Medical Trivia #1

When I graduated from HS my mother gave me a book: Doctors Killed George Washington. It is a little book full of "Totally Riveting Utterly Entertaining trivia", at least according to the authors. Now, this book has pretty much sat on my self since I got it (I flipped through it every once and awhile, but haven't really read it.... I mean, it's a book of anecdotes, who has time for that?!?!).

Anyways, I digress... Anatomy classes ended today!!!! And I celebrated by 1) studying for my test on Friday, and 2) pulling fore mentioned book off the self and skimming it. That is when I decided to post some fun snippets. I'm going to try and post some every so often (hence it having its own tag and the "#1" in the title), so here goes:

"Licorice can raise your blood pressure."
Good thing I don't like licorice. :)

"Pick your saint and the Catholic Church has a patron saint for it. Here are some you may wish to know about: Saint Acacius (head-aches), Saint Cathal (hernias), Saint Giles (lameness, insanity, sterility, and epilepsy), Saint Drogo ("gravel in the urine"), Saint George (syphilis), Saint Catherine of Alexandria (diseased tongues), Saint Lucy (eye diseases, dysentery, and "hemorrhages in general", Saint Hilary of Poitiers ("backward children"), Saint Servatus ("leg diseases"), and Saint Benedict (fever, inflammation, kidney disease, and "temptations of the devil")."
Some of these makes me wonder what they did to get their specialty. And anyone see any conceident between St. George being the patron saint of syphilis and maybe George O'Malley from season 1 of Gray's??

"Calling Dr. Starbucks! In eigthteenth-century England and France, doctors prescribed coffee for a variety of diseases, from sorethroats to smallpox."
Oh coffee, how much I love thee... from taking anyway my headache to causing one when I try to detox. However, I don't think I'll try you as a cure for smallpox.... hmm, interesting.