Traditional Medicine And Primary Health Care

Complementary and integrative medicine (CIM) has become big business. Alongside the increased consumption of complementary medicine and the swelling numbers of complementary health practitioners has emerged a growing interest in these medicines and therapies from within the ranks of conventional primary health care. At the level of practice and beyond, a culture of confrontation and antagonism has begun to be replaced by a focus upon potential integration, collaboration and common ground. With these significant developments in mind, this ground-breaking book is a valuable and timely addition to the CIM and primary health care research literature. The collection outlines the core issues, challenges and opportunities facing the CIM–primary health care interface and its study and will provide insight and inspiration for those practising, studying and researching the contemporary relations between CIM and primary health care. The book is the first to be authored by leading international CIM–primary health care researchers from diverse disciplines and backgrounds, including health social science, statistics, qualitative methodology, general practice, clinical trials design, clinical pharmacology, health services research and public health. All contributors are active CIM–primary health care researchers and their extensive research and practice experience helps lend a unique immediacy and richness to the contributions and collection. Contents:Patients, Illness and Disease: CIM Use and Its Context in Primary Health Care:Primary Health Care, Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Women's Health: A Focus upon Menopause (Amie Steel, Jane Frawley, Jon Adams, David Sibbritt, and Alex Broom)Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Aging and Chronic Illness: Towards an Interprofessional Approach in Primary Health Care (Kevin D Willison, Sally Lindsay, Marissa Taylor, Harold Schroeder, and Gavin J Andrews)Complementary and Alternative Medicine and Skin Disease in General Practice (Parker Magin and Jon Adams)Practitioners and the Professional CIM Interface:Naturopaths: Their Role in Primary Health Care Delivery (Jon Wardle and Jon Adams)Linking Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Traditional Medicine and Primary Health Care: The Role of Local Health Traditions in Promoting Health Security (Daniel Hollenberg and Maria Costanza Torri)Examining the Relationship between Complementary and Integrative Medicine and Rural General Practice: A Focus upon Health Services Research (Jon Wardle, Jon Adams, Alex Broom, and David Sibbritt)(Just) Who is the Expert? The Ambiguity of Expertise in Over-the-Counter CAM Purchasing: An Ethnographic Study of UK Community Pharmacies and Health Shops (Helen Cramer, Lesley Wye, Marjorie Weiss, and Ali Shaw)Conceptualising Integrative Medicine in Primary Health Care: Experience and Challenges:Integrating Complementary Medicine in Primary Health Care as a Response to Contemporary Challenges: A Focus upon Effectiveness Gaps and Self-Care (David Peters)Exploring a Model of Integrative Medicine: A Case Study in Swedish Primary Health Care (Tobias Sundberg)Integration in Primary Health Care: A Focus upon Practice and Education and the Importance of a Critical Social Science Perspective (Jon Adams, Daniel Hollenberg, Alex Broom, Amie Steel, David Sibbritt, and Chi-Wai Lui) Readership: Practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, health care managers, governments, policy makers and regulators, researchers, academia, and advanced students of conventional as well as alternative healthcare, and the general audience who are interested in evidence-based holistic self-care. Keywords:Primary Health Care;Complementary Medicine;Integrative Medicine;General Practice;Pharmacy;Health Services Research

Herbal medicines constitute the main component of traditional medicine, which have been used since thousands of years. They have made significant contribution to human health through their health promotive, curative and rehabilitative properties and in the prevention of illnesses. Indeed, many herbal remedies used traditionally have become modern medicines through drug development. Digoxin, morphine, colchicine, and artemisinin are some notable examples. Long tradition of use of many herbal remedies and experiences passed on from generation to generation has brought about reliance by the people on herbal medicines. At present, the use of herbal medicinal plants for health products is increasing worldwide. This publication contains 28 monographs on common ailments which can be readily treated with simple herbal remedies. They can be prepared easily and used within the ambit of primary health care. Each monograph provides description of the ailment, the form of traditional preparation, its composition, English name, Latin name and family of the plant, plant part used, main chemical constituents, quality standards, method of preparation, dosage form, therapeutic properties, indications and uses, dose and mode of administration, precautions and safety aspects, and important references. This manual can be used by health planners, policy makers, national and district health authorities and others involved in the health sector development and reform. It is also an attempt to increase availability and accessibility to cost-effective treatment of commonly encountered health problems with herbal remedies. It will be useful for education and training of community health workers as well.

