Austria – Save 'fragile illnesses' from medication 'bombs'!
One day in April during our world trip, we had brunch at my friend and former colleague's house in Vienna. Since James and I aren't coffee drinkers, Ina asked us the typical tea drinker question: “What kind of tea would you like?”
Her selection was broad and included quite a few herbal teas, with labels such as Erkältungstee (tea mixture against colds) and Bronchialtee (tea mixture against bronchitis). The latter caught my attention as it was a mixture that was especially prepared for Ina with a handwritten label of all the different kinds of herbs.
Ina Biechl* relies on herbal teas for non-serious ailments. This tea has been especially prepared for her according to directions from her family doctor. He ordered the pharmacist to mix this blend when Ina had a nasty cough that wouldn't go away. According to her, it helped much better than some of the stronger treatments she'd used in the past. In her words, “why go against fragile illnesses with forceful bombs?” (“Warum mit starken Bomben auf zarte Krankheiten losgehen?”).
European pharmacies and drug stores offer a wide selection of herbal teas. While browsing through pharmacies in Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia, herbal teas occupy quite a large section of the retail space.
Pharmacy in Vienna, Austria:
Drugstore in Budapest, Hungary:
The teas fall under four categories:
1 – What the tea is made of: for example, camomile tea consists of dried camomile flowers.
The cross-section of herbs is coming close to an undergraduate course in botany.
2 – What the tea aims to cure: such as Acid Reflux tea, Rheumatoid Arthritis tea, flue tea.
3 – Which organ, bodily function or body part the tea supports: such as nerve tea, kidney tea, stomach and intestine tea.
NB: most continental European consumers are ok with bodily functions being called out by their names.
4 – the desired outcome of the tea: sleep tea, relaxation tea, invigorating tea .
Ina's mental model of 'fragile' illnesses caught my attention and made me think about mental models for the non-serious ailments in different cultures. It struck me how people in continental Europe view these teas as natural support for the non-serious, the usual and the seasonal ailments that occur regularly. Having grown up in Germany, I view colds as important to my wellbeing. It's natural to get colds and have the body fight through it. It's like an 'update' for my immune system, kind of like running antivirus software on a computer. It takes time and that's ok.
Here in the US on the other hand, where some people don't even have sick days it seems like that having a cold is having a weakness that needs to be fixed immediately. With this background, it makes more sense why there are maximum strength and extra strong doses of potent cold medicines readily available over the counter without having to talk with a pharmacist.
How many days per year do you allow yourself to be knocked out by a cold?
What's your mental model of why you get colds when you get them?
Why does it seem to be important to some people to have help from natural remidies in their healing process?
**After I explained US patient privacy policies to Ina and how I wouldn't include her name or any information that would reveal her identity, she pushed back vehemently. She insisted to have her full name with any quotes I use from our interview. Thanks, Ina Biechl!
