Alternative and Traditional Medicine Research Kath

The age-old traditional health care practices are still relevant and are followed by communities across the countries. India's contribution remains exemplary in the growth of traditional health care systems. The present study reviews the strength of traditional health care systems and medicinal plants of India that has been contributing in health care not only from time immemorial but also makes it numero uno choice of community for curing many chronic diseases. An extensive literature survey was undertaken for compilation of information on the traditional systems of medicine in India, which include Ayurveda, Unani, homeopathy and Siddha. The careful investigation of information reveals that Ayurveda is one of the oldest systems of medicine evolved in India. It is a holistic system of treatment, which is an amalgamation of regular diet, use of medicine and following practices like exercise and behavior. The contribution of plants, as raw material for making medical formulations, is significant in the Indian systems of medicine, and over 6,500 species of plants are known to occur in India those are used by various streams of traditional health care practitioners. Attempts made by the Government of India in enriching and managing these age-old health care systems are also discussed.

Turkish Journal of Agriculture - Food Science and Technology

Traditional medicine is still the only treatment in many rural areas especially the rural communities of east. Due to limited access to modern medicine, local people use medicinal plants to treat most diseases. Some herbs contain powerful contents and must be treated with the same precautionary care as in the case of drug, we do. In fact, a lot of drugs are basically based on artificial verities of natural composite in plants. For example, the heart drug Digitalis comes from a foxglove plant. Some drugs are single active substance derived from botanical sources. Herbalists believe that if the active ingredient is isolated from other parts of the plant, its action may be lost or its safety may be reduced. E.g, salicylic acid is present in a plant of meadowsweet which is used for aspirin production. Aspirin may cause bleeding in the gastric mucosa, but meadowsweet contains some other compounds naturally that interfere with the stimulation of salicylic acid. According to some practitio...

Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2007

2021

The use of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) in different societies around the world is increasing significantly. The World Health Organization (WHO) has presented reports on the revival of traditional medicine in different parts of the world. World Health Organization discusses the policies of countries regarding traditional and complementary medicine practices in the “Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023” which highlights the need to develop strategies for safe, respectful and effective delivery of traditional and complementary medicine practices. Homeopathy, yoga, osteopathy, cupping therapy, and leech therapy are examples of traditional and complementary medicine used in various countries. This study aims to give information about the traditional and complementary medicine practices in Turkey and some selected countries and to examine the policies related to these practices. Various recommendations have been made by researching training strategies, certification a...

Ethnopharmacological relevance: Ethnobotanical knowledge and traditional medicinal practices from different parts of the world are of global importance and documentation of ethnobotanical, and eth-nopharmacological data is a key prerequisite for further research in the area of herbal medicine and its implementation in clinical practice. Aims: An attempt was made to evaluate the scientific output of research related to ethnobotany and herbal medicine in journals indexed in the subject area " Integrative and Complementary Medicine " in the period 2001–2013, in order to ascertain research trends in both subdisciplines. Materials and methods: All articles related to ethnobotany and herbal medicine, extracted from journals included in the field of I&C Medicine and published in the period 2001–2013, have been analyzed for general bibliometric data, and specific data: ethnobotanical data (geographic, floristic, pharmacological, sociological and other relevant data) and phytotherapeutic data (type of applied herbal medicine, plant species studied, pharmacological activity of studied plant species and disease and disorder type studied on a particular model). Results: In the studied period, the number of articles dealing with ethnobotany and herbal medicine increased 6.3-fold. Articles related to ethnobotanical studies documented medicinal flora from 81 countries, either giving an overview of overall medicinal flora, or presenting the ethnomedicinal aspect of the use of plants for the treatment of ailments typical to the studied area. Additionally, the authors provided significant information on the methods of use and herbal preparations. In herbal medicine studies, plants, traditional plant remedies, herbal medicinal products and active herbal compounds were tested for many of pharmacological activities (146), with the curative activity emerging as most frequently tested. Out of 39 model systems, most of the studies were carried out under controlled in vitro conditions (4589 articles), followed by rat in vivo (2320), human in vivo (1285), mouse in vivo (955), and on agents of pathogenic diseases (887); more than 800 medical disorders were treated.

The Professional Medical Journal

From ancient times, humankind has used self-created traditional methods for handling the illnesses and continues to use them along with modern medicine. Even today, more than 70% of the world’s population still depends on the complementary and alternative systems of medicine (CAM). The objective of this study is to create awareness of health hazards with the use of CAM therapies and to find out its utility among Pakistani population. Comprehensive questionnaire was developed for the study on the use of CAM and was distributed to 470 patients/attendants in different hospitals of Lahore as well as major hospitals and clinical setups in the peripheral regions of Lahore, Pakistan. Over all, the response rate of the study was 81.7% while 78.1 % population found as CAM user. The most common type of alternative medicine used by patients is from Hakeem (Natural Therapist) which is about 17% and the most frequent disease for which patients often go for CAM therapy is liver diseases (19%). Re...