The Republic of Palau in the Caroline Islands has a traditional medical system developed over many generations. The Palau Primary Health Care Manual compiles traditional ethnomedical information about plants and presents it within the context of Western Medicine. Many common health conditions are discussed in this book, including those specific to Palauan culture. The book is divided into chapters that discuss plant therapies used in traditional medical care including preventive medicine, chronic disease, bites and stings, diarrhea and gastrointestinal disorders, skin disorders, cuts, wounds, and broken bones, stress, pain, women's health, men's health, colds and flu, and ear, nose, and throat. Also provided is scientific information about each species including efficacy, pharmacology, and potential toxicity, where known. It is intended as an educational manual for Palau and the Pacific region, an area where traditional medicine and some of the plants used in its practice, are endangered resources. Based on extensive on-island research and a comprehensive review of the literature, the book has been produced by a group of Palauan and international experts, specialists in ethnomedicine, clinical care, public health, biology, conservation, and Pacific Island culture.

A wide-ranging account of traditional medical practices is intended to provide health administrators and practitioners with background information that may help them improve health care coverage, especially in developing countries, through a judicious blending of orthodox and unorthodox health resources.

The World Health Organization has acknowledged that the majority of people living in developing countries continue to use traditional medicine. Increased levels of immigration and migration also mean that health professionals are more likely to come into contact with patients using them. Traditional Medicine is therefore a vital and timely book which covers medical systems practised on five continents, including: * traditional European folk medicine* Aboriginal/traditional medicine in North America* traditional medicine in the Colombian Amazon Tropical forest* traditional medical practice in Africa* traditional Chinese medicine* Indian Ayurvedic medicine* Japanese Kampo medicine * Korean medicine* traditional medicines in the Pacific* traditional Jewish medicine.Each section, written by an acknowledged expert, gives information on history, philosophy, methods of practice, safety issues, evidence, and examples of medicines. Traditional Medicine will be a crucial resource for complementary and alternative practitioners and students worldwide and for healthcare providers working in a multicultural society enabling them to interact effectively with their patients.Steven B Kayne is Honorary Consultant Pharmacist at Glasgow Homeopathic Hospital and Honorary Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde, School of Pharmacy, Glasgow, UK.

In Nigeria, for quite a long time, many medical scholars have advocated that attention should be given to traditional medicine as an alternative or complementary system of medicine for example, in the early 60ís, Prof. Adeoye Lambo, saw the need to integrate some aspects of traditional medicine into the country's health care system. Despite the growing interest in traditional medicine as an integral part of health care delivery, the bulk of it still remain unregulated. This observation may account for the contempt and distrust existing between the traditional healers and their orthodox counterparts, with each group claiming supremacy and relevance over the other. In Nigeria modern medicine continues to remain costly, heavily bureaucratised and elitist-oriented with large parts of the populace continuing to visit traditional clinics and healing homes in order to find succour and solace in the hands of the uncurbed and poorly regulated traditional healers. It is the view of the author of this book that some form of regulation between the two systems is necessary, to begin the debate the following questions are addressed here: What constitutes traditional or modern medicine? What are the criticisms against them and how are they refuted? How do you identify the beneficial, neutral, harmless and harmful aspects of the practice of indigenous medicine? What aspects of these, should or should not be integrated? What are the modifications the orthodox practitioner has to make? What are the problems and prospects of integration?