Health and healing: spiritual, pharmaceutical, and mechanical medicine.

Modern medical practice is identified as a relatively recent way of approaching human ill health in the wide scope of how people have addressed sickness throughout history and across a wide range of cultures. The ideological biases of medical or "allopathic" (disease as "other" or "outsider") practice are identified and grafted onto other perspectives on how people not engaged in modern medicine have achieved healing and health. Alternative forms of healing and health open a consideration of ethnomedicine, many forms of which are unknown and, hence, untested by modern medical research. Ethnomedicine the world over and throughout human history has displayed unique spiritual (vitalism), pharmaceutical (herbs/drugs), and mechanical (manipulation/surgery) approaches to treating illness. The argument is that modern allopathic medicine would do well to consider such "world medicine" as having valuable alternative and complementary therapies, the use of which could enhance contemporary medical advice and practice.

Armenian medicine and diseases of the kidney.

The history of Armenian medicine is that of the common practice of medicine in caring for the sick through the ages, using mainly local medicinal herbs and natural products. Over the years, its practitioners persistently collected and recorded an expanding body of information on therapeutics and put it to use for the daily medical care of ordinary folks. Armenian medicine developed around the church and monasteries, which flourished during episodic periods of peace in an otherwise tumultuous and warring region. However, unlike the monastic medicine that developed in Europe, Armenian medicine maintained the rationality it had acquired from Greek medicine, and never resorted to magic, myth or amulets. Nor did it acquire or import saints. Armenian medicine is a classic example of the evolving art of therapeutics, whose record is preserved in extant manuscripts, saved over the centuries in monasteries, and now preserved in accessible collections.

A Gift from the Buddhist Monastery: The Role of Buddhist Medical Practices in the Assimilation of the Opium Poppy in Chinese Medicine during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).

This paper aims to critically appraise the incorporation of opium poppy into medical practice in Song-dynasty China. By analysing materia medica and formularies, along with non-medical sources from the Song period, this study sheds light on the role of Chinese Buddhist monasteries in the process of incorporation of foreign plants into Chinese medicine. It argues that Buddhist monasteries played a significant role in the evolution of the use of opium poppy in Song dynasty medicine. This is because the consumption practices in Buddhist monasteries inspired substantial changes in the medical application of the flower during the Southern Song dynasty. While, at the beginning of Song dynasty, court scholars incorporated opium poppy into official materia medica in order to treat disorders such as huangdan  and xiaoke , as well as cinnabar poisoning, this study of the later Song medical treatises shows how opium poppy was repurposed to treat symptoms such as diarrhoea, coughing and spasms. Such a shift in the medical use of the poppy occurred after Chinese literati and doctors became acquainted with the role of the flower in the diet and medical practices of Buddhist monks across China. Therefore, the case study of the medical application of opium poppy during the Song dynasty provides us with insights into how the spread of certain practices in Buddhist monasteries might have contributed to the change in both professional medical practices and daily-life healthcare in local communities in that period.

Esoteric healing traditions: a conceptual overview.

This paper presents, for the first time, a comprehensive scholarly examination of the history and principles of major traditions of esoteric healing. After a brief conceptual overview of esoteric religion and healing, summaries are provided of eight major esoteric traditions, including descriptions of beliefs and practices related to health, healing, and medicine. These include what are termed the kabbalistic tradition, the mystery school tradition, the gnostic tradition, the brotherhoods tradition, the Eastern mystical tradition, the Western mystical tradition, the shamanic tradition, and the new age tradition. Next, commonalities across these traditions are summarized with respect to beliefs and practices related to anatomy and physiology; nosology and etiology; pathophysiology; and therapeutic modalities. Finally, the implications of this survey of esoteric healing are discussed for clinicians, biomedical researchers, and medical educators.

O cuidado em saúde promovido pelas religiões afro-brasileiras / Health care promoted by afro-brazilian religions / El cuidado en salud promovido por las religiones afrobrasileñas

No decorrer da história, sempre foram infindáveis os casos em que os sujeitos recorriam a centros espíritas ou terreiros de religiões de matrizes africanas em decorrência de problemas como doenças, desempregos ou amores mal resolvidos, com o objetivo de saná-los. Por conta disso, este artigo visa apresentar os resultados da pesquisa relacionados ao objetivo de mapear os processos de cuidado em saúde ofertados em três terreiros de umbanda de uma cidade do litoral piauiense. Para isso, utilizamos o referencial da Análise Institucional "no papel". Os participantes foram três líderes de terreiros e os respectivos praticantes/consulentes dos seus estabelecimentos religiosos. Identificamos perspectivas de cuidado que se contrapunham às racionalidades biomédicas, positivistas e cartesianas, e faziam referência ao uso de plantas medicinais, ao recebimento de rezas e passes e à consulta oracular. A partir desses resultados, podemos perceber ser cada vez mais necessário, portanto, que os povos de terreiros protagonizem a construção, implementação e avaliação das políticas públicas que lhe sejam específicas.(AU)

