4 Backwards Medical Beliefs In Otherwise Developed Countries

4

Sweden Has A Debilitating Case Of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity

Electromagnetic hypersensitivity is a supposed allergy of sorts to the electromagnetic radiation incessantly emitted by newfangled technologies such as power lines, cell phones, and WiFi routers. Blind studies have found zippo evidence that the symptoms described by EHS sufferers are in any way related to the presence of an electromagnetic field, but that data's done precisely nothing to staunch the steady flow of folks claiming that walking into a Starbucks is like reenacting a scene from Scanners.

g-stockstudio/iStock"Are you sure it isn't their prices causing the headaches?"

Nowhere is the condition more prevalent than in Sweden, where a full 5 percent of the population believe they are, to some degree, hypersensitive to electromagnetic waves (that's a more than 200 percent increase since 2002). Those hundreds of thousands of cases are probably why Sweden is currently the only country to acknowledge electromagnetic hypersensitivity as an official functional impairment, meaning Swedish citizens can receive financial compensation for the negative effects resulting from the condition. Swedish social services sometimes pay to electrically "sanitize" homes via the installation of metallic shielding, or even rent out remote cabins to the most severe cases of those who cannot stomach populated areas. Expensive, EHS-friendly healthcare facilities have been made available to the public, and there's even talk in Stockholm of constructing an entire EMF-free community, which we're going to go ahead and assume would be the village from The Village.

All this for a condition that is entirely self-diagnosed, mostly because there's not one damned bit of scientific evidence that it truly exists. One thing we can say for certain about the Swedish government: They have no shortage of faith in their citizens.

Niyazz/iStockThis stock photo Swedish doctor's opinion holds as much say as an actual Swedish doctor's on the matter.

3

Germans Are Deathly Afraid Of Drafts

In a telephone survey conducted by Germany's Allensbach Institute, more than a third of those interviewed said that a warm midwinter wind commonly known as the foehn -- pronounced "fern," like the houseplant -- caused noticeable changes in their health, while one in five said it was the meteorological equivalent of a kneecapping. But that's pretty standard stuff. After all, there's a good chance your mom once had you convinced that the common cold was so named because it was caused by actual cold.

bowdenimages/iStock"Well, why do I get colds during the summer sometimes?" "Because you're an abomination."

2

France Is Suffering An Ongoing Epidemic Of "Heavy Legs"

Have you ever had one of those days when your legs simply do not wish to carry your ass to work? Well, so has the entirety of France. They've even coined a special term for the condition: heavy legs syndrome.

skeeze/Pixabay Heavy-feeling legs, in a nation where 80 percent of the diet is wine, cheese, and bread? You don't say ...

Unique to France (aka the place with more pharmacies than any other European country), heavy legs syndrome has no concrete medical definition, probably because it's not recognized as a condition at all anywhere else. Rather, it's vaguely described as an "unpleasant sensation of pain and heaviness" in the lower extremities. It's generally treated with a variety of topical creams, a veritable cornucopia of pain medications, and presumably millions upon millions of dollars in lost productivity.

The thing is, all those French people calling in sick to work because their calves have gone up a weight class likely don't realize that they're contributing to an epidemic of an entirely different variety. You see, assigning a set of symptoms their own "syndrome" could be more damaging than anyone realizes. The symptoms of so-called heavy legs syndrome, for instance, align nicely with real, treatable conditions, such as varicose veins -- which more than half of French women and one third of French men suffer. By apathetically tossing drugs at the symptoms, however, you're never getting to the root cause of said symptoms.

Kajdi Szabolcs/iStock "They pair perfectly with brie and a nice Chardonnay."

1

In India, Homeopathy Is A Legitimate Medical Practice

In 1796, German physician Samuel Hahnemann had an idea. Building upon his principle of "like cures like," he developed an approach to medicine positing that substances which would normally induce negative effects on the human body could, when diluted to such a degree that they were no longer even the substances in question, be used to treat ailments whose symptoms resembled the aforementioned negative effects. (Stomach cramps and convulsions? Here, have a trace amount of arsenic!) He called this newly minted field homeopathy, and it's been causing physicians worldwide to roll their eyes ever since.

wmiami/iStock "Please do not confuse your Google search with my medical degree."