It seems that it's quire more complicated than that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus_as_a_symbol_of_medici...

I thought it’s a stick to pull out a tape worm. You wrap it around the worm and keep twisting to get it out.

I always assumed what I felt was obvious: Numbers 21:4-9, where God instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and place it on a pole to heal Israelites dying from poisonous snake bites.

I’m partial to the Guinea worm medical symbol theory, though happy to be convinced otherwise.

I was taught that the symbol came from Egypt, specifically a reference to standard guinea worm treatment whereby the worm was extracted from under the skin by winding it around a stick.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracunculiasis

I suspect the symbol has deeper roots than that, though you are likely right about the snake venom being used then to treat illness.

We also recently (we think) discovered why acupuncture works. That form of medicine from 4000 years ago...

This is because a broad spectrum antibiotic with low resistance is an essential public good that will likely rapidly be made generic by either legal action or international disregard for copyright law. So no major pharma companies will want to invest resources into the development of something like this, and governments are not under the gun enough to produce new abx to invest the billions needed to get it through the approval process. The compromise is to leave it sitting at this phase until some disaster creates enough public incentive to socialize the completion of its development.

I too am addicted to hot peppers. But doesn't this... IDK, it seems like it would mess up my stomach or esophagus lining or something. All that acid and capsaicin on an empty stomach?