#herbal medic

[cuties-in-codices]

gourd harvest

miniature from a medical manuscript (tractatus de herbis), illuminated by giovannino de' grassi and his workshop. milan, late 14th c.

source: Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, Cod. Lat. 459, fol. 83r (via Bibliotheca Corvina)

[moghedien]

Graendal and Semirhage didn’t just show up to the Forsaken HR meeting unannounced because they’re too busy looking into the state of this era’s medical knowledge and reeling from what they’re dealing with

[miochimochi]

Tincture: A solution of alcohol and plant material. To create a tincture, you take the plant whos properties you wish to extract, put it in a container, and just cover it with a clear alcohol (needs to be at least 20% ethanol). Stir and let it sit for s few days to pull out as much as possible. Strain out the plant matter and the liquid you're left with is your tincture. If you want it more concentrated, you could leave it out without a lid, letting the alcohol evaporate naturally, or you could attempt a distillation, but you should do research for that to see what temperature the chemical you want evaporates at (this will tell you which solution will be your concentrated tincture, alcohol evaporates at a lower temperature than water).

Poultice: A mash of plant matter. This is simple and there are 2 ways to do this: dirty and clean. The dirty way is to chew the plant matter. An example of this is you're out hiking, you have an accident (non-life-threatening), and you're bleeding. You find some plantain near you, so you grab it. You chew the leaves until they're mush and place this over the wound. The clean way would have you grab a mortar, place the plant material in it, and mash it with the pestel, making sure to add water if it's too dry (you want it almost like a paste).

Salve: Similar to a poultice, but mixed with oil and something to set it. What you're after in the poultice is the juice that comes out of the plants more than anything, but having bits of the plant in the salve can be fine too, and salves can also be made with resin. You would mix the medicinal ingredient in with oil (you'll have to play with the ratio based on the plant and oil being used) and then melt in something like beeswax (start with a low wax to solution ratio first, add more wax if it doesn't set enough, too much wax will make the salve too hard).

Tea: Water steeped with plant material. This is a very simple one to understand. Doesn't even have to be plants even, turkey tail mushroom is a known medicinal tea ingredient (the jury is still out on its medicinal benefits, it's being looked into). The longer you steep, the more you leech (and the worse it may taste). You drink it right after steeping, it does not preserve itself.

None of these are going to make you a panacea, they're more than likely just going to help with more minor issues. For serious issues, seek more in depth medical help - scientific herbalism can only go so far. There's also a lot of science stuff I didn't include here about how certain chemicals might interact in the various methods, things like that very much depend on what's being used and what's desired. Make sure you do research on something before you try it, see what information is already out there about it. Contribute to the growth of open medical science by testing things, but be safe when testing - don't just ingest literal poison to see if it will cure cancer or something.

[ahb-writes]

Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions (Health, Healthcare, and Medicine)

Health, Healthcare, and Medicine Worldbuilding Questions:

What is a common illness or blight afflicting this world? How is it treated (or is it incurable)? Does it evolve or change over the story's course?

What does healthcare consist of in this world? Is there advanced medicine, or are folk and herbal remedies predominate?

Who has access to healthcare? Is there a rich/poor divide or is it universal?

Who would want to become a medical professional in this world, and why?

Where are the best places to receive medical treatment in this world, and why?

Where do medical practitioners train (and what is their curriculum like)?

When someone falls ill, what are typical ceremonial or other practices?

When was the last major public healthcare crisis (such as a pandemic), or when will the next one be?

Why is healthcare in this world scarce or in adequate supply?

Why might someone struggle to get the care they need when sick or injured in this world?

❯ ❯ ❯ Read other writing masterposts in this series: Worldbuilding Questions for Deeper Settings

[msburgundy]

health regimen:

1) drink warter

2) eat leafs from china

3) lots of animal fats

[ether-c]

Medicine in Culture

Humans are bio-cultural, being influenced by both biology and culture. Both our biological dispositions and our culture are subject to trends, as is medicine. We, as humans, notice what works in the people around us and try it out, if it works to cure a disease, then it becomes medicine. In western countries, we are (usually) most familiar with western biomedicine, but like other cultural medicines we used our own theories to observe trends. In biomedicine these trends can be verified and tested with rigorous tests and trials, but the herbal treatments popular in many cultures, from China to Mexico, are also effective. 

For many diseases (certainly not all), if the body is given enough time and resources, the body can adapt or heal itself. In all forms of medicine, we are supplying the mind, body, and spirit with time and resources. Medicine focuses on promoting behaviors that cultures observe and believe are beneficial to the body, and when someone believes in a treatment they are even more likely to heal. We see this with the placebo effect mentioned in the book. So why do treatments - that are not "based in science" - work? Because they are still based in science, just not as people understand it in the western world. While they may not be tested by the scientific method, it is still based on observable patterns and gives weight to the power of the mind and body. 

