Photo Gallery: The Witch Doctor Will See You Now
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A Mousey Cocktail
Piers Gibbon tries a traditional medicinal drink, field mouse wine. A selection of brandies and wines and alcohol with added medicinal ingredients are popular in not only Hong Kong, but in mainland China as well. Field mouse wine is said to be good for driving out wind, clearing up meridians, and improving blood circulation.
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Dried Out Animals
Dried animal medicinal products on sale at a Kowloon shop. One type of treatment said to promote bone health involves velvety deer antlers sliced into thin strips and then ground into a powder.
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Traditional Chinese Medicines
Traditional Chinese herbal medicines being sold in Kowloon store. Chinese herbal remedies can contain literally thousands of different ingredients from tree bark to toxic venom.
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Boiling Some Snakes
Piers Gibbon stirs a pot of boiled snake soup before it is served.
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Sipping Up Snake Soup
Piers Gibbon 'enjoying' a bowl of Miss Xiao's snake soup. The Chinese have long believed in the medical benefits of consuming snakes. Miss Xiao can sell up to a thousand bowls of snake soup a day.
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A Serpentine Scare
Rapture Barba scares Jake Ray with one of Miss Xiao's many snakes. Pretty soon, they'll try something even more challenging to their understanding of medicine: a drink of fresh snake blood and snake bile. Snake blood is used for replenishing blood with iron. Snake bile is used to clear up your phlegm and stomach, and to promote joint health. To make the bile tonic, Miss Xiao finds and extracts the snake’s gall bladder.
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Pins and Face Needles
Jake Ray undertaking acupuncture on his face to return his sense of smell despite his intense fear of needles. Acupuncture has been around for over 2000 years and Western studies have shown that acupuncture can stimulate the production of anti-stress hormones called endorphins.
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Face Acupuncture
Piers Gibbon tries out acupuncture on his face. Later they meet Professor Sun, who believes the tongue is a map of the body’s entire meridian system – the network that controls the flow of qi, or energy, around the body. And by treating it with an acupuncture needle, he believes he can cause a physical change in different parts of the body.
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Cupping Away the Pain
Rapture Barba undertaking blood cupping treatment on his lower leg to relieve pain. Cupping is a 3,000 year-old treatment used to help blood and qi flow freely around Jake’s body. Chinese medicine believes that qi is a literal life force that’s carried all over the body on invisible channels called meridians.
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Back Blood Cupping
Piers Gibbon watches as Rapture Barba undertakes blood cupping treatment on back to relieve his back pain. The procedure has been likened to being bitten by five or six small dogs.
Through cupping, the blood circulation is improved so the nutrients and qi can be brought to every part of the body. Western clinical studies have shown that some forms of cupping can be effective in relieving pain, but it’s unclear exactly how. Basically the suction in the cups is just pulling his skin and muscle up there, which is bringing a lot of blood in to the area.
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Oily Scalp
Mark has medicinal oil poured on his head. Dr. Anisha thinks Marks tinnitus (ringing in the ear) can be treated by pouring two gallons of medicated oil on his head, which is believed to penetrate the scalp and repair nerve endings.
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Going Skin Deep
Doctor Gupta believes he can help Mark’s eczema with a treatment dating back 3000 years, using blood-sucking leeches. Their saliva has healing properties from a substance called hirudin, which stops blood clots and it’s thought to help skin conditions by restoring circulation to the affected area.
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Nose Drainage
Piers tries out a treatment called Neti, a nasal irrigation treatment using nothing but ordinary salt water. This is in preparation for a much more invasive practice.
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Local Traditions
Piers and Charles try out a traditional ayurvedic treatment, blood-letting. The blood-letter first restricts blood flow to make it easier to find the veins. After sterilization, a razor swipes the protruding veins to release bad blood. Blood-letting was performed routinely in the west for almost 2000 years. It was dismissed in the nineteenth century as having no medical benefit.
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Blood Letting
Piers examines his foot after a bout of blood letting.
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Covered in Blood
Dr. Alfred covers Dwight in a very special medicine, goat's blood. Goat’s blood is thought to attract ailments in the human body and pass it on to the goat.
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Smokey Shaman
Shaman Jorge, blows tobacco smoke in the face of a Caiman, which will soon become a very unusual medicine.
Among the Shipibo and many other tribes in the Amazon, tobacco is considered a valuable healing tool. The Shipibo believes that the shaman’s breath has curing powers, and that breath is made visible with the tobacco smoke as it goes over the body, from the crown of the head all the way down. The shaman will then suck out negative energy through the patient’s skin and then spit it out.
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Medicinal Plants
Shaman Luzmilla shows Piers an Amazonian medicinal plant. Many shamans believe the plants will tell them how to heal. They say the plants taught them the Icaru, a sacred song that reveals how to heal people and what medicines and remedies those people need.
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An Amazonian Cocktail
Shaman Aldo, gives Piers an Amazonian ritual drink. Ayahuasca is a hallucinogenic substance, and although it’s a national treasure in Peru, it’s illegal in America. As with all hallucinogenic substances, there can be some risk to your mental health. Since Piers wants to get a real understanding of Shipibo medicine, he drinks ayahuasca to hopefully get a brief glimpse of what the world looks like through a Shipibo shaman's eyes. The effects of ayahuasca can vary greatly depending on the dose. Vomiting and diarrhea are common. People sometimes experience terrifying visions and believe they’re going to die.
