health and healing traditions

HEALTH "the balance of the person, both within one's beings--physical, mental, and spiritual--and in the outside world--natural, communal, and metaphysical--is a complex, interrelated phenomenon ILLNESS imbalance of one's being Physical organs such as skin, skeleton, muscles, digestive system, cardiovascular system. Genetic inheritance, body chemistry, gender, age, nutrition mental cognitions (thoughts, memories, knowledge). Affect and emotions. Self-esteem and self-efficacy spiritual learned spiritual practices (formal or informal). Dreams, symbols, stories, how we understand the world, understandings of causality health traditions model describes beliefs and practices used to maintain, protect, and restore health maintain ordinary preventative practices protect extraordinary preventative practices restore practices that cure and heal Maintain examples eat a balanced diet; eat Kosher diet. Daily exercise, weekly church attendance, Sunday brunch with the family, daily call to mother, wear a Saint medal, wear a FitBit protect examples crossing yourself before crossing a street, wearing an amulet to protect against the evil eye, eating garlic to ward off a cold, following superstitions about specific causes of illness (eg never walk through a hole in a fence while pregnant) restore examples seeing an herbalist or medical doctor, exorcism, blessing, sacrifice/dedication/spiritual journeys, vacation; in Europe: "take the cure" religion is a causal belief system religion tells us why things are the way they are, including why health/illness occurs religion also provides us to do in certain events: births, deaths, illness traditional epidemiology the ideas about what causes illness for 100s of centuries before modern medicine modern ideas about causality germs, genetics, environmental toxins traditional epidemiology examples evil eye or evil spirits, soul loss, hexes, spells, curses, witchcraft, envy, hate or jealousy, possession, sin/immoral/inappropriate, behavior (in past, present, future), Karmic transgressions, foul air, bad air, bad smells illness was considered to be crisis cause of illness was attributed to the forces of evil, which originated within or outside the body early forms of healing dealt with the removal of evil from the body successful treatments passed on through generations draw the evil out induce vomiting, blood-letting, leeching eliminate the causative agent of evil identify and punish the person responsible isolate the sick person place them in a sacred place perform special rites chants, special prayers, pilgrimage, dances example of special rites spiritual journey: A person travels (often on foot) to a special place in order to make a petition to a higher power traditional healers examples priests/reverends, curanderas, parteras (midwives), acupuncturists, yogis, santeras traditional healer will... relationship with entire family, available at all times, consults with family, affordable, ties to sacred world, shares patient's culture and worldview modern provider will businesslike--deals with patients only, office visits, ignores family, expensive, secular, does not share culture and worldview allopathic modern/conventional/Western medicine homeopathic traditional medicine, folk medicine (including natural & magico-religious), alternative/complimentary medicine allopathic medicine definition a system of medicine that embraces all methods of proven treatment of diseases; that is, empirical science and scientific methodology is used to prove the value in the treatment of the disease traditional medicine definition the health practices, approaches, knowledge and beliefs incorporating plant, animal, and mineral-based medicines, spiritual therapies, manual techniques and exercises, applied singularly or in combination to treat, diagnose and prevent illness or maintain well-being folk medicine an informal system of beliefs and practices rooted in culture natural folk medicine represents one of humans' earliest uses of the natural environment to promote health. Uses herbs, plants, minerals, and animal substances to prevent and treat illnesses magico-religious folk medicine uses charms, holy words, and holy actions to prevent and cure illnesses example of magico-religious folk medicine amulet to ward off evil eye; prayers of a church group complimentary or alternative medicine (CAM) a formal health care system other than allopathic. It is not necessarily in one's culture; anyone can use it. example of CAM Prof. Jones (who is not Chinese) seeks help from an acupuncturist for back pain complimentary medicine is when a homeopathic approach is used together with conventional allopathic medicine alternative medicine is when a homeopathic approach is used in p