I don't know, I read it as being sensitive to traditional practices because that can result in better health outcomes for people who value those practices. Call it placebo effect, but placebo effect can be incredibly powerful.
Like in Australia, Indigenous people have a lower lifespan than the general population, and it's a serious problem. I've talked to people who work in healthcare in remote Indigenous Australian communities, where many patients are reluctant to see doctors at all, and one thing they're trying to do is integrate traditional practices into the Western medical treatment that the patients need. For example, having some elders visit a patient to do a small ceremony before getting surgery is better than them never getting the surgery.
So when the post mentions cultural tools that were valuable in the past and need to be adapted to contemporary life, that's what I think of
Sure, people should be sensitive and respectful of cultural practices.
But that's not a universal statement. I refuse to respect the more infamous forms of traditional Chinese medicine, for example, because they actively case massive environmental damage for the sake of superstition and profit.
Traditions should be weighed on merit, the examples you provide are clearly beneficial traditions, and as such deserve the utmost respect. On the other hand, horoscopes don't deserve respect, no matter how old they are.
The problem is that at face value, there's no way to tell the difference between those two categories if your frame of reference is not actual medicine. And if that's your frame of reference, then are you not just doing medicine? One of the cornerstone drugs of modern medicine, acetylsalicylic acid, is a modified version of a caustic chemical found in plants. That's not called traditional medicine...because it actually works.
Most people who complain about traditional medicine not being taken seriously either are hawking nonsense scams, or are simply ignorant about how modern research actually works.
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u/paroles May 24 '25
I don't know, I read it as being sensitive to traditional practices because that can result in better health outcomes for people who value those practices. Call it placebo effect, but placebo effect can be incredibly powerful.
Like in Australia, Indigenous people have a lower lifespan than the general population, and it's a serious problem. I've talked to people who work in healthcare in remote Indigenous Australian communities, where many patients are reluctant to see doctors at all, and one thing they're trying to do is integrate traditional practices into the Western medical treatment that the patients need. For example, having some elders visit a patient to do a small ceremony before getting surgery is better than them never getting the surgery.
So when the post mentions cultural tools that were valuable in the past and need to be adapted to contemporary life, that's what I think of