Roads to Health in developing countries – Understanding the intersection of culture and healing

Publication date: Available online 4 March 2017 Source:Current Therapeutic Research Author(s): S. Ibeneme, G. Eni, A. Ezuma, G. Fortwengel The most important attribute for which all human beings aspire is good health because it enables man to undertake different forms of activities of daily living. The emergence of scientific knowledge in Western Societies has enabled scientists to explore and define several parameters of "health" by drawing boundaries around factors that are known to impact on the achievement of good health. For example, the World Health Organization [WHO] defined health by taking physical and psychological factors into consideration. The definition of health also included a caveat that says" not merely the absence of sickness". This definition has guided scientists and health care providers in the Western world in the development of health care programs in Non-Western societies. However, ethnomedical beliefs about the cause(s) of illness have given rise to alternative theories of health, sickness and treatment approaches in the developing world. Thus, there is another side to the story. Much of the global population in developing countries live in rural settings where the knowledge of health, sickness and, care, has survived centuries of practice and experience. The definition of health in these settings tends to orient towards cultural beliefs, traditional practices, and social relationships. Invariably, while Biomedicine is the dominant medical syst...

Source: Current Therapeutic Research - March 4, 2017 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research