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Alternative Medicine: Helpful Or Harmful?

An incident occurred in an southwestern Texas, near the border of Mexico, where it was necessary that the Texas Department of Health be involved. Agents of the Texas DH, found it necessary to question the family because a three-year-old toddler had been exposed to a massive amounts of lead. The mother from Carrizo Springs, brought her son to the emergency room in the local hospital. When the three-year-old was examined, he showed signs of being both lethargic and hyperactive with an upset stomach. When further tests were performed by the physician and the emergency room, it was revealed that the toddlers blood lead levels were more than seven times the normal amount.

Eventually, the Texas DH got involved and went to the woman's home, where they question the family members in order to identify how the boy was exposed to lead. While being questioned, at one point, the boy's grandmother produced a form of folk medicine, powdered, called "greta." When further questioned, she told the officials from the Texas DH, but she had given the mixture to the child for his "empacho." "Empacho", is basically a loose term for a variety of symptoms, such as colic, upset stomach, or hyperactivity. Later on in the laboratory of the Texas DH, the mixture was chemically analyzed, and it was discovered that the folk remedy contained over 80% lead oxide. Basically, the child was suffering from lead poisoning, caused by a highly soluble form of lead in the folk remedy that was given to him by his grandmother. Eventually, the child received therapy to lower high levels of lead found in his blood. After being explained that the remedies she had given the child, poisoned him, the grandmother promised never again to use that remedy.

If you're asking yourself at this point, why charges were never filed by the state, against the grandmother or the mother, for allowing their child to ingest something so dangerous with the encouragement of an authoritative adult and family, the answer will be explained. If you're not wondering, you should be aware that the situation explained above, is highly volatile, in the sense that a child could have died, should he have been more over dosed on the remedies of the grandmother had given him. Giving children folk remedies is extremely dangerous, especially if you have not consulted any kind of physician on the subject, and young children toddler or infant should never be given any kind of remedy, that is made in the

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