BE2001.

801 New Paradigms in Health

Evidence 1 - Comparison between two traditional medical systems

María Fernanda Solano Gutiérrez A01748493

Profesor:
Dr. Raquel Solis Peña
Lic. Georgina Díaz

Grupo 801

January 22, 2023

 Evidence 1 - Comparison between two traditional medical systems

First, The term “traditional Mexican medicine” refers to the system of concepts,

beliefs, practices, and material and symbolic resources aimed at the care of various ailments

and unbalancing processes, whose origin dates back to pre-Hispanic cultures but which, like

any social institution, has varied over the centuries, influenced by other medical cultures

(Spanish, African, modern), by changes in the epidemiological profile of populations and by

nonmedical factors of various kinds (economic, ecological, religious). The expressions used

to designate it are abundant: indigenous medicine, parallel medicine, folk medicine, natural

medicine, herbal medicine, ethnomedicine, etc. In preferring the term “traditional medicine”,

universalized by the World Health Organization (WHO), we do so guided by the conviction

that it is a manifestation of medical culture that maintains close links with the past, a medical

culture in which oral transmission of ancestral knowledge has played an essential role. With

variants, but also with abundant and significant similarities, this medicine is present in all the

peoples or ethnolinguistic groups of Mexico,

Traditional indigenous medicine can be fully understood when five essential aspects

or components are considered: 1) the human resource; 2) the procedures and methods of

diagnosis and healing; 3) the causes of demand for care; 4) the material and symbolic

therapeutic resources, and 5) the relations of the traditional medical model with other models

within the real health system.

In traditional Mexican medicine, the human resources are Curanderos, midwives,

bonesetters, and hierberos, who form the majority group of traditional indigenous therapists,

in addition to an abundant number of specialists: rezanderos, sobadores, ensalmadores,

graniceros, chupadores, culebreros or viboreros, adivinadores, etc., with specific designations

in the indigenous languages. Thus, for example, the Cora healers of Nayarit receive various

names: tiguataca, icuaguame, i llanaca te igoguate, titihuataca and tyanama, some of which
distinguish specific types of practices: the icuaguame triubech mi ichurachcomil is the

“healer with feathers and pipe”, the ya'aname is the chanter and the tte ucube, the

chanter-lawyer in prayers. Famous in the anthropological-medical literature are the Huichol

mara'akame, the Tzotzil iloletik, the Maya h 'menoob or the shuta shiné (or shinea) of the

Mazatec world, individuals of undoubted prestige and essential factor in group cohesion and

social control. In some cases, the designations are very old and their filiation is undoubtedly

indigenous; in others, the influence of Spanish and the growing bilingualism is visible, as

among the Amuzgos of Guerrero, where the cui'jna de baraja, a therapist who cures "the

trace" of the patient using the Spanish deck as an essential instrument of his procedures of

symbolic efficacy, operates.

In general, traditional indigenous therapists are older adults; (child or adolescent

healers are exceptional), a factor that since pre-Hispanic times has been associated with the

accumulation of experience, technical and moral authority, and, as in the case of the Nahua

studied by Sahagún, with the increase in the strength of the tonalli, one of the essential

psychic centers of the person (the others were the yollo -teyolía-, located in the heart, and the

ihíyotl, which anatomically could be identified in the hepatic area). The process by which one

becomes a traditional therapist presents remarkable coincidences among the different

indigenous: the discovery of the vocation can occur in the dream, in the course of an illness,

in the trance or the ecstasy provoked by the ingestion of "sacred plants" of vegetable origin

like the peyote, the ololiuhqui, the seeds of the virgin, the mushrooms, the, nymphs, etc. ), or

from certain physical signs observed by the parents or the midwife at birth that reveal the

destiny of the future healer. Apprenticeship with an older, more experienced therapist is often

the path to becoming a healer. In general, traditional indigenous physicians also fulfill

religious functions as guides or organizers of rituals associated with the life cycle or
agricultural activities (blessing of the cornfields, weather prediction), and are distinguished as

spiritual guides and exceptional interpreters of the group's culture and ideology.

