Ayurveda
I've been seeing an Ayurvedic practitioner for the last 3 months and I highly recommend it.
Long story short: After 6 months dealing with recurring diarrhea and not sleeping well because of the churning in my stomach, I decided it was time to try alternative medicine. Ayurveda seemed a natural fit because it's based on what you eat and it uses herbs and spices to balance your body.
Within the first 2 weeks of following my prescribed dietary regimen, my stomach turned into happyland and I started sleeping like never before. My practitioner prescribed herbal supplements that she gets from India. They are...well...they're not my favorite part and you can get a huge benefit just from following a customized Ayurvedic diet without having to take the supplements, but I'm gonna keep going with the herbs for at least another month. The thing is, they're stinky. Also, unlike western medicine, you don't immediately feel an effect. So, it's like you're swallowing these stinky pills all day, watching your body progress at a snail's pace. But they DO work.
If you're a Cubanito like me, you probably grew up drinking all kinds of medicinal concoctions made from leaves and roots growing in your backyard pharmacy, so the idea of using plants and spices and food as holistic medicine is not that farfetched to you. If you're a gringo, you're probably like, "what kind of witchcraft is this?"
Anyway, if you've ever wondered about holistic medicine, I highly recommend looking into Ayurveda. It's done wonders for my stomach and my sleeping.
posted by Gucci at 9:39 AM
3 Comments:
Yikes, did you just accuse "gringo's" of not getting alternative medicine?
Just about every culture has some form of what some today call "alternative" medicine based on everything from herbs to water (hydrology).
According to Wikipedia Ayurvedic medicine has more than 2,000 years of history, Traditional Chinese medicine goes back 5,000 years and the history of European alternative medicine goes back more than 3,000 years.
And in more recdent history there have been a few alternative medicine approaches that have come out of dare I say gringo places such as The Biopsychosocial Model.
I know it's easy to blame the bad Western world on everything evil in the world but in the words of Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney "there's good and bad in everyone..."
11:02 PM
I did just accuse gringos of not getting alternative medicine. I did NOT, however, blame the Western world for all the evil on the planet.
Here's the thing, Anonymous: I've yet to meet a caucasian American who can relate to growing up using teas and herbs as medicines...except people whose parents were hippies or who've discovered alternative medicine on their own.
It's called alternative medicine in English for a reason: it's not culturally entrenched. In Cuban culture, however, using plants and spices to heal yourself is just an everyday occurrence. It's not "alternative"; it's the norm. That's not the case in America.
Oh, and a gringo I happen to be quite fond of did in fact sneer and say that my ayurvedic regimen sounds like witchcraft. He was not being "evil," of course, he's just not culturally attuned to "alternative medicine." And he's not the only one who has had such a skeptical reaction.
Anyhow, I appreciate your defense of Western alternative medicine. Of course it exists; it's just not part of everyday American life the way it is in many other cultures.
12:05 PM
You're right about the term alternative medicine. The term is really bad nomenclature and it gives the idea that something else is the dominant form.
Interestingly, some of the same traditions that are most well-known for the holistic approach train their professionals to incorporate both approaches in their treatment of patients. And while we know there are enormous differences in what we now think of as eastern and western medicines it's worth noting that researches have recognized that "striking similarities in the philosophical concept of elements and their relationships which constitute the universe and affect human health can be noted between the ancient East and West"
- Source: Comparative History of Chinese and Western Medicine Ray C.J. Chiu, MD, PhD.
Perhaps it's all just an issue of terminology and generalizing or using anecdotal evidence. In my experience, gringos come from so many different cultures and I think it would be inaccurate to assume that these folks don't use natural and home remedies or take more holistic approaches. In my own anecdotal experience I think I know more non-gringos that follow western medicine than gringos that are interested in and incorporate holistic medicine in their live.
While it's true there are people that "think of anything that doesn't come in a pre-packaged and branded box or isn't patented and developed by a big corporation and sold at your local pharmacy (and dispensed by someone else in a white coat) is pagan. I don't think this is unique to the USA or gringos.
Believe it or not there are people in India, China, and South America (the source for so many natural and even Rx medicine from the rain forests) that don't appreciate the empirical approach to medicine and there are many gringos that do get it because they grew up with natural approaches to medicine that were passed on from their cultures of origin.
4:46 PM
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