Traditional Medicine: Nattuvaidyam and Home Remedies

Kampadilemba Ouoba, Department of Pharmacy, University of Strasbourg, Illkirch, France, Email: kamouoba@gmail.com

Received: 01-Jul-2022, Manuscript No. JCMEDU-22-68232; Editor assigned: 04-Jul-2022, Pre QC No. JCMEDU-22-68232 (PQ); Reviewed: 18-Jul-2022, QC No. JCMEDU-22-68232; Revised: 25-Jul-2022, Manuscript No. JCMEDU-22-68232 (R); Published: 02-Aug-2022

Description

Before the advent of modern medicine, diverse societies’ folk beliefs gradually evolved medicinal parts of traditional knowledge, which is what is known as traditional medicine. Traditional medicine is described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the body of knowledge, skills, and practises based on theories, beliefs, and experiences that are indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement, or treatment of physical and mental illness,” whether these are based on explanations or not. Scientific medicine and traditional medicine are frequently contrasted.

Up to 80% of the population in several Asian and African nations turns on traditional medicine for their basic medical requirements. Traditional medicine is frequently viewed as an alternative form of medicine when it is practised outside of its original cultural context. Traditional European medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, traditional Korean medicine, traditional African medicine, Ayurveda, Siddha medicine, Unani, traditional Iranian medicine, ancient Iranian medicine, mediaeval Islamic medicine, Muti, and Ifá are all examples of traditional medical practises. Herbalism, ethnomedicine, ethnobotany, and medical anthropology are among the scientific fields that research traditional medicine. However, according to the WHO, “wrong use of traditional medicines or practises might have negative or harmful effects” and “more study is needed to verify the efficacy and safety” of such activities and the medicinal plants employed by traditional medicine systems.” In order to “assist member states in developing proactive policies and implementing action plans that will increase the role traditional medicine plays in maintaining people’ health,” the WHO has put into place a nine-year strategy. Until it is “collected,” indigenous medicine is typically passed down orally through a community, family, and individual. A given community may have widespread knowledge of some aspects of indigenous medicine, or people who play a particular role in healing, like a shaman or midwife, may gather and apply this. The success of the healer’s activities, their personal beliefs, and the beliefs of the community all serve to legitimise their position. When the claims of indigenous medicine are disproved by a culture, there are typically three types of adherents who continue to use it: those who were born and raised in the culture and who become lifelong believers; temporary believers who use it during times of crisis; and those who only believe in certain, not all, of its claims. Sometimes traditional medicine is thought to be separate from folk medicine and to have codified elements of folk medicine. According to this definition, folk medicine refers to age-old treatments that are used and passed down by laypeople. Folk medicine refers to the therapeutic methods and theories of body physiology and health preservation that are generally known within a culture, passed down orally as common knowledge, and used by anybody with understanding of the culture.

Folk medicine

Folk medicine is practised in many nations, where it coexists with established, institutionalised, science-based medical systems known as conventional medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine, Iranian traditional medicine, traditional Korean medicine, indigenous Arabic medicine, Uyghur traditional medicine, Japanese Kamp medicine, traditional Aboriginal bush medicine, Native Hawaiian Lau lapaau, and Georgian folk medicine are a few examples of folk medicine traditions.

Nattuvaidyam

Before the development of allopathic or western medicine, there was a system of indigenous medicinal practises in India called nattuvaidyam. The assumptions and concepts underlying these practises regarding the human body, health, and disease varied. Within these disciplines, there were overlaps and borrowings of concepts, medicinal substances employed, and methodologies. Some of these customs were preserved verbally using various memory techniques while others have written texts in vernacular languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, etc. One type of nattuvaidyam practised in south India is ayurveda. The others included chintamanivaidyam, ottamoolivaidyam, marmachikitsa (vital spot massaging), kalarichikitsa (connected to bone setting and musculature), and so forth. Many of the procedures and methods unique to some of these various nattuvaidyam were incorporated into Ayurveda when the medical system was reformed in twentieth-century India.

Home remedies

A home remedy is a therapy for a sickness or ailment that makes use of certain spices, herbs, vegetables, or other everyday objects (also referred to as a granny cure). As they are primarily passed on by laypeople, home remedies may or may not contain medicinal characteristics that treat or cure the disease or affliction in issue (which has been facilitated in recent years by the Internet). Many are only used out of habit or custom, or because they work well to provide the placebo effect. Use of chicken soup to cure respiratory illnesses like a cold or mild flu is one of the more well-known examples of a home treatment. Home cures for plantar warts, broken bones, and sore throats include using duct tape, superglue, or duct tape, as well as Kogel mogel. In the past, moms were trusted with all except the most critical treatments. There are several recipes for treating dyspepsia, fevers, and feminine ailments in old cookbooks. Aloe vera plant extracts are used to treat skin conditions. Many liqueurs and digestifs in Europe were first marketed as medicines. Congees, which are longcooked rice soups flavoured with herbs, are used as part of traditional Chinese medical treatments.

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