Utilization of traditional healing practices from Mexico by U. S. women of Mexican origin: A systematic review.

Hispanics are 18.7 % of the U.S. population, and people of Mexican origin are 61.4 % of that Hispanic community. National health surveys indicate that utilization of traditional medicine among Hispanics is low compared to non-Hispanic Whites. However, many researchers have described their use in Hispanic populations as commonplace. OBJECTIVE: This review analyzed studies about traditional healing practices from Mexico (THPM) used by women of Mexican origin in the U.S. for a greater understanding of traditional health practices within U.S. communities of Mexican origin. DATA SOURCES: Journal databases were searched for studies between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 2020. STUDY SELECTION: The Whittemore and Knafl and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) methods were used to analyze the studies. DATA EXTRACTION: Seven themes emerged: A) foundations, B) medical pluralism, C) non-disclosure and patient satisfaction, D) remedies and rituals, E) healers, F) affinity, and G) what clinicians need to know. Four subthemes were identified: G1) cultural sensitivity, G2) communication skills, G3) leveraging the influence of THPM, and G4) scientific inquiry. DATA SYNTHESIS: U.S. women of Mexican origin reported continued use of THPM for health promotion, influenced by their understanding of health and illness, community ties, and personal experiences. Study authors recommended strategies for improving patient-provider communication and understanding patients' use of traditional health and healing practices. CONCLUSION: Further explorations of THPM are needed to build awareness of culturally-tied health beliefs and behaviors that improve medical care experiences and quality for Hispanics of Mexican origin.

Metaphor, magic, and mental disorder: Poetics and ontology in Mexican (Purépecha) curanderismo.

This article offers an epistemological, poetic, and ontological reading of the ways of knowing regarding mental disorders that are characteristic of the traditional healers (curanderas and curanderos) of an Indigenous group in Mexico. The study is based on ethnographic interviews with traditional Purépecha (Tarascan) healers in rural Michoacan. Interviews focused on local conceptions of emotional and mental illness, especially Nervios, Susto, and Locura (nerves, fright, and madness). We discuss the conceptual structure of these Indigenous illness notions, the nature of the associated imagery and notions of the soul, as well as the general sense of meaningfulness and reality implicit in Purépecha curanderismo. The highly metaphorical modes of understanding characteristic of these healers defy analysis in purely structuralist terms. They do, however, have strong affinities with the Renaissance "episteme" or implicit framework of understanding described in The Order of Things, Michel Foucault's classic study of modes of knowing and experiences of reality in Western thought-a work profoundly influenced by Heidegger's interest in the historical and cultural constitution of what Heidegger termed "Being." After examining the individual illness concepts, we explore both the poetic and the ontological dimension (the foundational sense of reality or of Being) that they involve, with special emphasis on supernatural concerns.

Grassroots interventions for alcohol use disorders in the Mexican immigrant community: A narrative literature review.

This narrative literature review addresses grassroots interventions for alcohol use disorders as practiced in Mexican immigrant communities. These organic efforts are 24-hour AA groups, or anexos, fourth and fifth step AA groups, juramentos, and curanderismo. Literature was identified using PubMed and CINAHL and limited to works published from 2000 to 2018. In all, three publications on 24-hour groups were found, two on fourth and fifth step groups, four on juramentos, and one on curanderismo use. The review offers insight on their practices and concludes that the interventions' cultural resonance provides advantages over cultural competency AUDs programs developed in public health.

Creencias y búsqueda de la salud en la sociedad española contemporánea / Beliefs and health pursuit in the present Spanish society

El presente artículo pretende abordar la relación entre creencias religiosas y espirituales y búsqueda de la salud que existe en la sociedad española de los últimos tiempos. Se puede observar cómo las prácticas médicas institucionales coexisten junto al curanderismo y otras manifestaciones de la medicina popular que tienen relación con la religiosidad tradicional y junto a nuevas formas de buscar la salud mediante la espiritualidad New Age, de inspiración principalmente oriental. En la sociedad española actual conviven diversas formas de acercarse a la salud mediante múltiples prácticas culturales, por lo que la medicina oficial y la enfermería comparten pacientes con formas tradicionales y nuevas de creencia que pretenden alcanzar la sanación. (AU)

This article tries to deal with the relationship between the religious and spiritual beliefs and the health pursuit that exist in the Spanish society lately. We can observe how institutional medical practices coexist with quackery and other manifestations of popular medicine which are related to traditional religiosity and whith other ways of searching for health through spirituality New Age which has, mainly, an eastern inspiration. In the present Spanish society coexist different ways of approaching health through multiple cultural practices, that is why official medicine and nursery share patients with traditional and new ways of believing that try to reach healing. (AU)

Mexican Traditional Medicine: Application of a Traditional and Complementary Medicine System to Improve Opioid Use Treatment in Latinos.

Background: Initially considered a primarily rural, White issue, opioid use and overdose rates have risen faster for Latinos (52.5%) than for White, non-Hispanics (45.8%) from 2014 to 2016. With an estimated 45% to 65% of Latino immigrant families using Mexican traditional medicine (MTM) practices before seeking Western medical services, these practices could be used as a method to increase access to care and improve outcomes. Practice Model: Although not well known, MTM is founded on a defined set of theoretical tenets that comprise a whole medical system as defined by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Whole medical systems are characterized as complete systems of theory and practice that develop independently and parallel allopathic medicine. Classifying MTM as a whole medical system to encourage further research and utilization of traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) practices could help improve health outcomes for Latino patients. Specific T&CM practices that could be used in opioid treatment integration to decrease stigma and increase treatment utilization are then discussed. Conclusion: Incorporating T&CM practices will allow more effective, culturally competent and culturally sensitive health care provision for Latino immigrants in the United States to decrease stigma, improve health care outcomes, and address disparities in opioid use treatment.

