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?

I get iBS and found flat lucozade very helpful, always kept some in. That was until the sugar tax when they added artificial sweetener to it. I cannot tolerate any of them and there went my IBS helper!

Try enerzade by todddrinks they use the original recipe with sugar, it’s been a life saver for when I have a migraine.

😂

They do recommend 6 months in Spain at least now.

Paralink suppositories were a lifesaver when DD was little (never came across Calpol version, but paralink is paracetamol like Calpol). She d get recurring high temps, never really knew why but she'd be absolutely fine and then not and her temp could be heading for 39 before you d realise and at that point she d start vomiting so liquid meds were useless. Haven't come across many that advise or use them though, the idea of giving them puts people off understandably

I lived in various countries in Africa and we used to put our mattresses out in the sun once a month to get rid of any bugs

There was also a red liquid called Mercurochrome. Anything wrong with you, put that on. Rash? Mercurochrome. Graze? Mercurochrome. Cut your leg off? Pour mercurochrome on it.

You're right. I'm a medic and I say that a lot! Apologies.

What we mean is, it's a virus and there's no effective treatment for it, so you've just got to to rest and manage the symptoms. We have anti-viral drugs, but they're not effective for mild to moderate illnesses, so they are reserved for severe illness only. They also need to be started very early after initial infection, so by the time you see the GP with a cough or a rash it's too late to start anti-viral drugs.

Also, by saying "it's a virus", we're saying we're not giving you antibiotics because those are for bacterial infections, not viral infections.

This sounds downright dangerous... When was this?

Would you rather have a LRTI or an URTI? lower respiratory tract infection vs upper (hint - upper is way less serious)

You can get saline nasal washes here, too!

Love the raw onions thing 😆. I guess they could work as a preliminary covid test - if you can't smell the onions you might test positive!

After a brutal delivery with DS (20y ago) I was really anaemic and went to my GP, who was an Italian man of fatherly manner. I was exhausted and tearful, and he held my hand and said "my dear, I would like to prescribe you steak, Chianti, and two weeks in Sicily, but alas, it will have to be iron tablets"

I still think of him fondly.

I imagine flour or fine semolina or talc or anything remotely absorbent would have done the same.

A proper description of the part or parts infected, e.g. bronchitis (there was a time when I was getting that every year).

DD (about 8) broke her wrist in France on holiday, and had it reset under GA. Whilst waiting for surgery they gave her a suppository Pain Killer. When discharged the next day, they gave us a box. She was having none of it - said she'd rather it hurt. Luckily calpol seemed sufficient - though she wasn't telling if not.

Thank you!

My GP says she really needs to prescribe me a weeks holiday in the sun twice a year for osteoporosis but calcium and a crappy (she doesn't call it crappy tho I don't think she's any more impressed with it than I am) injection has to do

Your last sentence. Is that a typo?!

😮

6 months for weaning in Germany too, although the baby food companies are allowed to sell their jars with 'from 4 months' on Then, unless you do BLW, there's a very specific sequence of purees you're supposed to give, at lunchtime and evenings initially. (We did BLW and mashed-up stuff).

In Belgium, you can only buy paracetamol etc in the pharmacy and it costs a fortune. We always stock up when back in UK. Basically apart from vitamin pills, all OTC type stuff is only available in the pharmacy. Strangely there are lot of them.

That would require a chest X-ray, which is unnecessary in most cases of chest infection. Whether it's bronchitis or non-severe pneumonia, the treatment is the same, so there's no need to differentiate which part of the lung is affected. Hence "chest infection" is used to cover all LRTIs.

A severe chest infection requiring hospital admission would warrant a chest X-ray, and would get a more specific diagnosis i.e. pneumonia.

@HashTagLil you need to read it again.

First line says she felt like getting Strepsils in Germany was like buying heroin. So she's refering to having the 'heroin' (Strepsils) at their accomodation instead

My in laws are all Ukrainian. In Ukraine they believe that sitting on cold surfaces makes you infertile.

Omg i remember the wet paper towel 😂😂😂😂

On prescribing holidays, another German thing is the Kur - usually three weeks in a Kur centre (like quite a basic hotel, usually in the countryside or at the coast) doing exercise, having therapies and resting. You often get these after operations or serious illnesses/heavy treatment, but you can also apply for one every few years to recover from the stresses and strains of parenting/learn coping strategies. This will depend a bit on your circumstances but I don't think they're very difficult to get. You can take your children (who will be provided with schooling there) or go alone. I've never done one as I can't imagine anything worse than group Nordic walking and forced mealtime socialising with people who happen to also be parents, but I know a lot of mums love them and make friends there.