One example is drinking tea. A plethora of cultures place tea and other warm drinks on a pedestal, and if you were to examine it from a biological and cultural perspective, it makes sense why. Once a day, set aside time for yourself. Heat up some water, once warm, let it be infused by an addition of herbs. Sit with the warm cup in your hands, smell the soothing herbs, and then drink. In this small 15 minute action, you are providing your body with hydration (not to mention, you boiled the water first so it’s potentially cleaner than it was prior), and you’re consuming antioxidants and maybe some polyphenols and other substances that our cells can use to build up their defences. Most importantly, you are doing something for yourself that you believe will improve your wellness. This simple act, even if it is not verified by drug testing and clinical trials, is medicine. 

[phantomhivestims]

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Request for no one!

Note : hes so cozy

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[anguish-of-invincible]

HC 1#

Back when Tuls was alive, his blood was psychotropic. When he bled on his enemies, it would get into their wounds and cause hallucinations, delirium, and immense nausea. Also hunger.

[power-munchkin]

I’m very sick without health insurance in the United States… if any of you know home remedies for pneumonia please help.

[theoogtree]

good news todd the librarbian was finally free to start the Pathfinder thing \o/ me and two others made our characters and did a little introduction and next time we will play for real : )

[voodoo-tofu]

Absolutely terrified to think I'm actually considering enrolling into medical assistant school.

[loubella77]

3.5 oz of mimosa bark ALREADY before the two trays I’m drying rn. I’d be stocked up if I didn’t have two people who are buying weekly dose packs 😭

- 18+ account -

[trickstarbrave]

I wish getting a tiny little organ filled with stones removed from my body didn’t fuck up my entire hormone system, digestive system, and my ability to eat and sleep and thus preform basic functions

And stress of not eating and poor nutrients makes it so the problem gets significantly worse

[thanatoseyes]

So I'm watching this documentary on HBO called Savior Complex. It's very well executed. And I'm on the second episode and they are interviewing this girl's mother. The 'boss' mother of this organization. And they're talking about an employee who left after three months and she's saying I don't think its fair to say that her daughter was immoral or unethical. And the thing is. This woman, the daughter, has no medical training. Formal medical training. No idea how to diagnose, reevaluate, and administer proper medication. It doesn't matter if she has great moral standing and she's trying to help. It doesn't matter that she was taught how to put an I.V. in or how to measure arm measurements for malnutrition. She's playing with prescription medication that she has no training with. She's not a hospital and she's not upholding medical standards. What she's doing is unethical. She's causing harm where she's trying to do good. On a scale that wouldn't be possible if she didn't have the backing of evangelists within her church. What she's doing is wrong. It doesn't matter if she's doing it in the name of the Lord or from the goodness of her heart. She's actively taking part in dubious medical practices where she could have given the resources to trained professionals. She could have kept doing the basic treatment of housing and feeding individuals and then just taking them to the doctors. But she took it a step further where she had no basis of knowledge.

[joes-sha-la-la-la-girl]

Does anyone know any herbal remedies for nausea and stomach ache? I don’t want to take anymore medication than necessary and I can’t have peppermint tea💖.

[missiletainnyt]

HELLO HOMEBREWERS OF TUMBLR

I made a Homecrew class with 3 subclasses a while back and have yet to have the chance to playtest it myself due to lack of games. SO I OPEN UP THE FLOOR TO YOU!

The Apothecary Class! with the Subclasses: Battle Medic, Plague Docter, and Herbal Remedist.

Link

Playtest away!

Some parts I am aware may be overpowered, and some placed under powered, which is why I need it played before feedback, I have had plenty of speclutive feedback from me, friends and people I have sent and it has been balanced that way for a while, but I want to get on the ground testing, so if you would like to play it please let me know how it goes.

I will write down a few things I anticipate being FAQs below.

Q. Why not just use magic instead of the Ingredients and Concoction system?

A. DnD 5e is missing an option which adequetly fills the niche of nonmagical healer and herbalist which is satisfying to play. That and Flavour can only get you so far in terms of game feel.

Q. Why can the Concoction Potency increase Save DC? That seems like it could get out of hand.

A. Because this is a homebrew class there aren't any magic items which can increase Save DC which might make Concoctions a lot harder to use at late game, so building it into the class and requiring the expendature of resources which you had to either buy or gather yourself seemed like a viable solution. At early game doing this should eat through resources fast so it shouldn't cause too much issue I don't think, but that's why I want playtest feedback, mostly for balancing this section since I can fiddle with numbers all day but I need to know how they will actually effect balance outside of the Hypothetical.

Q. The potency and ingredient system is confusing, is there a way to simplify it?

A. It's already been simplified a few times when I realised how convoluted parts got before, so if you can give me specifics on what might help it make sense more, please let me know. While it makes sense to me, I am not a monolith.

Q. How long did you spend on this?

A. Like the bulk of it was done in 4 weeks through March-April iirc, with little tweaks here and there afterward.

Q. Can I make a copy and edit stuff for my games?

A. You can but do not try to claim it as your own please. Also if you want, tell me what you changed, could be anything from an ability to formatting to make it easier to read. I just wanna know how I can improve.