For thousands of years, humans have been on a quest to find effective disease cures and methods of staying healthy. While modern Western medicine has evolved into a system of doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical drugs, other remedies—from bloodletting to coordinated laughing — are still in use around the world.

Scorpion Drink
A Thai man poses while drinking a glass of rice wine with a scorpion in the village of Baan Niyomchai in Lopburi province, about 250 km (155 miles) north of Bangkok. REUTERS
Terrapin Touch
A man holds a terrapin, whose touch believed to cure rheumatism and other bodily ailments, as he prepares to treat the face of a villager in Kandal province, 20km (12 miles) west of Phnom Penh. REUTERS
Fish Swallowing
A man is made to swallow a live fish as a form of medicine during a camp in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. REUTERS
Bulgarian Bathing
Bulgarians lay in the Bourgas salt-works lake, near the Black Sea town of Bourgas, some 400 km (248 miles) east of capital. REUTERS
Thai Maggot Therapy
A Thai nurse removes a bag of maggots from a patient's wound at a hospital in Bangkok. REUTERS
Leech Therapy
A man prepares to swallow a live fish that has been dipped in homemade medicine during a camp in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. REUTERS
Train Track Therapy
Residents lie on railway tracks in Rawa Buaya in Indonesia's West Java province. REUTERS
Bee Sting
A patient receives treatment with bee venom for rheumatism at a clinic in Beijing. REUTERS
Beer Spa
Katja Horn lies in a copper bath tub full of beer and water in a dimly lit relaxation room at the Hotel Esplanade in the German spa town of Bad Saarow east of Berlin. REUTERS
Mud Magic
A man covered with mud sits in a medicinal mud pond at the "Lagoon of Miracles" in Chilca. REUTERS
Dolphin Kiss
Peruvian Iliana Cogan, who is six months pregnant, is touched by a dolphin named Wayra during a therapy for pregnant women in Lima. REUTERS
Face Buring Treatment
A patient receives a traditional Chinese medical treatment with needles. REUTERS
Military Sand Therapy
Army veteran Matthew Doyle, 25, practices paddling on the sand at a surf therapy program for military veterans in Manhattan Beach, California. REUTERS