Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Importance of traditional medicine
Importance of traditional medicine
Importance of traditional medicine
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Importance of traditional medicine
Traditional medicines as they were passed on through generations formed the basis of health care in the earliest civilizations. New medical discoveries evolved from this foundation as the medical field developed throughout the ages. Of particular interest are the highly developed Turkish traditional medicines. Important trade routes from advanced societies such as the Chinese and Islamic nations passed through Turkey, thus introducing their respective medicinal knowledge to this area. In addition, Turkey has a large diversity of endemic plant species which provided them with the necessary natural products used in these "remedies". Dr. Nil Sari has translated Islamic medicinal documents and has identified traditional medicines used to treat what presently is termed "cancer". Professor John Snyder's lab has used Dr. Sari's discoveries to isolate a plant-derived bioactive compound and is currently in the process of synthesizing it.
I joined Professor Snyder's synthetic organic lab group September 1995. I have been assigned my own project under his supervision. The research involves synthesizing a series of triazines with varying substituents. Triazines are molecules with three nitrogen atoms in its structure. These compounds will then be used as prototypes so that I may test different cyanide replacement reactions. In these reactions, cyanide replaces a specific original substituent on the triazine. Cyanide withdraws electrons from the rest of the molecule, making the atoms around the cyanide "electron-deficient". Dr. Snyder's lab synthesizes ringed molecules through an "inverse Diels-Alder" reaction. Generally, an orbital of an electron-deficient molecule with a "double-single-double" bond sequence overlaps with an orbital of an electron rich reactant. The overlapped orbitals form a bond, which in turn forms the reactants into a ringed molecule. Cyanide displacements are thus an important technique in preparing electron-deficient reactants to form ringed molecules.
The triazine series will also be used as testing molecules in the development of a "nitrogen-15" probe. Dr. Hodge Markgraf from Williams College is developing a nuclear magnetic resonance machine for the nitrogen-15 atom. NMR determines the structure of a molecule by plotting the nuclear-spin transitions of the atoms when exposed to an external magnetic field. So far, NMR has mainly focused on the hydrogen-1 and carbon-13 isotopes. The N-15 atom is also NMR active because it has an uneven number of protons (7) and therefore has magnetic properties.
The primary goal of this laboratory project was to identify an unknown compound and determine its chemical and physical properties. First the appearance, odor, solubility, and conductivity of the compound were observed and measured so that they could be compared to those of known compounds. Then the cation present in the compound was identified using the flame test. The identity of the anion present in the compound was deduced through a series of chemical tests (Cooper, 2009).
Mathews, Holly F. "Introduction: A Regional Approach and Multidisciplinary Persepctive." Herbal and Magical Medicine: Traditional Healing Today. Ed. James Kirkland, Holly F. Mathews, C. W. Sullivan, III, and Karen Baldwin. Durham: Duke UP, 1992. 1-13. Print.
The Black Death is the name later given to the epidemic of plague that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351. The disaster affected all aspects of life. Depopulation and shortage of labor hastened changes already inherent in the rural economy; the substitution of wages for labor services was accelerated, and social stratification became less rigid. Psychological morbidity affected the arts; in religion, the lack of educated personnel among the clergy gravely reduced the intellectual vigor of the church.
No other epidemic reaches the level of the Black Death which took place from 1348 to 1350. The epidemic, better regarded as a pandemic, shook Europe, Asia, and North Africa; therefore it deems as the one of the most devastating events in world history. In The Black Death: The Great Mortality of 1348-1350, John Aberth, compiles primary sources in order to examine the origins and outcomes of this deadly disease. The author, a history professor and associate academic dean at Vermont’s Castleton State College, specializes in medieval history and the Black Death. He wrote the book in order to provide multiple perspectives of the plague’s impact. Primarily, pathogens started the whole phenomenon; however, geological, economic, and social conditions
Interconnectedness is a theme that flows throughout all aspects of Cherokee culture from spirituality to medicine, as they believe everything within the world is related. They believe spiritual energy courses through all components of the universe that influence their daily life and maintaining a balance between these energies is crucial to being in harmony with Mother Nature and living a fulfilling life. Rather than having a dominant species, group or society, all components of the world are considered to be equal and to have a purposeful role (Garrett 2001 pg 1). Given this perspective, the Cherokee believe they can learn about health and medicine from plants, survival tactics from animals, and spirit freedom from birds. Due to this relationship, it is their duty to respect and revere this continuous flow of energy within the universe as they consider themselves to be brought to this earth as the keepers of Mother Nature (Garrett and Garrett 1996).