In history, there have always been endless cases of people turning to spiritual centers or terreiros of religions of African matrices due to problems such as illnesses, unemployment, or unresolved love affairs. Therefore, this article aims to present the research results related to the objective of mapping the health care processes offered in three Umbanda terreiros of a city on the Piauí Coast. For this, we use the Institutional Analysis reference "on Paper." The participants were three leaders of terreiros and the respective practitioners/consultants of their religious establishments. We identified perspectives of care that contrasted with biomedical, positivist, and Cartesian rationalities and referred to the use of medicinal plants, the prescript of prayers and passes, and oracular consultation. From these results, we can see that it is increasingly necessary, therefore, that the peoples of the terreiros lead the construction, implementation, and evaluation of public policies that are specific to them.(AU)

A lo largo de la historia, siempre hubo casos en los cuales las personas buscan en los centros espíritas o terreros de religiones africanas la cura para sus problemas, como enfermedades, desempleo o amoríos mal resueltos. Por este motivo, este artículo pretende presentar los resultados de la investigación con el objetivo de mapear los procesos de cuidado en salud ofrecidos en tres terreros de umbanda de una ciudad del litoral de Piauí (Brasil). Para ello, se utiliza el referencial del Análisis Institucional "en el Papel". Los participantes fueron tres líderes de terreros y los respectivos practicantes / consultivos de los establecimientos religiosos que los mismos conducían. Se identificaron perspectivas de cuidado que se contraponían a las racionalidades biomédicas, positivistas y cartesianas, y hacían referencia al uso de plantas medicinales, al recibimiento de rezos y pases y a la consulta oracular. Los resultados permiten concluir que es cada vez más necesario que los pueblos de terreros sean agentes protagónicos de la construcción, implementación y evaluación de las políticas públicas destinadas específicamente para ellos.(AU)

[Pain--life's dreaded companion. Cultural history of algology and the most important achievements]. / Smärta--livets fruktade följeslagare. Algologins kulturhistoria och de viktigaste landvinningarna.

Pain is a comprehensive phenomenon which concerns not only physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology but also music, art, religion, philosophy and everyday life. The early contributions to the development of the specificity theory is described, as are some of the important discoveries in the history of algology, such as Baillou's description of rheumatism, Heberden's description of angina pectoris and the development of the gate control theory. Despite a number of important discoveries and a much improved knowledge in basic science pain is still the dreaded companion of mankind.

Reclaiming our moral tradition. Catholic teaching calls us to accept the limits of medical technology.

The success of science and medical technology has led to medical brinkmanship, pushing aggressive treatment as far as it can go. But medicine lacks the precision necessary for such brinkmanship to succeed, and the resulting cycle of expectation and disappointment in technology has, in part, led to an increasing acceptance of euthanasia and assisted suicide, linked closely with advocacy for patient autonomy. At the opposite extreme lies medical vitalism, which refers to attempts to preserve the patient's life in and of itself without any significant hope for recovery. The Catholic moral tradition offers a middle ground, well expressed in the 1994 Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. The tradition does not deny the good of technology or state that some lives are not worth living. Rather, it calls us to accept the fact that medical technology has limits. In reclaiming this tradition, we reclaim the naturalness of death. Reclaiming the tradition has practical consequences for the use of life-prolonging technology at the end of life and for end-of-life decision making. These can be placed in three broad categories: the Christian understanding of care, the ambiguity inherent in end-of-life decision making, and the task of Christian formation.

[Jan Radlica prescription from the years of his episcopacy in Cracow (1382-1392)]. / Recepta lekarska Jana Radlicy z lat jego episkopatu w Krakowie (1382-1392).

In 1953 the author for the first time published the Polish translation of five prescriptions of a Cracow bishop and doctor Jan Radlica dating from his episcopacy in Cracow between 1382 and 1392. They were addressed probably to his Hungarian friend of an unknown name in a form of the letter. Prescriptions contain medicines like pills, syrup, brew, poultice and a pear fruit to be applied in case of a headache. Following an extensive characteristics of Radlica as a physician presented by Stanislaw Sroka, the author read again Radlica's paper from the Middle Ages and analysed the contents of his prescriptions pointing the degree to which Radlica based on the works of Mesue the Younger and Mattheus Platearius. On the grounds of the above considerations Radlica must have been an important consultant for the recepient of the letter well read in pharmacotherapy able to precisely describe the preparation of medicines and making them easily available to the sick.

