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From: mfs@mhuxr.UUCP (SIMON)
Newsgroups: net.nlang.africa
Subject: Re: Is there any benefit in African Medicine
Message-ID: <307@mhuxr.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-May-85 17:17:57 EDT
Article-I.D.: mhuxr.307
Posted: Wed May  1 17:17:57 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 2-May-85 02:41:59 EDT
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Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
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Just two related notes:

1) African (or "natural") medicine often prescirbes the same medicine,
just in the form found in nature, rather than the form manufactured in
sterile factories. The feeling of ingesting or absorbing a part of
one's environment, a part one can see is alive and thriving in that
environment, must help the psychological state of the patient.
Since mind set is such an important of healing, African medicine
thus holds an andvantage over the "magic" Western approach of
"take these two white pills and call me in the morning"

2) In India, some rich man died and left money in his will for
a hospital on the condition that a wing of that hospital use
only naturalistic medical practices. Both are doing fine. After
some initial hostility, the westernized doctors started to
exchange information with their naturalistic colleagues. The
result has been better dosage, better understanding of naturalistic
practices, and generally better patient care. Every body wins.

Marcel Simon