Bentham Science , 2022

Introduction: This study is an effort to document extensively and systematically the ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal knowledge in the four districts (Puri, Cuttack, Bhadrak, and Mayurbhanj) of Odisha in Eastern India. It provides new insights into the rich ethnomedicinal knowledge and plants biodiversity in these four districts. Methods: The method of convenience sampling was conducted to get the ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal knowledge of the healers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the information got was quantified and documented with the aid of various databases. Eleven traditional healers endowed information on their traditional medicinal knowledge. 74 plant species belonging to 44 botanical families are documented and among these 44 botanical families, five (Rutaceae, Malvaceae, Astaraceae, Annonaceae, and Euphorbiaceae) are mostly used by the healers. The healers mainly use leaves and roots in the medicine's preparation. Results: Twenty-five ailments are treated by these traditional healers, which are majorly dominated by dermatological treatments. The pharmacological mining of these 74 plants revealed that a few pharmacological and biological activities of each medicinal plant had been studied. Our study revealed that these four districts of Odisha have a rich biodiversity of medicinal plants. Conclusion: Promoting the plantation of some of these species can enhance the income of the traditional healers of these districts and simultaneously make the exploitation of these plant species sustainable. We also found that the pharmacological and biological activities of many plant species are yet to be explored.

2016

SUmmAry – The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of complementary and alter-native medicine (CAm) and related factors among patients with chronic diseases. A cross-sectional study was carried out in outpatient clinics of a general hospital using a random sample of 252 adult patients with chronic diseases. data included information on patient demographics and socioeco-nomic factors, as well as items to identify CAm use and the reasons for using CAm. data were evaluated by Pearson’s χ2-test and fisher’s exact test. it was found that 55.9 % of study patients appli-ed CAm. A significant number of patients (63.8%) were using CAm for hypertension. This study found that CAm use was associated with female gender, married status, housewives, low income and high levels of education. The present study confirmed the high frequency of CAm use among patients with chronic diseases in a turkish public hospital.

Alternative & Integrative Medicine, 2014

Primitive Medicines; Ayurvedic Herbal and other treatment therapy are the oldest way of treatment in eastern philosophy and now it is classified Complementary and the Alternative Medicine (CAM). In Nepal they have been very famous since last century. There was high utilization in mid and far western region of Nepal in the past. So it is necessary to explore their use in that territory. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to explore the available herbs product and their utilization as therapeutic. Methodology: A cross sectional study was done within Kailali district in Nepal.The respondents were selected in systematic random sampling and the clusters were selected in PPS having 27% in household base. Pretested questionnaire were used for the study. Ethical Approved was taken from Nepal health research council and informed consent was taken from respondents. Epi data 3.1 version was used to entry the data and SPSS 20 was used for the data analysis. Chi Square test was used to show the association between different variable and CAM utilization. Results: During the study 24 types of herbs were found in practice. About 1/4 th (23.7%) used the herbs as therapeutic use, Narayanpur used least proportion (10%), and the people who had misconception of food used the herbs. More than 1/3 rd (37%) used those herbs for cough and respiratory symptoms. The person who had information about the cause of disease and the knowledge of preventive ways with the application of herbs were statistically significant (p<0.0001). Conclusion: The behavior of using CAM is very old practice and very effective of some illness even now. The utilization of therapy is done together with current allopathic treatment system and there is limited research of CAM utilization with comparative study. A comparative study should be necessary to find the implication of herbs with the modern allopathic system and economic aspects. If their application can be updated and used with research, it will have good result for the treatment.

Herbal Medicine in Yemen, 2012

This paper takes the example of a plant that grows in Yemen and explores its properties in light of the World Health Organization&#39;s definition. The anthropological fieldwork that forms the basis of the study was carried out in Zabid and its hinterland, and the plant in question is called hanzal in Arabic, colocynth in English, or colloquially bitter gourd. The bitterness of the colocynth is also proverbial among the Jewish community of Yemen. The colocynth has formed part of the Yemeni materia medica for a long period of time, both in terms of its practical application and its description in the medical manuals. In traditional medicine, the causes of illness can also be of supernatural origin. This has been one of the most basic principles of human health concerns since ancient times and the evidence can be found beginning with the earliest medical texts from the ancient Near East. Keywords:colocynth; human health; Jewish community; materia medica ; traditional medicine; Yemen; Zabid

