It’s fascinating to consider medical practices from times past. Some of the treatments used seemed worse than the ailment and were just as likely to cause discomfort or death.

It’s also interesting to see how medicine has evolved into the methods used today and how life expectancy has grown alongside them.

Get ready for an entertaining ride as we showcase some of the most bizarre facts surrounding ancient and modern medicine.

1. Greece Leads the Way

The Ancient Greeks claim many historical landmarks, and medicine is on their list of achievements. The first medical schools were established in Greece in about 500 B.C.

Magic and the influence of deities appear regularly throughout medical history, so while the Greeks experimented with herbal remedies, they also prayed to the God Asclepius for help.

2. Ancient Egyptians Discovered the Importance of the Heart

About 1600 B.C., Egyptians noticed a series of tubes extending from the heart. From this, they correctly identified this organ’s vital role in pumping blood throughout the body.

It was a critical medical breakthrough, although those ancient Egyptians didn’t get everything right. They also felt the heart controlled saliva and the soul.

3. Egyptian Records Survive

The first recorded medical book dates from 1500 B.C., and once again, the ancient Egyptians claimed credit. The document clearly outlines the courses of treatment used at the time and the results.

Magic formed part of the Egyptians’ medical practices, but other remedies were also used. This book is the first stage in the evolution of modern medicine.

4. Leeches are Still Used Today

We associate leeches with medicine’s murky past, but these little bloodsuckers are still used for specific modern procedures. A farm in Wales delivers about 60,000 of these creatures to the National Health Service in the UK each year.

Leeches and maggots consume dead tissue and bacteria and help fight post-surgery infection, so their use may continue for centuries.

5. An Extreme Cure for Mental Illness

The last recorded lobotomy in the U.S. took place in 1967, which is more recent than you might think. It was a horrific process to treat mental illness that involved drilling holes in the skull before severing nerves in the brain that processed emotion.

We must all be thankful for the fact that treatments for mental illnesses have moved beyond that procedure.

6. Milk as a Substitute for Blood

We understand you’re reading this to learn about crazy medical practices throughout history, so here goes. Milk transfusions occurred during a cholera outbreak in Toronto in the 1850s. The theory was that milk would transform into white blood cells.

Seven patients received 12 ounces of cow’s milk. Five died, but supposedly, the remaining two survived the procedure.

7. An Extreme Cure for a Stutter

Anyone suffering from a stutter in the 18th century faced a grim procedure if they visited their doctor. In the past, it was considered a physical condition, with no regard for the patient’s emotional welfare.

The result was that many sufferers had half their tongues cut out. The treatment rarely, if ever, worked, and it was more likely that the patient bled to death.

8. Many Early Doctors Were Women

In recent times, women have had to fight to make a mark in the medical profession, but this wasn’t always the case. In ancient Greece, many of the earliest recorded doctors were female.

Cleopatra Metrodora practiced in the 7th century A.D. She was an accomplished gynecologist, midwife, and surgeon who wrote several books.

9. Groundbreaking Moldy Bread

Those ancient Egyptians found a use for moldy bread, and it’s not as crazy as it may sound. It was used as a disinfectant to treat cuts that might have otherwise been life-threatening.

Later medical work, including the discovery of penicillin, is based on the knowledge that certain fungi can inhibit bacterial growth, so the Egyptians clearly knew they were on to something.

10. Written in the Stars

Doctors have used astrological charts for centuries, and much of their diagnosis revolved around the patient’s star sign, which allegedly made them vulnerable to certain conditions. Treatment also related to constellations; the crucial date was when the individual fell ill.

Those charts extend to reveal which star signs govern specific parts of the body, and it’s fascinating to see just how big a part the zodiac played in early medicine.

11. Mouse Treatment

The standard mouse played a surprising and disgusting role in ancient medicine. Mice were used to treat many ailments, including whooping cough, smallpox, and measles.

The Egyptians mashed mice into a paste to cure toothache, while half a dead mouse was used in Elizabethan England to treat facial warts.

12. Egyptians Invented the First Pills

The ancient Egyptians can also claim to have invented the first medical pills. Their work incorporated herbs and minerals to cure various ailments, and it’s documented that they sometimes combine herbs with dough.

The patient would then take these doughball tablets with a drink, which was usually alcoholic.

13. The Ancient Art of Trepanation

If you have a headache today, you reach for some painkillers, but treatment in the Stone Age was far more severe. In ancient times, the way to address cranial pressure was to drill a hole in the back of the skull.

While it’s often referred to as Stone Age brain surgery, the art of trepanation continued to the 15th century and beyond. Bram Stoker mentions it in Dracula, which was published in 1897.

14. A Deadly Anesthetic

In the 1800s, chloroform was widely used as an anesthetic throughout the United States. Patients awaiting surgery had the additional risk of liver and kidney damage, along with cardiac issues that chloroform is known to cause.

Thankfully, modern medicine has left this dangerous compound behind and replaced it with safer anesthetics.

15. Romans Identify Bacteria

They were such an advanced civilization that, surprisingly, the Romans haven’t been featured yet. They have, at least, been credited with discovering that viruses and bacteria helped cause and spread disease.

Around 1 B.C., a Roman doctor named Varro described “tiny animals” that were airborne and taken into the human body. A lack of microscopes meant it would be many centuries before his theory was confirmed.

16. Taking the Urine

It’s only fitting to finish with arguably the most disgusting of ancient medical treatments. Many civilizations, including the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, and Romans, advised patients to drink urine to cure various ailments, including liver and kidney problems.

If that weren’t unpleasant enough, in many cases, the urine provided wasn’t their own.