Today, when we feel sick, we go to a doctor, get a diagnosis, and often walk away with a prescription. But not long ago, medicine was not so simple—or safe. Throughout history, people have tried some truly bizarre and terrifying methods to cure illness.

From drilling holes in skulls to drinking crushed mummies, let’s explore the strangest ways humans tried to heal themselves before modern science showed us a better path.

1. Bloodletting: Draining the Life to Save It

For over 2,000 years, doctors believed that most illnesses were caused by “bad blood.” Their solution? Let it out.

They would cut a patient’s vein or use leeches (slimy, blood-sucking worms) to drain the blood. It didn’t matter what the illness was—fever, headache, or even the common cold—bloodletting was the go-to cure.

Unfortunately, this often made people weaker or even killed them. But it remained popular well into the 1800s. Even famous people like George Washington died after being bled too much.

2. Trepanation: Drilling Into the Brain

One of the oldest known surgeries in history is called trepanation—where a hole was drilled or scraped into the skull.

People believed this could cure seizures, headaches, mental illness, or let out “evil spirits.”

What’s even more shocking? Some people survived it. Archaeologists have found ancient skulls with holes that had healed, meaning the patients lived after the surgery. Still, the idea of someone drilling into your head without anesthesia sounds more like torture than treatment.

3. Mercury: The Poison That Was Supposed to Heal

Mercury is a shiny, silver metal that is highly toxic. But in the past, people thought it could treat infections and extend life.

Doctors used it in ointments and even gave it to people to drink—especially to treat diseases like syphilis. The results were horrifying. Mercury caused madness, loss of teeth, tremors, and even death.

One Chinese emperor is believed to have died from mercury poisoning while trying to become immortal by drinking it every day.

4. Mummy Powder: Medicine Made From the Dead

In medieval Europe, one very strange belief took hold: that ground-up mummies from Egypt had healing powers.

Yes, people actually dug up ancient mummies, crushed them into powder, and sold them in markets. It was believed this “medicine” could treat everything from headaches to internal bleeding.

Rich nobles and royalty paid a fortune for this. Today, it seems more like cannibalism than medicine—but it was widely accepted for centuries.

5. Cigarettes for Asthma

In the early 1900s, some companies advertised special cigarettes that they claimed could treat asthma and other lung conditions.

These “medicinal cigarettes” often contained herbs—or even nicotine and opium. People who smoked them thought they were helping themselves breathe better.

But as we now know, smoking makes asthma worse, not better. It’s one of the worst health advice ideas in history.

6. Animal Dung as Medicine

Yes, you read that right.

In Ancient Egypt, people believed that animal poop—from donkeys, crocodiles, or cows—could cure wounds and stop infections. Sometimes it was even inserted into the body as part of treatments.

While it’s true that some dung contains natural bacteria, most of the time this practice just caused serious infections and made patients much sicker.

7. Electric Shock Therapy (Early Days)

Electricity was once seen as a magical force. In the 18th and 19th centuries, doctors used it to treat everything from depression to hysteria and even laziness.

Patients would be connected to devices that gave them small (and sometimes large) shocks. Some believed it could restart a “lazy” nervous system.

Though modern shock therapy is still used carefully in hospitals, early versions were crude and dangerous, sometimes causing burns, memory loss, or trauma.

8. Snake Oil and Fake Cures

In the Wild West of America, salesmen traveled from town to town selling “miracle cures” like snake oil—which promised to fix everything from pain to aging.

Most of these potions had no real healing power. Many were just mixtures of alcohol, herbs, or even dangerous drugs like cocaine or opium.

People believed these men because there were no medical rules back then. Some actually got addicted instead of cured.

Final Thoughts: How Far We’ve Come

Looking back, these old medical practices seem shocking—even scary. But they also remind us of how far we’ve come. People once used faith, superstition, and strange traditions because they didn’t have science yet.

Today, we have vaccines, antibiotics, surgery, and advanced tools to help people live longer, healthier lives. But who knows? Maybe 100 years from now, people will look back at some of our modern methods and say, “What were they thinking?”

History is a strange journey—and medicine has had some of the strangest paths of all.