This compilation is largely confined to books, in English. Its original motivation can be traced back to my research and unpublished writing on Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) in conjunction with an abiding interest in Buddhism, in particular its relevance to the mind and human psychology. The inclusion of literature on the "placebo effect" is not intended to suggest or imply that alternative and complementary medicine is, in the end, simply reducible to evidence of a placebo effect, although, as in (scientific) biomedicine, there is undoubtedly an awareness of its possible and probable role in the healing and health of both body and mind. The title of this bibliography-specifically, the term "complementary"-should make it clear that I don't think alternative medicine and healing traditions are inherently superior to modern biomedicine, indeed, in my own case, I would likely seek out, in the first instance, a physician trained in modern biomedicine for diagnosing the symptoms of an illness that might afflict me; but there are a class (the boundaries of which are not well-defined) of bodily and mental ailments or afflictions that

Journal of Saidu Medical College, Swat, 1969

Objectives: The use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by the general population andadmitted in hospitals has been on the increase. The study was carried to find out the prevalence of CAM useamong patients admitted in the tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar.Methods: This was a cross sectional study. The investigators administered a structured questionnaire to 400patients admitted in tertiary care hospitals of Peshawar. Data were analyzed using statistical package forsocial sciences version 13.0.Results: It was found that 189/400 (47.25%) patients had used CAM. There was association betweenchronic diseases and CAM. The association between illiteracy and CAM use was significant. There seemedto be a preference for use of Hakimi medicine over other forms of CAM being studied i.e. homeopathic,herbal, nutritional supplements. Most of the patients turned to CAM use on advice from their friends andfamily. Hence peer pressure was an important factor in increasing CAM use.Conclus...

Increasing numbers of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners are interested in evidence-based medicine (EBM). Researchers are in need of further information regarding the current status of CAM practitioner's knowledge and use of EBM. A high prevalence of CAM use has been documented worldwide in children and adolescents with chronic illnesses. Only a small number of studies, however, have been conducted in the Pakistan. Primary aim of survey was performed to estimate and explore the use of alternative medicine in patients with different diseases among all age groups. A questionnaire survey was distributed in different hospitals (n =2000) in rural and urban area. Total 500 patients were observed out of which 48.66% were male and 51.34% were female. The 48% of the patients were literate while 52% patients do not know how to read or write. It was found in this study that 42.07% of population is getting allopathic treatment, 32.81% towards herbal treatment and 23.69% towards homeopathic treatment among the patient taking allopathic treatment almost 51.48% were male and 48.76 % female. The urban population almost 52.84% male and 47.16% female were using allopathic mode of treatment. While 44.52% male and 55.48% female in rural population were taking allopathic treatment In case of herbal treatment percentage ratio of rural and urban population was 31% and 19% respectively among male patients. Among females 30% patient belong to urban region while 20% patients were from rural areas 37% male and 29% female patients were taking homeopathic treatment in urban areas. In rural areas among the patients taking homeopathic treatment almost 21% patients were female while 13% patients were male Almost 60% patients agreed that they were getting required outcome of medicine however 40% patients feel that they were getting no effects in the start of these therapies Analysis of general health appearance of patients showed that almost 19% were in very good health condition. Almost 44% patients had good health while 12% were in satisfactory look. The ratio of patients suffering poor health was found to be 25%. Along with being more educated and reporting poorer health status, the majority of alternative medicine users appear to be doing so not so much as a result of being dissatisfied with conventional medicine but largely because they find these health care alternatives to be more congruent with their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations toward health and life.

Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 2008

Traditional, complementary and alternative medical (TCAM) systems contribute to the foundation of person-centred medicine (PCM), an epistemological orientation for medical science which places the person as a physical, psychological and spiritual entity at the centre of health care and of the therapeutic process. PCM wishes to broaden the bio-molecular reductionistic approach of medical science towards an integration that allows people, doctors, nurses, health-care professionals and patients to become the real protagonists of the health-care scene. The doctor or caregiver needs to act out of empathy to meet the unique value of each human being, which unfolds over the course of a lifetime from conception to natural death. Knowledge of the human being should not be instrumental to economic or political interests, ideology, theories or religious dogma. Research needs to be broadened with methodological tools to investigate person-centred medical interventions. Salutogenesis is a fundamental principle of PCM, promoting health and preventing illness by strengthening the individual's self-healing abilities. TCAM systems also give tools to predict the insurgence of illness and treat it before the appearance of overt organic disease. A task of PCM is to educate people to take better care of their physical, psychological and spiritual health. Health-care education needs to be broadened to give doctors and health-care workers of the future the tools to act in innovative and highly differentiated ways, always guided by deep respect for individual autonomy, personal culture, religion and beliefs.

Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions