| Long before orthodox medicine took center stage | | | | were passed on informally by word of mouth and |
| in the health care practices around the world | | | | were developed through observation and |
| people who were sick used to visit different kind | | | | experimentation. |
| of doctors. These doctors were not the | | | | Illnesses ranging from the common cold and sore |
| steth-wielding, tech-savvy, white-coated medical | | | | throat to warts, cancer, malaria, impotence and |
| geniuses of today. Mostly, they were bearded, | | | | arthritis are said to be treated through folk |
| wizened and gnarled humans looking less like | | | | medicine. |
| physicians and more like witches or wizards. But | | | | Folk medicine largely depended on the use of |
| they were revered, loved and even feared | | | | natural materials such as herbs, plant roots, trees, |
| because of one particular skill they possessed the | | | | barks, fruits, insects and food items. Therefore, |
| healing touch. | | | | these practitioners paid a lot of attention to |
| In the early days of civilization, a vast majority of | | | | botany. |
| people were cut off from formal medical care. | | | | But the advent of modern medicine saw a decline |
| Competent physicians were a luxury, to be | | | | in folk medicine as these rustic practices were put |
| enjoyed only by the super-rich and royalty. For | | | | under the microscope, dissected and then |
| everyone else, there was the local witch-doctor | | | | discarded as worthless. One more reason |
| who was respected for his or her in-depth | | | | contributed to the decline of folk medicine. |
| knowledge of folk medicine. This was the man or | | | | Folk medicine started its downward slide with the |
| woman who treated everything from boils to | | | | advent of magical healing powers. Seedy people |
| gangrene, from cesarean to malaria and even | | | | on the lookout for a few fast bucks were |
| small pox. | | | | successful in capitalizing on the trust and faith of |
| What is astonishing is that many of these | | | | large sections of the society. Once their ruse |
| so-called doctors effectively cured their patients. | | | | came to light, people began to lose faith in folk |
| What is even more interesting is that these | | | | medicine. Soon folk medicine was relegated to a |
| medicines have lost none of their charms with the | | | | gray area between orthodox medicine and |
| passage of time and more and more of them are | | | | quackery. |
| finding their rightful place in mainstream medicines. | | | | However, as more and more people have started |
| Remember how your grandma used to give you | | | | to realize, there is a wealth of knowledge in |
| wild cherry bark for cough, or boil the twigs and | | | | traditional folk medicine. As people have started |
| leaves of red cedar to cure your cold? Well, thats | | | | adopting the holistic way of life, there is a struggle |
| folk medicine! If you were to ask your grandma | | | | to re-invent the precious folk medicine of yore. In |
| how she learnt those techniques, shed draw a | | | | recent years, the folk medicine of indigenous |
| blank! These unofficial health-related practices | | | | people is becoming more popular. |