The Effect of Curanderismo on Chronic Non-malignant Pain: A Case Report.

This case study describes the effects of the use of curanderismo, an indigenous healing modality combining techniques in massage, sound, and aromatherapy, on a patient with chronic pain. Despite being a commonly used health practice in certain populations, little is reported in the medical literature about the use of curanderismo. Case report as part of a larger randomized trial of curanderismo for chronic pain. Setting was a community-based hospital affiliated primary care clinic. An adult patient with chronic, opioid dependent back pain following an injury, and subsequent spinal fusion was treated. Intervention was the patient received 33 curanderismo treatment sessions over 10 months in addition to ongoing conventional treatment at a community-based chronic pain management clinic. Main outcomes measures were self-reported assessments of pain, functional ability, mood, insomnia, and narcotic usage. Secondary outcome measure was qualitative interview. Although there was no change in quantitative self-reported pain measures, the patient reported improved function, mood, and sleep as well as decreased narcotic usage. Curanderismo, in addition to conventional pain management, improved patient reported symptoms and functional ability, led to healthy lifestyle changes, and decreased narcotic usage. Controlled studies are needed to confirm the benefit of curanderismo as safe, non-interventional, and cost-effective adjunct for chronic pain management.

Georges Borda y el primer tratado de hipnosis publicado en Buenos Aires (1886) / Georges Borda and the first hypnosis treatise published in Buenos Aires (1886)

En 1886 se imprimió en Buenos Aires un libro titulado Las maravillas del hipnotismo. Escrito por un francés llamado Georges Borda, el texto constituye la más temprana obra sobre hipnosis publicada en la ciudad. A medio camino entre el lenguaje de la medicina y el afán divulgador, esas páginas propiciaban una difusión de los hechos del hipnotismo entre el público letrado de la capital argentina. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar los rasgos centrales de aquel libro, que hasta el presente no había retenido la atención de los historiadores. Además de rastrear sus planteos nucleares, el cometido es localizar la intervención de Borda en el contexto de la cultura científica de fines de siglo, poniendo especial énfasis en las tensiones y negociaciones que eran mantenidas entre la medicina porteña y otros actores profanos del escenario social.

In 1886, a book entitled "The wonders of hypnotism" was printed in Buenos Aires. Written by a french author called Georges Borda, the text constitutes the earliest piece about hypnosis published in the city. Halfway between the language of medicine and the spreader eagerness, those pages propitiated a diffusion of the hypnotism's facts among the qualified audience of Argentine's capital. The aim of this paper is to analyze the central features of this book, which up to the present had not caught the attention of historians. Besides tracking its nuclear statements, the task is to locate Borda's intervention in the context of the scientific culture of the end of the century, with particular emphasis on the tensions and negotiations held between the Buenos Aires' medicine and other lay actors of the social scene.

Aproximación a un estado del arte sobre prácticas de medicina tradicional y popular en Hispanoamérica / Approach to a state of the art on practices of traditional and popular medicine in Latin America

Este artículo presenta un estado del arte de la producción académica sobre medicinas tradicionales y populares en Hispanoamérica. Se analiza la relación entre los estudios de chamanismo en comunidades indígenas en algunos países de habla española (Colombia, Perú, Bolivia, México, España) con estudios de curanderismo en contextos urbanos, mostrando la recurrencia de elementos de orden mágico, religioso y médico en sus prácticas terapéuticas. De igual manera, evidencia las mutaciones en las miradas sobre estos sistemas de tratamiento y atención de la salud y la enfermedad, su permanencia e incidencia sobre prácticas colectivas asociadas con la espiritualidad, con la construcción de alternativas de salud individual y social y el carácter interdisciplinario de las investigaciones. Así mismo, indica la existencia de vacíos analíticos en aspectos como género, clase y etnia, en los estudios de medicinas tradicionales y populares. (AU)

This article presents a state of the art of academic production concerning traditional and popular medicine in Latin America. It analyzes the relation between studies on chamanismo (the art of medicine men) in indigenous communities in some Spanish-speaking countries (Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Mexico, Spain) and studies on curanderismo (the art of healers) in urban contexts and evidences recurring elements of a magical, religious and medical kind in their therapeutic practices. Likewise, it shows the changes in the understanding of these systems of treatment and assistance to health and sickness, their permanence and incidence on collective practices associated to spirituality, as well as the construction of alternatives of individual and social health and the interdisciplinary character of the existing research studies. This article, too, proposes the existence of an analytical vacuum regarding gender, class and ethnic group in the studies on traditional and popular medicine.

La medicina tradicional como medicina ecocultural / Traditional medicine as ecocultural medicine

Los sistemas terapéuticos tradicionales responden a las culturas de los pueblos en los que surgen. En ellos, se concibe la naturaleza íntimamente ligada a la tradición. Salud es, para los miembros de las culturas tradicionales, bienestar como equilibrio entre el ser humano, la naturaleza, las creencias y la sociedad.