Medicinal plants used for traditional veterinary in the Sierras de Córdoba (Argentina): an ethnobotanical comparison with human medicinal uses.

BACKGROUND: This is a first description of the main ethnoveterinary features of the peasants in the Sierras de Córdoba. The aim of this study was to analyze the use of medicinal plants and other traditional therapeutic practices for healing domestic animals and cattle. Our particular goals were to: characterize veterinary ethnobotanical knowledge considering age, gender and role of the specialists; interpret the cultural features of the traditional local veterinary medicine and plant uses associated to it; compare the plants used in traditional veterinary medicine, with those used in human medicine in the same region. METHODS: Fieldwork was carried out as part of an ethnobotanic regional study where 64 informants were interviewed regarding medicinal plants used in veterinary medicine throughout 2001-2010. Based participant observation and open and semi-structured interviews we obtained information on the traditional practices of diagnosis and healing, focusing on the veterinary uses given to plants (part of the plant used, method of preparation and administration). Plants speciemens were collected with the informants and their vernacular and scientific names were registered in a database. Non-parametric statistic was used to evaluate differences in medicinal plant knowledge, use, and valorization by local people. A comparison between traditional veterinary medicine and previous human medicine studies developed in the region was performed by analyzing the percentages of common species and uses, and by considering Sorensen's Similarity Index. RESULTS: A total of 127 medicinal uses were registered, corresponding to 70 species of plants belonging to 39 botanic families. Veterinary ethnobotanical knowledge was specialized, restricted, in general, to cattle breeders (mainly men) and to a less degree to healers, and was independent of the age of the interviewees. Native plants were mostly used as skin cicatrizants, disinfectants or for treating digestive disorders. Together with a vast repertoire of plant pharmacopoeia, the therapies also involve religious or ritualistic practices and other popular remedies that evidence the influence of traditional Hispanic-European knowledge. Although the traditional veterinary knowledge seems to be similar or else is inlcuded in the local human ethnomedicine, sharing a common group of plants, it has distinct traits originated by a constant assessment of new applications specifically destined to the treatment of animals. CONCLUSIONS: Veterinary medicine is a fountain of relevant vernacular knowledge, a permanent source for testing new applications with valuable ethnobotanical interest. Knowledge on medicinal applications of native plants will allow future validations and tests for new homeopathic or phytotherapeutic preparations.

["And thus there was another pointless thing in the country [...]". The failed homoeopathic training of missionaries at the Basle Mission]. / "[...] und war ein Stück Grümpel mehr im Lande". Die gescheiterten Versuche einer homöopathischen Aus- bildung für Missionare der Basler Mission.

This article deals with the unsuccessful attempts to allow missionaries of the Basle Mission to undergo homoeopathic training. Before the Mission undertook systematic medical missionary work in society in the 1880s, there were various requests and suggestions to train the missionaries in homoeopathy. Here, these attempts are put into a greater context of the research into "Homoeopathy and Mission". It becomes clear that Hahnemann's teachings were certainly used in the Mission, even if finding this out is sometimes arduous.

The characteristics of complementary and alternative medicine use by parents of asthmatic children in Southern Israel.

AIM: The aim of this study was to estimate the rate and describe the characteristics of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use by children with asthma in a paediatric primary care clinic in southern Israel. METHOD: A cross-sectional study including 252 asthmatic children aged 2-12-years was conducted. Socio-demographic data and asthma history were collected using a telephone questionnaire. Computerized medical records were used to complete the data. RESULTS: Sixteen percent (95% CI 11.5-20.5) of the asthmatic children participating in this study used CAM; most popular were homeopathy (36.6%) and reflexology (14.6%). According to multivariate model, CAM use was more prevalent in families in which fathers had professional training (OR = 4.9, 95% CI 1.82-13.02, p = 0.002), mothers were employed (OR = 4.1, 95% CI 1.018-16.1, p = 0.047), and origin of maternal grandfathers was European (OR = 4.7, 95% CI 1.86-11.8, p = 0.001). Families who used CAM, also more frequently sought rabbinical advice (OR = 11.9, 95% CI 2.94-47.7, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of CAM use found in this study is lower than seen in other Western countries. The 'average family' using CAM to treat its asthmatic child includes an educated father, an employed mother and maternal grandfather from Europe, and would more often seek rabbi's advice.

Ethno-diversity within current ethno-pharmacology as part of Israeli traditional medicine--a review.

