Aerial acrobatics that frighten the patient. Apply heat to the ears. Eat twenty tomatoes a day. Or sitting three days and three nights without eating or drinking. These were some of the indications that people should continue to be affected by severe hearing problems when otorhinolaryngology was not fully developed – after 1950 – and superstition and beliefs guided patients and “prescribers”. He has collected some of these now surprising therapies against deafness and other hearing problems on his blog. Marta Gonzalez, who insists that all of them are useless, “so please let no one think of trying anything.” A good example is that of pilot Charles Lindbergh, who was the first aviator to make a solo transoceanic flight. At the beginning of his career, he was paid $50 to fly so-called “deaf flights.” They basically consisted of taking the person with hearing problems into the cockpit and performing pirouettes with a lot of unevenness. Thus, from the shock – or that was the idea – the deaf person would recover their hearing.
Other surprising remedies are cited by González based on an article published on About.com. And they are not wasted:
- Hypnosis.
- The consumption of certain drugs.
- Introduce certain liquids into the ear: melted bear fat, urine with garlic and olive oil, soap and water, the leftover oil from frying peach pits in lard, etc.
- Diet based on twenty tomatoes a day.
- Remain seated for three days and three nights without drinking or eating.
We complete the list with other “popular” remedies that were applied in our country for ear pain:
- Put milk from a woman who was breastfed into the ear.
- Place feet and legs up to the knee in a container of hot water with ash.
Of course, worse than these remedies was the frequent diagnosis when they did not work: “If the problem persists, it is because it is a divine punishment.”
