to a Tesco trolley.

In England, it used to be stout for nursing mothers. I can still remember hospitals giving Makesson or Guinness to older in patients. It was said to encourage appetite and boost vitamin and mineral intake as well as calorie intake.

I don't disregard it but I don't believe in it!

I knew a woman from Latvia. She had her first child in Latvia and her second in the UK. She said that in Latvia doctors/midwives put a bag of ice on the stomach of a woman who's just given birth. She was surprised it doesn't happen here.

I've been to pharmacies in France/Spain/Italy/Germany to ask for antihistamines and they always offer homeopathic remedies first. We once went to the the only chemist in a ski resort in France to ask for something and it turned out it was pretty much an all homeopathic chemist and the nearest real pharmacy was at a different resort.

@NordicwithTeen never heard of that and I’m from there

Speaking of drafts I was talking to a woman at a toddler group years ago. I think she was South African. She'd been pregnant in the very hot summer of 2003.
She said, "It was so hot that I did a dreadful thing.".
What could this dreadful thing be?
She said, " I put a mattress on the floor and opened a window and lay in the draft".

That was the end of the story. That was the dreadful thing.

I'm a big fan of pharmacists for advice generally. They are helpful here (if always rushed) but in France and Italy they are amazing. I had a very angry bite (mosquito) in Venice recently, and the pharmacist spent ages with me, looking carefully and recommending treatment (which cost pennies). Same kind of experience in France, very helpful and thorough.

Do people value them more highly/treat them with more respect?

Japan: doctors routinely tell you not to bathe when unwell with pretty much anything.
I get the history: in premodern times whole villages used to heat up one tub of bathwater for the whole village then wash off outside the tub, then get in and soak - similar to modern Japanese bathing practices but with a lot more people sharing the water. It made sense, because it reduced the overall amount of hassle and fuel needed to heat the water (and premodern Japan was very poor) and warming up in the tub let you really heat yourself up before going back to your unheated home to sleep.
So sure, I get that letting a sick person share communal bathwater was probably not a good idea. But now? A person living alone is not meant to even take a shower when unwell. :-(

Germany: the homeopathy offered from qualified doctors !
I get that some things are going to fix themselves with time anyway, and sending the patient away happy with a placebo is maybe okay in such circumstances.
But I've experienced the pediatrician trying to fob off homeopathy instead of proper medicine when my child was seriously unwell, ruptured eardrum in one case and way too young at the time to understand medicine let alone be affected by a placebo, diarrhea and vomiting in another case.

And don't get me started on the vet offering homeopathic treatments when bringing my sick cat to them...The cat is UNWELL, that's why I brought it to you. You either believe that a cat can be affected by the placebo effect, or you are suggesting I am being a hypochondriac about the cat, or you actually believe this unscientific nonsense, and I don't know which of these options is the worst.

Nursing (years ago) we had stout and sherry in the medicine trolley (UK).

NZ at the GP - 20 minute chat, physical exam, diagnosis, suggestions, prescription, cheery goodbye.

UK at the GP - just kidding 😂😂😂😂😂
☎️ with receptionist after calling at exactly 8am and holding for an hour.