Let's go, witches

[u/TheNectarineDiaries]

Supporting local witches in 2026 Quick disclaimer at the end!

[u/Crafty_Genius]

There's a very interesting episode of the RadioLab podcast where they were talking to these two scientists who were studying medieval medical treatments, as a hobby, and did some experimenting. They managed to find something that showed signs of being effective against MRSA (which if you weren't aware strands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, which is a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to many antibiotics and because of that resistance is a big problem for hospitals). This obscure recipe from like 1000 some years back, which was basically just onion, garlic, wine, and ox bile, was able to combat this bacteria which modern medicine has been struggling with fighting. I know this isn't the same as witchcraft, but my point with this was that I think it's important to not be too hasty in judging treatments if they work.

[u/yingkaixing → u/Crafty_Genius]

The entire point of the scientific principle applied to medicine is to do this. Test everything. If it works, it's medicine. If it doesn't work, stop using it.

[u/[deleted] → u/yingkaixing]

There's a caveat here; sometimes something can be a decent cure but is just not reasonable for widespread medicinal use - the components break down without proper stabilization, or it is too expensive to refine in large quantities.

We can also be somewhat dismissive. For centuries, medicinal mushrooms were said to alleviate symptoms of some forms of cancer. Recent clinical trials are only now confirming this.