A Journey Through African Wellness: The Hilarious Side

One common thing about we Africans is that everyone of us is doctor on their own. Trained and awarded the doctorate degree by themselves. Throughout my life, I’ve seen people prescribe drugs for others conditions all the time and it wasn’t even anything to worry about.

source
And to make matters worse, we all believed in it and tried it once we found ourselves in such situations. My grandfather was one of those self made doctors. He knew his drugs so well. Trust me, you could never go wrong with his drugs. But soon, as I grew up I came to understand that self medication wasn’t good so we put a stop to that at home.

Speaking of health advices, I’ve received a lot from so many people including my family, friends and even random people I meet everyday. And these advises never seem to amaze me. Today, I want to share with you some of the most ridiculous health advices I’ve received so far and if they actually worked out for me.

First, tell me why for so many years I believed that eating too much groundnut was the cause of my acne. Somewhere in the university, I started to battle with acne and on one occasion a friend told me of how taking groundnut caused acne. From then, I stopped taking anything related to groundnut be it snacks, soup or what have you. It continued for years and even today, a part of me still believes groundnut causes acne but truth is, it actually doesn’t. It’s more of a hormonal issue but yeah, I managed to let myself get deceived.😂

source

Ever seen people tie their forehead with a cloth or a band when they have migraines? This is common in most African homes. Anytime I was sick and had a headache, my mom would tell me to tie a cloth on my head and that helped a lot with the pain. Before I started to experience this, I always thought it was weird that people did that. I thought it didn’t make sense because why the need for all this stress. But in actual sense, it worked a lot for me. Some years back, I found out that applying pressure to a painful part of your head could help relieve you of migraines. But today, less and less people do this ,thanks to pain killers. This might sound bizarre, but you give it a try.

What’s the most ridiculous health advice you’ve ever received?

---