The Holy Land has absorbed millions of immigrants in recent centuries: Jews from East and West, Druze, Circassians, Muslim and Christian Arabs. The land is unique and diverse in geographical location and ethnic groups, and also in its cultural characteristics, including traditional medicine and use of materia medica. However, these traditions have waned over the years. The young state of Israel adopted a "melting pot" approach to fashion Jews from all over the world into Israelis. The traditional medicine and materia medica of different ethnic groups (Yemenite, Iranian, and Iraqi Jews) are reviewed in this paper, as well as the ethno-botanical survey (first conducted in the 1980s, covering Bedouins, Druze, Circassians, and Muslim and Christian Arabs), and the matching ethno-pharmacological survey (conducted in the late 1990s) covering the medicines sold in stores. Present-day healers are usually not young and are believed to be the end of the chain of traditional medical knowledge. The ethno-diversity of Israel is becoming blurred; modernity prevails, and ethnic characteristics are fading. The characteristic lines of traditional medicine and materia medica have hardly lasted three generations. A salient former dividing line between ethnic groups, namely their use of different medicinal substances, paradoxically becomes a bridge for conservative users of all groups and religions. Shops selling these substances have become centers for "nostalgia" and preserving the oriental heritage, traditional medicine, and medicinal substances!

[Homeopathy and the clergy: the portrait of a relationship]. / Homoopathie und Klerus. Zur Geschichte einer besonderen Beziehung.

This study traces the attraction that 19th century homeopathy exerted on clergymen of all three major Christian denominations, an appeal which is evidenced by the extensive homeopathic activities of clerical healers and missionaries. Practical considerations, such as the relatively easy acquisition of basic therapeutic skills, combined with and reinforced philosophical and religious preferences for a healing systm that stressed the unique properties of the body and the spiritual force of healing and remedies. The use of homeopathy enabled the clergy, as professional experts in the realm of the supernatural and immaterial, to refute the prevailing "mechanistic" and "materialistic" trends in contemporary academic medicine. Accordingly, some of the clergy arrived at striking syncretisms, supplementing homeopathy with sympathetic or religious healing methods.

Saúde, Espiritualidade e Religiosidade segundo o Espiritismo / Health, Spirituality and Religiosity according to Spiritism

Nas últimas décadas, tem-se observado um número crescente de estudos evidenciando uma associação positiva do envolvimento espiritual e religioso com melhores indicadores de saúde física e mental. Nesse contexto, espiritualidade e religiosidade se relacionam a menores taxas de suicídio, depressão, ansiedade e uso de substâncias ilícitas; melhor recuperação nos casos de depressão e maior bem-estar geral, dentre outros benefícios que as caracterizam como fonte de força e resiliência para os pacientes. Assim sendo, espiritualidade e religiosidade passam a ser valorizadas como importantes contributos na atenção clínica e na promoção à saúde, sendo de fundamental importância sua incorporação às atividades de ensino, pesquisa e assistência dos currículos acadêmicos das diversas áreas da saúde. Analogamente, pela importância crescente dedicada à correlação entre saúde, espiritualidade e religiosidade, profissionais da saúde devem estar preparados para compreender as demandas espirituais e religiosas de seus pacientes, adquirindo informação e treinamento nos diversos aspectos e abordagens desse vasto campo de conhecimento. Atendendo a esse objetivo, propomos neste projeto de pós-doutorado sistematizar e disponibilizar as contribuições do Espiritismo no entendimento dessa correlação, em vista de ser um sistema ideológico de cunho científico, filosófico e religioso, disseminado mundialmente e seguido por 2% da população brasileira segundo o último censo demográfico (IBGE, 2010).

Objective: In recent decades, there has been an increasing number of studies showing a positive association between spiritual and religious involvement and better indicators of physical and mental health. In this context, spirituality and religiosity are related to lower rates of suicide, depression, anxiety and use of illicit substances; better recovery in cases of depression and greater general well-being, among other benefits that characterize them as a source of strength and resilience for patients. Therefore, spirituality and religiosity are now valued as important contributors to clinical care and health promotion, and their incorporation into teaching, research and assistance activities in the academic curricula of the various areas of health is of fundamental importance. Analogously, due to the growing importance dedicated to the correlation between health, spirituality and religiosity, health professionals must be prepared to understand the spiritual and religious demands of their patients, acquiring information and training in the different aspects and approaches of this vast field of knowledge. In order to meet this objective, we propose in this postdoctoral project to systematize and make available the contributions of the Spiritism in understanding this correlation, in view of being an ideological system of a scientific, philosophical and religious nature, disseminated worldwide and followed by 2% of the Brazilian population according to the last demographic census (IBGE, 2010).