Many of the inequalities in the health of the Aboriginal people can be attributed to the
Homeopathy medicine is a self-healing alternative medicine developed in 1790 by German physician and chemist Samuel Hahnemann. Homeopathy medicine aims to treat the whole body and not just the symptoms. Homeopathy medicine was very popular throughout the united states during the early 1900 but began to die out after the civil war. Homeopathy medicine is approximately 200 years old, though it is believed to have originated in 400 B.C through Hippocrates. However, Samuel Hahnemann gave this medical practice a name in the late 1700s and developed three principles for Homeopathy medicine that still stands today. Homeopathy medicine was developed in the late 1700s, which saw a period of unhygienic and brutal medical techniques. Samuel a physician
In 1347, Europe was swept with one of the most devastating human catastrophes recorded in history, the Black Death. During the late 1340s and early 1350s, the lethal pandemic affected parts of western Asia and North Africa and it is believed to have begun in Central Asia in the early 1330s. Historians estimate that “the Black Death killed anywhere from 33 to 60 percent of Europe’s total population—roughly 25 million to 45 million men, women, and children.” (7) The Black Death that swept through Europe during the 1340s was an important event in history because it showed how a plague could easily spread through an unprepared population and the consequences it created.
Ross defines and differentiates between the terms healing and curing. She recognizes the fact that healing and curing are very intertwined and it can be hard to distinguish between the two terms. There are differences between the definitions in scholarly and general settings. She references an ethnographic study of healing versus curing conducted by anthropologists Andrew Strathern and Pamela Stewart in 1999 with native groups in New Guinea. The results of the study looked at how energy used by the different types of tribal healers to either cure or heal a patient. Eastern medicine focuses on how energy interacts with the healing process in connection within the mind. Whereas Western medicine is focused on the mind and the body separately. The practice is considered a holistic approach to finding cures. According to Ross (2013), healing is more a therapeutic process targeting the whole body and specific illness including emotional, mental, and social aspects in the treatment. The act of curing is a pragmatic approach that focuses on removing the problem all together. The life experiences of a person playing into how well certain treatments will heal or cure what is ailing them. These aspects can not be defined with textbook definitions. The interaction that the healing process has with energy is a variable in the success rate. Uncontrolled emotions can have a greater impact on the inside the body than a person can realize. The exploration of energy interaction within the body can be used for greater analysis of health care systems. (21-22). Are Western healthcare facilities purposely “curing” patients just so that they return are few years later? Is Western Medicine built upon a negative feedback loop? The terminolo...
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) differ from each other in many ways. TCM favors a holistic approach, views the universe and body philosophically and develops inductive tools and methods to guide restoring the total balance of the body. In Chinese medicine, the correct balance between Yin and Yang make up the vital energy, Qi, an essential life-sustaining substance of which all things are made. Some Traditional remedies include herbal medicines, acupuncture, massage and moxibustion, an herbal heat therapy. Western medicine is closely linked to the scientific method and emphasizes biochemical processes causes disease, its treatment and health. This form of treatment views all medical phenomena as cause-effect sequences and relies on drugs, radiation and surgery to alleviate symptoms and cure diseases. As you see, the two types of medicine are completely challenged differently depending on the doctor, the diagnosis, and the treatment options. All of these are completely different when compared with each other.
Levy, Joel. The Bedside Book Of Chemistry. Vol. 1. Millers Point: Pier 9, 2011. 34-84. 1 vols. Print.
1. Brown, Theodore L., H. Eugene LeMay Jr., Bruce E. Bursten. Chemistry: The Central Science. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2000.
So from last many thousands years the medicinal plant being used by humans for different therapeutic purpose and are changed to modern medicine like many modern drugs originated from plant source. Many of the life saving drug are isolated/extract from medicinal plant examples include Vincristine (Vinca), digoxin (Digitalis), quinine (cinchona bark), Atropine (Datura), Artimicine (Artimisia annua), morphine (from the opium poppy) (Vickers and Zollman, 1999). As per WHO the uses of herbal drug was increased day by day to two- three time more as compared to conventional drug in different form like nutraceuticals, ayurvedic drugs, traditional chinse medicine, Functional food etc (Evans, 1994).
Herbal remedies’ qualities are widespread availability, lower cost, effective for chronic conditions. Herbal remedies are the use of plants or plant extract to treat a person’ overall health. Herbal treatments are prominent for developing countries for instance, “in Africa up to 90% and in India 70% of the population depend on traditional medicine to help meet their health care needs” (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011), due to their low cost and availability. Herbal remedies have gained attention in the past decades, and expanding their uses due to the increased interest of natural therapies (Wachtel-Galor & Benzie, 2011). Herbs used on the remedies grow in the wild throughout the world, therefore making it easy to
Over the centuries, ancients made use of several treatment methods. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Alternative medicine is older than modern one. That effective therapy has used for many centuries on the patience when modern medicine has not occurred in the world. Because it has improved in China, it can be called Traditional Chinese Medicine. In contrast, modern medicine has been in used since 1900’s. In this system, drugs’ testes are done in safety laboratories with care and nicety, and their side effects are located before they are given to the patient. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked so, people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people to take more chemicals into their bodies. Further, modern medicine has splendid efficacy on the fatal diseases. Even, alternative medicine which people’s ancestors utilized stayed in the background when modern medicine has just found, it works at the present time efficaciously. ****** Therefore, using alternative medicine is more helpful to get better than modern medicine because there are fewer drugs, side effects; there is placebo effect and holistic therapy.