Important Roles Of Traditional Medicine In Latino Health Care

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Many indigenous people of Latino immigrant population are not treated fairly from standard health services. They are even discouraged from seeking medical attention due to an increased anxiety and unequal treatment.

Traditional or indigenous medicine, popularly known as TM, could help some of these health care barriers. This is because the method came from the unique values, cultural systems and exact health needs of these people, The Conversation reported.

The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges TM as a “mainstay of health and health care delivery.” This is according to the newest report on traditional medicine.

The report describes a new scheme of merging more traditional and community-based health care alternatives into mainstream medicine. Traditional Medicine, “of proven quality, safety, and efficacy, contributes to the goal of ensuring that all people have access to care,” WHO said.

In addition, there are strategy centers on two overarching goals. First, is allowing the member states to direct the abilities of traditional medicine into “people-centered” universal health systems and coverage. Another includes the advertising of safe and effective past cases of TM to warrant its quality.

According to Truth-Out, traditional and allopathic (a technical term for biomedicine or “Western”) medicines are often introduced as a contrasting idea. However, researchers recognized Latino people that they shift “freely between TM and biomedicine. These individuals based their action on “what they can access, what they can relate to, and what they believe works.”

Overall, traditional medicine systems are more preventive and lifestyle-oriented than allopathic techniques. Patients may be recommended to change their personal conducts and practices instead of just taking a pill.

Traditional medicine providers offer health services based on indigenous, community practices. Therefore, they can also function as primary access points for people having cultural obstructions to mainstream care. They could even serve as a means for marginalized Latino immigrant populations to attain allopathic care.