Secondly, The use of traditional Chinese medicine has existed for more than 5,000

years and is as old as Chinese culture itself. Traditional medicine consists of the use of herbal

medicine to cure “evils” due to the imbalance of the body, based on the “Ying and Yang

which represents the balance between good and evil, bad and good, darkness and light (Xie

Zhufan. 2000).

Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the 5 elements: water, earth, metal, wood

and fire, according to the Chinese, all the “evils” of the body are related to these elements.

There are several theories that form the basis of the theory of Chinese Medicine, these

theories are those of Ying-Yang, the Five Elements and the Basic Substances.

The concept of Yin and Yang is fundamental to understanding Chinese medicine. Yin

and Yang cannot be interpreted as things in the Western sense, but as the key to a system of

thought devised to understand the world. The character of Yin translates as the “dark side of

the mountain” and represents qualities, such as coldness, stillness, passivity, darkness,

inwardness and potential. The character for Yang translates as the “lighted side of the

mountain” and represents warmth, activity, light, outwardness and expression. The

interdependence between the two points to the dynamic interaction between them, i.e., they

must be in balance. For example, fever is considered in Chinese medicine as a relative excess

of Yang. The principle of treatment is based on allowing the transformation of excess Yang

into Yin to restore a state of balance and biological homeostasis. A dynamic balance between

the two is characterized by a state of health, and a state of disease indicates some imbalance

between the Yin and Yang of the body.

 The theory of the five elements holds that wood, fire, earth, metal, and water are the

basic elements that constitute the material world. Among them there is a relationship of

intergeneration and interinhibition, which determines their state of constant change and

movement. 41 Chapter V The theory of the five elements explains mainly the relationship of

integration, inter-dominance, over-dominance and counter-dominance among them.

Traditional Chinese medicine uses this theory to classify natural phenomena, most organs,

tissues, and human emotions into various categories; and interprets the relationships between

the pathophysiology of the human body and the natural environment, applying to each of

these classifications the laws of intergeneration, interdominance, over-dominance and

counter-dominance of the five elements; this constitutes the guide for medical practice.

The similarities of these two traditional medicines using plant medicines in the

prevention or cure of some diseases are as follows: To begin with, these two types of

traditional medicines have been used for several thousand years and basically the

fundamentals of both is to maintain balance, not only in the body, but also the body with the

surrounding environment. Both therapeutic systems are adapted to specific socio-cultural and

geographical settings and contexts that respond to the health needs of society. Another

similarity is that both countries use natural resources (plants, minerals, animals, water, etc.),

not only as technical (therapeutic) means to prevent and combat diseases, but also as

elements intimately associated with culture and the world of beliefs. Thirdly, they are not

systems independent of the rest of the culture of the people or society in question. Just as

health/illness are situations resulting from a balance/imbalance with the wider environment

(not only physical and social), what may be health in one case, for someone specific or in a

specific situation may be illness (or understood as such) for another, or in another different

situation; and vice versa and finally both are natural medicines (physical and biological) as
well as symbolic (cultural), having in tradition the support not only for the reception of

information but for its organization, way of proceeding and safe transmission.

The difference between these traditional medicines is that in Mexico traditional

medicine was left for many years and its development was not followed, however traditional

Chinese medicine continued to be practiced through the years and has been developed more,

since it has been studied over time and with new technologies it has been able to be based

according to the new standards that exist for medicines. Another difference of notable interest

is that China is the only country in the world where Western medicine and traditional

medicine are practiced for health care, using both types of treatment in a single disease.

In conclusion, Both medicines can be complemented with other types of medicines,

however in Mexico there is very little research on the same being one of the richest countries

in plant diversity we must return the look to the plants to cure diseases naturally, should

increase research and improve the pharmaceutical field. On the other hand China, China has

sought the development of medicines under the strategy of using active ingredients obtained

from the plant whose use in traditional medicine and includes the valuation of plants in use

by the current population.

I think that everything I learned in this research will help me to be more aware of the

type of medicine of the culture and understand how it works, personally I think they are very

interesting topics and even though they are from other cultures there is no reason to close to

try them and if under the research has proven the effectiveness, it is very good to try new

things and if at some point I have an international partner I would ask his opinion on this

topic to know more deeply the functionality and some other remedies.
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