A Shortcut to Danger : The Truth Behind Home Remedies

It was a quiet afternoon at the hospital when an elderly woman, well over 60, was rushed into the emergency room. She looked frail, struggling with severe diarrhea that had started the day before. The nurses hurried her onto a stretcher, and as I examined her, it was clear that this was no ordinary case of food poisoning. The diarrhea was worsening by the minute, and she was too weak to even sit up on her own.

Without wasting any time, I ordered IV fluids to be started immediately. As I began asking her about what she had eaten in the past 24 hours to find out the cause, her daughter interrupted me with an unexpected revelation.

“Doctor,” she began hesitantly, “For a while now, Amma has been on medication for high blood pressure. But recently, someone showed her a video on YouTube... It said that drinking raw moringa leaf juice would naturally lower blood pressure, and that she wouldn’t need to take her pills anymore.”

Her words hung in the air as I listened intently. “And?” I asked.

The daughter sighed, “Amma was thrilled. She thought she’d found a natural remedy. So, she stopped taking her medication and went straight into our backyard. She picked a handful of moringa leaves, made the juice in a matter of minutes, and drank it down.

It didn’t take long to put the pieces together. Sure, her blood pressure had dropped, but so had her pulse. Her heart wasn’t pumping as it should anymore, and she was severely dehydrated. That raw moringa juice had not only upset her stomach but robbed her body of vital fluids, pushing her into a dangerous state of dehydration.

Severe dehydration—often underestimated—can lead to life-threatening consequences if not treated in time.

As I watched the IV fluids slowly drip into her arm, stabilizing her, I couldn’t help but reflect. “It’s easy to trust what we see online,” I said to her daughter. “But always check with someone in healthcare before trying these remedies. Sometimes, what seems like a small choice can have life-threatening consequences."

- Dr Najmath Swabah


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