It is the better understanding of alternate medicine including medicine from other cultures.

It involves rethinking the basis for our understanding of how we define what medicine, health & healing is.

AND HOW THIS COLOURS OUR PERCEPTION OF OTHER MEDICAL SYSTEMS

Anthropological perspective & research methods are used to the study of sickness, health, healing & disease

Holistic approach is used

Look at both Nature & Nurture

Nature: try to understand the human body & mind (biological)

Nurture: Social & Cultural dimensions

We need take both Nature & Nurture into consideration when doing sickness/disease profiling of a particular community, this is done through: OBSERVATION, INTERVIEWS & ORAL HISTORY

Need to go beyond a Medical Framework to a more Holistic approach

Need understand person's background in terms of RELIGION, POLITICS, ECONOMIC, SOCIAL ORGANISATION- These aspects of society impacts on sickness/disease in different ways.

Developed in the mid 1960's

Time where people started questioning the environment

Looked at other alternate factors that are impacting on the spread of illness/disease

Started to shift away from a purely biomedical approach to find the root problems

Started to view illness more holistically- patient & illness/disease profiling

With treatment from clinics & hospitals people's Health still not improving, WHY?

One of the first combined studies to be undertaken, by both Biomedical Practitioners & Anthropologists in the 1960s

Understand why anemia was on the increase even when people where given the medication

Study focused on Spanish speaking immigrants in the U.S

Find out why pregnant women hemorrhage during child-birth, even though they where given the anemia medication at the hospitals & clinics

Anthropologist where sent in to investigate

It was found that this community held certain belief systems that prevents them from taking certain things

They had a hot/cold classification system for every aspect of the life?e.g for medical, food, disease.

They believe that the head was hot, so the women perceived the anemia medication as hot, as the pills were red in colour

The idea was in terms of hot & cold, you do the opposite of what you feel

Here the women believed there head was hot and the medication was red in colour, hence, its was something hot

Therefore they where not taking their anemia medication

As the believed in doing the opposite to what you feel

Anthropologists recommended that the colour of the medication should be change.

Doctors with this information now, suggested the women put the tablet in orange juice so it turns white

Later on the medication colour changed

From this we see how cultural belief system impacts on people's healing

Know we look at how western society impact on dietary changes in traditional societies (from a medical point of view)

Detrimental effect on non-western population, where western convenience food have been introduced

With this new convenience food people eat less traditional food & more unhealthy fatty food

See a rapid rise in new diseases as a result of new lifestyle change e.g diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, high cholesterol etc?

Nutrition & Culture, staple food high fiber was barely consumed. In many societies there are different belief systems surrounding food, in terms of what to eat n what not to eat

Biomedical is known as modern Western Medicine

Approach to disease, Views the as Body as a machine

Treat you with medicine on the symptom only

Chemical response

Interested in the disease not the person, disease as separate from the person

Bio-psychosocial Model, Anthropologist tried to move away from the Bio-medical approach.

Look at Disease & Illness Holistically

Attitudes that determine survival, Psychological

Social & Cultural view of Disease & Illness in terms of Cultural Belief Systems

Disease is something that is clinical

Can be classified

It is a Medical Entity

Illness is Different, Socially & Culturally constituted display of Learned & Shared patterns of perceiving, experience & coping with symptoms.

It is lived experiences

Human drama of how the person views their illness

How they got the illness

How they cope with the illness

Illness varies from society to society, group to group, culture to culture

The way people view illness differs from society to society

This is influenced through cultural belief systems

Culture will inform people how to view disease & illness

Interactionist, interact together to give certain populations around the world a Disease Profile

What Disease affects that population group and the reasons that surround the spread of the disease

As not every population group is subjected to the same disease, patterns differ from society to society

Certain diseases affect more the poorer than the middle/upper class

Need to look at the ecology i.e the environment where the population group resides at

Example: Malaria- more in tropical regions, T.B more in the Black population need look at the history of South Africa to understand WHY

Interactionist view: look at Ecology, Culture & History to determine a Disease Profile

They view disease holistically, other contributing factors to the spread of disease.

Is the study of the relationship of organisms in the environment

Humans have learnt to adapt to certain organisms that exist in the environment e.g germ virus

They have adapted to co-exist over time

About 80% of illness that come into your bodies can be fought of by minimal care

Proper nutrition and rest can fight of the flu & cold virus, as the is no cure for the flu or cold virus

20% that does reamin does need medical intervention e.g T.B, Cholera, Malaria etc..

Our Immune System holds virus back within us but some times it weakens and the virus come

Most often enough we are able to fight of illness

Our Natural Defense (Immune System) has evolved & adapted over time

Which gives us our 80% capability to fight of these viruses

As the Ecology & Culture changes new germs start to evolve

Our bodies need to put up a fight

It is through Industrialization that new illness as come about that our bodies struggle to fight them off

As people move from rural to urban settings their disease profile changes

Now introduced to other diseases n illness

Major pollution in the urban areas, more people getting sick

Stress is also another issue that impact on health

Affects more the industrialized countries

See the rise of Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Cancer, Strokes, Chronic Lung Disease etc..

These Disease accounts for 75% of all deaths in urban areas and in rural areas accounts for 45%

This is associated with lifestyle change