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Unusual Medical Practices Around the World

— YouTuber and physician Dr. Mike learns about knife therapy, leech therapy, and medicinal plants

MedpageToday

In this video, Mikhail Varshavski, DO -- who goes by "Dr. Mike" on social media -- reacts to alternative medical practices from different cultures.

Following is a partial transcript of the video (note that errors are possible):

Varshavski: Let's visit countries across the globe to see some of their unique and some amazing medical technologies. Let's get started! Whoop!

Narrator: Dao liao, or knife therapy, started 2,500 years ago in Ancient China ...

Varshavski: Knife therapy?!

Narrator: ... as an alternative method to traditional medicine.

Varshavski: What?! No way! Are they chopping people up? No! Not literally?

[Woman speaking]

Varshavski: It's just a massage with knives? Oh, that's okay.

Narrator: Angelina Xiao has been practicing and teaching knife therapy for 14 years.

Varshavski: Like knife therapist or secret assassin?

[Woman speaking]

Varshavski: System of oxygen flow. I mean, putting any kind of pressure in that kind of rapid succession, almost like percussive therapy you do with a Theragun, will increase a little bit of circulation, superficially at least, and that will increase oxygen delivery to the cells. But you don't need a knife to do that.

Narrator: It is a customary practice to hover the knives over burning sandalwood and store them next to meteorites to maintain the knives' ...

Varshavski: Sorry! The meteorites thing got me! Everything else ... I'm like, all right, they warm up the knife, it's dull, so it's a little safer, like I'm with it, and then they hit me with the meteorite. I just, I couldn't ... the meteorite, man. And look, I don't mean to laugh; people have culture. Like I'm just looking at this strictly from a medical lens. Will the meteorite change anything in the knife? I can't ... especially when you're doing it through a blanket.

I mean, I don't know, man. This must have some kind of cultural significance that I'm missing, but, medically, I'm, the meteorite thing got me.

Schmidt: Yeah, my name is Justin Schmidt.

Narrator: He's an entomologist.

Varshavski: Does that mean he studies bugs?

Narrator: He's been stung by a lot of insects.

Varshavski: That's such an uncomfortable sensation. The fact that he's cool with it? I mean, I don't know that he's cool with it.

Narrator: He reviews insect stings the way a sommelier reviews wine.

Schmidt: Pure, intense, brilliant pain, like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail.

Varshavski: Who's the audience for this book?! If I was dating someone and I walked into their home and they had that book on their counter, I'd be concerned. Just saying.

Schmidt: The Schmidt Pain Scale is basically a scale to rate the painfulness of stinging insects.

Varshavski: What's the difference of just saying 0 to 10?

Schmidt: A one would be a Sweat Bee, a two would be something like a Yellow Jacket Wasp, a three would be something like a Harvester Ant, and a four would be a Tarantula Hawk.

Varshavski: What is a tarantula hawk?! If I wake up tonight and there's a tarantula hawk on me in New York City, I swear to God there's gonna be no YouTube videos for at least 2 weeks.

Narrator: It's no big secret that, in India, fair skin is seen as the beauty ideal; but skin color bias permeates all layers of society here and it's causing some women to go to extreme lengths to become lighter.

Varshavski: What's a "black doll treatment?" We do use this treatment for melasma, which is also known as the "mask of pregnancy," but this type of discoloration on the skin can occur with a lot of different situations: certain medications, thyroid disease, sun exposure, tanning beds.

Interviewer: How popular has this treatment been?

Man: From last year, there's a 100% increase in the number of people who are coming in for this treatment.

Varshavski: You know what's interesting? I've seen the cultural shifts with these. I remember when I was younger, there were treatments for freckles, to help freckles disappear.

, is a board-certified family physician and social media influencer with more than 10 million subscribers.