[infecto]

No I don't think it is the same. It easily comes to mind that most treatments of radiation while toxic to the body are used to kill types of cancer. If you are going to say this practice of eating lead and mercury for medicinal purposes is useful, I would think there would be at least a use that comes to mind that you could share instead of books.

I don't think most traditional medicine practices are very useful. Similar to strict religious teaches of what food to eat, Catholic, Jewish, Sattvic diet even. They served a purpose when conceived, perhaps have interesting things that could benefit us today but in a whole. There may be an interesting herb or compound that is actually useful but usually the vast majority of it is either a placebo, damaging to the user or damaging to the environment.