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advanteges of traditional medicines
american indians health issues
healthcare and native american culture
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Native Americans and Their Contributions to the Advancement of Health and Medicine
Stories of Native Americans contributions to the advancement of health and medicine traces were discovered in a small town in Nali, Africa. The very first onset of the beggining of modern pharmacology is the substance called "quinine". This is the substance that came from a bark of a tree that grew in high elevations. The Indians has been using this substance to cure malaria, cramps, chills, hear-rythm disorders and many other ailments. Prior to the disovery of quinine, the old world suffers enormously because the lack of medical knowledge that the old world posess. Quinine would have probably been introduce somewhere in 1630, as it was mention in a belgian medical text. Quinine made extensive settlement in America possible due to the fact that it cures malaria better than any other medicine and because its potent medicinal values. Until recently, quinine has been sold in Timbuktu as a medical tonic that promotes vitality and refreshments drink. This Indian tonic is apearant through out the city of Timbuktu in Africa. It`s a relic of a long line of deriratives tonics sold in the ninteenth and early twentieth century as a cures for all known imaginable ailments. There were realtive of the tree that provide quinine also cure amoebic dysentery and lethal infection of the intestine. Amoebic dysentery is a disease that cause by ingestions of certain amoebes, the symptoms range from bloody diarrhea to high fever. Ipecac is a medincine the Indians of the Amazon had created using three to four yearl old cepahlaelis ipecacuanla and c. acuminia plants to cure intestinal infections that is deadly among children. Up till now, poison clinic through o...
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...oncoctions drink which later in the century it became known as the famous Coca Cola drink. The Indians discovery of roots and bark that taste bitter and spice led to the development of Dr. Pepper that we know of today. So in coclusion, as discussed in this chapter from beggining to the end. Without the inovations, discovery, knowledge, expertise and experience that the Indians had contributed to the medical world, the advancement in medical knowledge that we know of today migh not be matured or largely evolve. Their cures and medicine had travel all over the world and whereever it goes it fully integrated into cultures. But soon the medicine is also taken for granted and soon people forget that if the contributions had not been there in the beggining , the old world doctors, pharmacist and dentist wouldn`t have expand or creates medicines that we use of today.
It was a notable fact that by this time [1763] the Ottawas were greatly reduced in numbers from what they were in former times, on account of the small-pox which they brought from Montreal during the French war with Great Britain. This small pox was sold to them shut up in a tin box, with the strict injunction not to open the box on their way homeward, but only when they should reach their country; and that this box contained something that would do them great good, and their people! The foolish people believed really there was something in the box supernatural, that would do them great good. Accordingly, after they reached home they opened the box; but behold there was another tin box inside, smaller. They took it out and opened the second box, and behold, still there was another box inside of the second box, smaller yet. So they kept on this way till they came to a very small box, which was not more than an inch long; and when they opened the last one they found nothing but mouldy particles in this last little box! They wondered very much what it was, and a great many closely inspected to try to find out what it meant. But alas, alas! pretty soon burst out a terrible sickness among them. The great Indian doctors themselves were taken sick and died. The tradition says it was indeed awful and terrible. Every one taken with it was sure to die.
The majority of us Americans know some basic things about how our nation came to be. We came from our mother country, Europe, and took over the native’s land. However, did the Native Americans have a fighting chance against the English?
1) First topic chosen was wellness which is “a conscious, self-directed and evolving process of achieving full potential.” (The National Wellness Institute, para 3) What wellness means to me is being with my family, surrounding myself with your loved ones, or even being with the environment. To Indigenous people it is the exact same with their wellness with each other, or the wellness with their environment. Mental wellness in Indigenous is living a journey along the way being fulfilled in good health. This changed my thoughts because sometimes I don’t always see the good or surround myself in happiness which can create bad health for me.
