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Out-of -date conditions

(86 Posts)
apricot Wed 10-Jun-15 19:26:51

How many disorders can you think of which no longer exist?
Like chills, rheumatism, growing pains, weak chests?
My hands keep going purple and people say it's "bad circulation" but can that be a real condition? Either your blood is circulating and you're alive, or it isn't and you're dead.

FlicketyB Thu 11-Jun-15 18:24:17

I had abdominal migraine as a child. The doctors kept thinking I had a grumbling appendix, but it turned out to be migraine when, aged about 8, I started to get the real thing.

I now mainly get migraine with only a slight headache.

pinkprincess Thu 11-Jun-15 18:22:35

My grandfather nearly died of Quinsy in the 1930s. He had refused to see a doctor because he did not like them.When he was past the stage of protesting my grandmother sent for a doctor who performed an emergency tracheostomy with a knife he pulled out of his bag.
It also cured his dislike of doctors, according to my dad who said his dad worshipped the ground this particular doctor walked on after this.
My mother used to talk about your blood overheating when you got a rash
Being bad with your nerves was another one.
Also trench mouth which was most likely thrush of the mouth.
My MIL once said she had nuerosthenia after having her first baby, it was probably PND.

loopylou Thu 11-Jun-15 18:04:10

Possibly Cholera or typhoid anno? Not necessarily fatal I assume.

loopylou Thu 11-Jun-15 18:02:43

Carbuncles is only thing that I can think of in addition to some already stated, I assume it was a boil of sorts?

'Tonics' - my mum drank Wincarnis (? sp) as a tonic until Dad pointed out it wasn't just wine but also brandy, no wonder she said it worked grin

Milk of Magnesia seemed to be a cure-all.

Thank goodness those with anaemia no longer have to eat raw liver.

annodomini Thu 11-Jun-15 18:02:06

I think ague was any kind of feverish, achey thing, more than likely flu or, as Teetime suggests, malaria - maybe both.

kittylester Thu 11-Jun-15 17:51:36

It was a particular part of Derbyshire Flickety, around the Goyt valley hence goitre!

harrigran Thu 11-Jun-15 16:41:49

Migraines can be without headache, children sometimes get abdominal migraine.
My Grandmother used to have bilious attacks but she never seemed to eat enough to cause it. She also had a nervous stomach, probably related to the fact that her sister died of throat cancer.

Bez Thu 11-Jun-15 16:21:43

I wonder if the bilious attacks my mother had were caused by gall bladder problems - then I was a child we would sometimes get up to hear her being violently sick in the bathroom. She said that once she got rid of the bile - which it seems tasted vile - she would be finished but also exhausted and so need a short sleep. It took her 24 hours to really get over the attack. She stopped having them when she was about 50 I think. As far as I know there was no headache at the same time.

FlicketyB Thu 11-Jun-15 15:42:11

I think the sweating sickness was malaria.

Goitre was something people in Derbyshire were particularly prone to because of the lack of iodine in their water. Manufacturers then began routinely adding iodine to salt and the problem has more or less disappeared. Will it return if we all cut our salt consumption drastically?

hildajenniJ Thu 11-Jun-15 15:39:52

My mother used to feel a bit "off colour", she always looked the same colour to me! And then there was feeling " run down", when lacking in energy, probably both caused by anaemia. A tonic from the doctor was the cure.

Tegan Thu 11-Jun-15 13:02:08

That's where Princess Diana was very clever and taught the Royals a think or two because her tactile appraoch was very much 'Touching the Kings Evil' which went down very well with the peasants.

Ana Thu 11-Jun-15 13:00:03

And consumption was TB.

Teetime Thu 11-Jun-15 12:50:33

We haven't had The King's Evil yet which was scrofula or percutaneous tuberculosis.

Teetime Thu 11-Jun-15 12:49:42

I read that ague was a form of malaria.

Falconbird Thu 11-Jun-15 12:23:27

I remember the collywobbles. Never too sure what they were but possibly some sort of nervous reaction.

MargaretX Thu 11-Jun-15 11:48:16

Goitre is caused by lack of iodine and where I live in South Germany we buy salt with iodine in it and it can be diagnosed very early nowadays.

I had quinseys at 17 and couldn't swallow and rememember lying in bed with the family standing round the bed and the doctor spooning water down my throat with a small teaspoon. This was followed by 2 weeks convalescence which included a week in 'bracing' Blackpool with my mother.
It sounds very old fashioned and no one with a job has time for any convalescence these days.

soontobe Thu 11-Jun-15 11:39:45

My mum said that too Falconbird! She was told she was by the doctor many years ago.
She is currently in her mid eighties, only has minor problems, and going well.

tanith Thu 11-Jun-15 11:38:42

My Dad was often having 'bilious' attacks and taking to his bed in the dark, I think it was maybe migraine , today he'd get treatment for it but not in those days.

Katek Thu 11-Jun-15 11:37:00

My granny didn't have a bilious attack - she had 'the bile'! And what was ague? Don't think I'd get away with a fit of the vapours..probably just be told to get a grip or stop freaking!

Falconbird Thu 11-Jun-15 11:19:02

My mum always said she was a "creaky gate" meaning she was never 100 per cent fit. She lived to be 90!

annodomini Thu 11-Jun-15 11:11:48

A bilious attack was a good excuse for a day off school. Very difficult to disprove. My granny was always complaining about lumbago which I assume is what we now refer to as arthritis. She had a terribly arthritic thumb joint but still did lovely embroidery.

soontobe Thu 11-Jun-15 11:11:30

Someone has a weak constitution.
I think I have one, but you dont hear it talked about now I dont think?

henetha Thu 11-Jun-15 10:09:24

My niece has just been diagnosed with Bell's Palsy. So it does very much still exist.
I have had a benign tumour on my thyroid for many years, and they used to be called Goitre, I think.

kittylester Thu 11-Jun-15 09:51:01

I was told that a goitre was named after the Goyt Valley in Derbyshire where there was a lack of iodine. I've forgotten what caused the said lack as it was a very, very long time ago!

petallus Thu 11-Jun-15 09:44:19

Has anybody mentioned having a bilious attack?