My favorite bit of folk medicine is that we’re supposed to take wormwood for intestinal parasites. It’s actually really effective, which is how wormwood got its name, but the reason it’s effective is that wormwood is literally just poison and it happens to kill the worms slightly faster than it kills you.
That’s medicine BABEYYYYYY!!!!
No, but seriously, the reason plants have useful chemicals that we can use medicinally is because they have evolved those chemicals as poisons to prevent predation. Humans were just smart enough to figure out through trial and error how to balance these chemical extracts to counteract abnormalities in our bodies.
Like: “Hm. This plant toxin is a cardiac glycoside and increases heart output. In a healthy person, this is highly unpleasant and may even cause death. But… for my aging aunt over here who’s suffering from congestive heart failure… a little foxglove extract taken every morning with her tea would probably help her circulation and keep her weary heart kickin’ for a few more years.”
Medicine is the opportune application of poisons. Healers and poisoners are folks with similar skill sets and wildly different philosophies.
That is medicine, baby. That’s how chemo works.
Poison that kills human cells but hits those that divide faster, harder. Hence why it kills out of control cancer cells but also fast growing hair cells. The trick is often “enough to kill the Bad without killing the rest”.
Animals do it too, e.g. parrots eating enough clay to absorb poisons without eating enough to absorb all the nutrients.
Incidentally, if you are fishing any stream or river in the Mississippi river watershed and catch any fuckers that look like this;
DO NOT THROW THEM BACK FOR FUCK’S SAKE.
That’s an Asian Carp, and they ARE invasive. The Iowa DNR encourages people to catch, kill, and eat as many as possible.
They’re also tasty as hell, even though they’ve got lots of bones.
Also, yes, this fish has weird eyes that are set real low and look downwards.
It does not have two eyes on the same side; it just has a mark there that looks sorta like one.
Another pic;
They mostly eat plants, but sometimes will get snagged when line fishing. But, they also do THIS;
Midwesterners being who we are, we immediately knew what to do; BOWFISH THEM SHITS
And INVENT THE SPORT KNOWN AS ‘SCARPING’, which is just netting them out of the air/smacking them with baseball bats/spearing them with pitchforks/ect while waterskiing;
See…I’m good with a bow…but not that good. I AM however much better with a net and having the prey come to me.
…Does anyone want to take me to go Scarping?
You can also use a shotgun
The DNR actively encourages all inventive ways of killing them off that people can come up with. There’s no limit on them, so you can fill up the boat.
And they’re DANGED tasty. Nice mild firm white flesh.
Only in American might you go shooting fish off the back of a moving boat.
Hahahaha holy shit!!! I have never been more proud to be an American!! 😀
