INTRODUCTION
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION defined traditional medicine as the talents and practices based on theories and beliefs indigenous to different tribes, cultures and religion whether explainable or not, used in curing diseases and maintaining health.
Source of definition
Traditional medicine, like Western or Orthodox medicine aims at healing or preventing disease. In this respect, both types of medicine have the same objective, but they differ in their concept of the cause of disease, their approach to healing as well as in the healing methods used. The basic concept of orthodox medicine centres around the results of experiments and the diseases is regarded as caused by physiopathological agents (including micro-organisms and noxious substances in food and the environment). Traditional medicine, however considers man as an integral somatic and extra-material entity and many developing countries will accept the fact that disease can be due to supernatural causes arising from the displeasure of ancestral gods, evil spirits, the effects of witch craft, the effect of spirit possession, or the intrusion of objects into the body. It is a system which places greater emphasis on the psychological causes of disease than that of the orthodox medicine. Further more, traditional medicine is often part of the culture of the people that use it and as a result, it is closely linked to their beliefs .
AETIOLOGY
As mentioned above, diseasee causation is one of the major distinguishing features between traditional and western medicine. The cause of a diseases is often ascribed to witchcraft, spirits and gods in traditional medicine. In this aspect, it differs markedly from scientific or orthodox medicine which does not believe in these forces. Causes of diseases have been classified into five categories (Lambo 1979) and according to that classification, human beings are affected in five different ways. Only one of these is known to orthodox medical practitioners; the reason lambo believes why traditional healers have a greater appeal to patients. The five causes of diseases according to traditional medicine includes;
1) PHYSICAL AILMENTS: These are diseases caused by injurious elements entering the human system through food, drinks, skin etc. Lamb agrees that the causes of these diseases are well known to modern doctors
2) PSYCHOLOGICAL CAUSES: Grouped under this title are diseases caused to man when his will is not in harmony with thr laws of nature. The diseased body is said to be affected by a diseases state of mind. Some people tend to believe that they are sick when in actual sense, nothing is wrong with their system (hypochondriasis). According to Lambo, people born under the Zodiac sign of Virgo(period of 22nd August to 22 September) are said to be prone to this kind of disease.
3) ASTRAL INFLUENCES: According to Lambo, it is known in occult science that the radiation from cosmic agents such as the Sun, moon and the planet have an influence on human either for good or evil. The moon is said to influence the brain, and it is said for this reason, lunatics become wild and act abnormally when the new moon appears. It is indeed generally believed, at least in Western Africa, that lunatics become more violent at the birth of a new moon. The appearance of a new moon, however, is not of itself known to cause mental disturbance.The distinction between "psychological causes" and "astral influences" especially the example of the virgo effect given above is however not clear from Lambo's classification.
4) SPRITUAL CAUSES: Evil thoughts, evil desires and machinations by enemies including soul projection or evil telepathic messages are all grouped together under spiritually caused diseases. Diseases caused by witchcraft would probably also come into this class.
5) ESOTERIC CAUSES: Diseases originating from the soul or those caused by the deeds of an individual in his past life (before reincarnation) are said to have esoteric causes. The distinction made by Lambo between astral, spiritual, and esoteric causes appear to ve very slim and there also appears to be considerable overlap.
From the five causes of disease, it would appear that the traditional practitioner's concept of disease is on a wider plane than that of the modern doctor. In India for example, until the discovery of bacteria and the advent of modern medicine in the 19th century, many communicable diseases were attributed to supernatural causes and regarded as evidence of the displeasure of ancestral gods and evil spirits or to black magic. Many less sophisticated communities in India and other developing countries still hold on to such beliefs. As a result, traditional medical doctor or indigenous healers undertake many exercising rituals on behalf of the sick an mentally afflicted. Among such communities in India, for example, diseases have been classified into three broad categories. Those curable by indigenous medicine, those curable by orthodox medicine, and those that are self-limiting and are not affected by either system.
However one thing is certain; Traditional medicine believes that illnesses are not due to organic causes but also arises from supernatural causes indicating the displeasure of the ancestral gods and evil spirits or the effect od black magic, spirit possession or the intrusion of objects into the body.
Because traditional medicine places so much emphasis on supernatural forces, the traditional medical practitioner is contacted not only in times of sickness but also when evil omen is noticed or when actual misfortune takes place such as an accident, quarrels in the family etc. For example; Makhabu (1978) explains that in Swazi medicine, both disease and misfortune are generally believed to arise as a result of one of two forces: ancestral anger or the great evil powers of witches. When a family has made an omission or error in family tradition, their ancestors gives punishment or sign to indicate that something is wrong in the family. This could be inform of a dog suddenly climbing to the roof top and languishing or howling bitterly. When such a peculiar situation arises in Swaziland, the elders in the family would consult a traditional medical practitioner.
DIAGNOSIS: In traditional medicine, diagnosis are divided into several aspects as follows.
ANAMNESIA: This is recollection of a previous existence of a patient. The practice delves deeply into the patient's past and often ramifies into the patient's entire family and/or social setting (Tella, 1977). An offence committed in the past existence of a patient can cause his disease after reincarnation.
OBSERVATION OF THE PATIENT: This involves watchin the patient's attitude. This observation can be clearly extended to include his relations, to find out whether the disease being observed is a family trait. Heritable diseases in orthodox medicine (e.g asthma or sickle cell anaemia) are similarly investigated but this is not a common component of a traditional doctor's method of diagnosis. Whereas the traditional practitioner sometimes listens to the patient's stories, using this opportunity to observe the patient and later enquires into the health of the patients relations.
VISUAL EXAMINATION: The eyes, skin, urine and faeces are also examined in traditional medicine. This may be surprising but just as the orthodox doctor examines his patient, so also does the adept traditional doctor; especially in cases of jaundice or yellow fever (yellowing of the eyes) or rashes on the skin. The visual examination is however probably more thorough in orthodox than in traditional medicine.
CLINICAL EXAMINATION: Summary of appearance, inspection of movable parts, palpation etc., are carried out by both the traditional doctor and the orthodox doctor. Pulse examination has reached a high degree of perfection in the Ayurvedic, Unani and Tibetan system of medicine which have established a correlation between pulse behaviour and humoral imbalance. The stethoscope or the patella hammer which are used during medical examination by an orthodox doctor are, however not normally used by the traditional doctor. He has not been trained to use such instruments and would therefore not know how to operate them nor interpret the results obtained. The retraining of traditional practitioners could include the introduction of simple diagnosis tools such as stethoscope, the thermometer and techniques of weighing, as is being done in Tanzania, China, India and some other developing countries nowadays.
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