When early Europeans arrived in the United States more than 500 years ago, they were surprised to see Native Americans recovering from illnesses and injuries that they considered fatal. In many ways, the Indians' herbal remedies were far superior to those known to the new immigrants. But, for the Native Americans, they had no remedies for the "diseases of civilization," or white man's diseases, such as measles and small pox, which would wipe out thousands of them over the next few centuries. Not
Many of the inequalities in the health of the Aboriginal people can be attributed to the
American Indians have had health disparities as result of unmet needs and historical traumatic experiences that have lasted over 500 hundred years.1(p99) Since first contact American Indians have been exposed to infectious disease and death2(p19), more importantly, a legacy of genocide, legislated forcible removal, reservation, termination, allotment, and assimilation3. This catastrophic history had led to generational historical traumas and contributes to the worst health in the United States.2 American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) represent 0.9 percent of the United States population4(p3) or 1.9 million AI/AN of 566 federally recognized tribes/nations.5 American Indians/Alaska Natives have significantly higher mortality rates of intentional and unintentional injuries, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease and chronic lower respiratory disease than other American.6
A major problem facing people of the United States is the increase in diabetes rates, with some of the highest rates fall upon people of Native American origin. Food, language, and traditions are three big components that define the Native American culture, but could alterations to the very components that define these indigenous people also be contributing to their demise? Many factors have contributed to the declining health of Native Americans, but most notably, changes in eating habits and inactive lifestyles are the two of the main culprits leading to the high diabetes rates among the Native American population.
Many people believe that Native Americans are a disadvantaged group of individuals in many ways. Culturally, in that many of the cultures of the various tribes across the Americas were taken from them by Europeans and their descendants. Socially, in that they are unlike other minorities in the United States because of their extra-constitutional status; and even medically, stemming from the general belief that Natives are at a higher risk for disease than other ethnicities due to tobacco and alcohol use, especially when used together (Falk, Hiller-Sturmhöfel, & Yi, 2006).
Throughout time, mankind has persistently been seeking ways to maintain their health and to cure those that had not been so fortunate in that task. Just about everything has been experimented with as a cure for some type of illness; whether physical, spiritual or mental. There has always been evidence of spiritual healing and it will continue to be an important part of any healing process, large or small.
The Columbian exchange was the widespread transfer of various products such as animals, plants, and culture between the Americas and Europe. Though most likely unintentional, the byproduct that had the largest impact from this exchange between the old and new world was communicable diseases. Europeans and other immigrants brought a host of diseases with them to America, which killed as much as ninety percent of the native population. Epidemics ravaged both native and nonnative populations of the new world destroying civilizations. The source of these epidemics were due to low resistance, poor sanitation, and inadequate medical knowledge- “more die of the practitioner than of the natural course of the disease (Duffy).” These diseases of the new world posed a serious
Saggers, S., & Walter, M. (2007). Poverty and social class. In Bailie, Carson, Chanhall + Dunbar Social determinants of indigenous health. Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin.
Our friends the Native American people held a knowledge of plants used for medicine that has held true to this day. The Native Americans used more than 500 healing herbs thought to be healing secrets that are used in many modern day drugs. Native American healers regarded plants as relatives with the same energy, elements, minerals, and living compounds that are found in the natural world. Researchers in laboratories estimate that 25 percent of the drugs in use have actual ingredients either derived from or chemically similar to those in plants. Some of the drugs that have their roots in nature are the cancer drug tamoxifen, the heart drug digitalis, and painkillers morphine and aspirin. The powers of observation and the passing on of
Hampton, R., & Toombs, M. (2013). Chapter 4: Indigenous Australian concepts of health and well-being. In Indigenous Australians and Health: The Wombat in the Room. (pp. 73-90). Oxford University Press: South Melbourne.
In 1633 an Augustinian monk wrote about the uses of “the fever tree.” First the bark was used for the fever and chills of malaria. But after time, it was morphed into a pill for leg cramps and the fancy drink tonic water. First it was used for malaria and the USA didn’t worry for decades. Then it was found
To start, let us examine a persistent and pesky disease known as malaria. Today there is still a constant battle being fought against this easily transmitted disease. The people of Africa, Europe (particularly England and Germany), South America and the United States all felt widespread effects of this disease, although tropical conditions were more suitable and dangerous. With so many lives at risk worldwide, great strides were taken between the nineteenth and twentieth century to aid the situation. In the year of 1820, a couple scientists by the names of Caventou and Pelletier were successfully able to separate and extract a breakthrough chemical from bark called cinchona, or quinine. Cinchona was a popular plant in the rainforest that contained