Take your health back into your own hands!
Jan 31
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As we continue rolling into the future, Conventional Medicine will continue to decrease in popularity (besides acute care, certain diagnostic tests and technology, and a small handful of pharmaceuticals) due to many problems including, consistent inhumane treatment and bedside manners, unacceptable amounts of harmful and even deadly medical errors, high costs with minimal positive results, lack of holistic healthcare, “band aide on a gaping wound” approaches, and generally unfair and unethical practices. As a result, people will continue to progressively take their health back into their own hands by going back to nature, using herbal remedies, making lifestyle changes, and turning towards more affordable and effective healthcare professionals like health gurus, Holistic Health Coaches, and Alternative Medical Practitioners.
Throughout the past 40-50 years in Conventional Medicine, genuinely honest, compassionate, caring, and ethical medical care has been slowly but surely fading away. Patients sit in waiting rooms and doctor’s offices for several hours only to have a visit with their healthcare provider for around 10 minutes. Active listening is nearly nonexistent and gaslighting is a common occurrence, especially if the patient isn’t a simple and usual case. In general, it has become quite difficult to receive the care that one needs and deserves, especially in overpopulated or extremely rural areas. A system like this is bound to unravel and fall into the shadows, as it has already began to.
Naturopaths, Holistic health Coaches, Alternative Medical Professionals, and utilization of self-healing methods, like nutrition therapy, energy medicine, plant medicine, and fasting will become the increasingly sought-out Healthcare. Also, advancements in medical electronic applications and software and genetic testing will become more of a sought-out technology.
Side Note: I often have visions of a human diagnostic machine, like the ones that we use for automobiles, that will eventually be created into our reality. A person would just “plug in,” or in more human terms, hook up to the machine and then it gives a report of all the tester taker’s genetic weakness, dis-ease, deficiencies, infections, toxicities, and energetic body compromises and imbalances. In the same report (but in a different section), there would be a list of recommended treatments and lifestyle changes. This sounds like a very "The Jetsons" kind of medical diagnostic tool with both pros and cons but oftentimes, “outside of the box” ideas brought into the health and wellness space receive a lot of push back and it can be difficult being the creator of them. The futuristic, innovative, and professional researcher type of humans that help our species progress really benefit if they have tough skin and the confidence to deal with criticism, judgment, and resistance. In the future, when healthcare professionals and scientists come up with new theories, it would be neat if we had a machine created into reality that operates like a lie detector and would determine the validity of theories and whether they would progress and improve human health and wellness or not because a lot of truths and answers already lie within our souls, DNA, and connection to God and our higher selves.
THE BEAUTIFUL HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE IN AFRICA AND INDIA THAT RESONATES WITH MY BELIEFS AND WILL HOPEFULLY BECOME MORE UNDERSTOOD AND UTILIZED AS WE MOVE AWAY FROM A HEALTHCARE SYSTEM THAT IS NO LONGER EFFECTIVE, COMPASSION AND HEART BASED, FAIR, PRACTICAL, LOGICAL, OR ETHICAL.
In Africa, the main form of medicine historically practiced was herbal and folk and there are records of it dating back to the Stone Ages; it is referred to as Traditional Herbal medicine and Traditional African Medicine (TAM). In America, we call our doctors “doctor,” whereas, in Africa, they call their doctors “healers.” According to Ozioma, J. (2019), “a traditional healer is one who provides medical care in the community that he lives using herbs, minerals, animal parts, incantations, and other methods, based on the cultures and beliefs of his people. He must be seen to be competent, versatile, experienced, and trusted” (para. 3).
In Africa, it didn’t matter what kind of healthcare professional you were (priestesses, high priests, witch doctors, diviners, midwives, seers or spiritualists, or herbalist), it only mattered that you were competent, knowledgeable, and gifted, and if you were, community accepted you as a health care provider that could practice TAM. Also, often, healers would be dressed in a certain way for identification. According to Ozioma, J. (2019), “it was commonplace to see traditional healers dressed in certain peculiar attires, with head bands, feathers, and eyes painted with native chalk” (para. 3). A lot of the practice of TAM was based on spirituality as medical professionals would obtain information from dead ancestors in the form of both ancient writings and channeled messages. Also, healers had to be “initiated in” to become an actual healer. According to Ozioma, J. (2019), “it has also been said that before attaining knowledge in traditional African medicine, one is often required to be initiated into a secret society, as many characteristics of this form of medicine can only be passed down to initiates” (para. 4). The views of TAM are quite different than the Allopathic Medicine that we mostly practice in the United States, especially in the beliefs behind why one is experiencing illness. In TAM, the believed reasons for illness were mostly related to spirituality. According to Ozioma, J. (2019), “cultural or social illness is thought to be related to supernatural causes such as angered spirits, witchcraft, or alien/evil spirits, even for conditions now known to be well understood in modern medicine such as hypertension, sickle-cell anemia, cardiomyopathies, and diabetes” (para.5). African traditional beliefs consider the human being as being made up of physical, spiritual, moral, and social aspects. The functioning of these four aspects in harmony signified good health, while if any aspect should be out of balance, it signified sickness. The treatment in TAM is much different than Conventional Medicine and usually involves herbal medicine, divination, interviews, spiritual castings, sacrifices, spiritual clearings, appeasing the Gods, exorcisms, and libations. Sadly, around the Colonial age, the importance of TAM dwindled down and even developed somewhat of a bad reputation because it was considered voodoo or false magic. It is still practiced today, not as much as it was in the Stone, Neolithic, Bronze, Iron Ages, along with the ages of Conquest and Exploration.
The history of medicine in India was known as Ayurveda. This medicine is ancient and originates in India, but it is also making a come-back and changing the world. According to Medical News Today (2022), “practitioners base Ayurvedic medicine on the understanding that a unique combination of earth, air, fire, water, and space makes up every person. These elements form three trusted source energies, called doshas- Kapha dosha, Pitta dosha, and Vata dosha- and a person becomes ill due to an imbalance of them (para. 5). Ayurvedic practitioners will treat a person by rebalancing these energies using herbal medicines, diet, breathing exercises, meditation, physical therapy, exercise, etc.
There’s no doubt that herbal medicine, which both TAM and Ayurvedic medicine have in common, will continue to grow in popularity as we roll into the future, but it may become progressively harder to find organic plants in the wild because of all the toxic and harmful pesticides and herbicides used in conventional farming. In years to come, we will need to find more effective ways to grow indoors without feeling or having effects like growing indoors does. Creating some kind of structure (like a greenhouse) that has a lot of windows made from a special material that ventilates the structure immensely while filtering the air to have the same effect as being outdoors would be brilliant. Also, the material would somehow allow sunlight to move through without compromising the healing and medicinal properties of the sun rays. This greenhouse-like structure could be as big as 30 acres and as small as 10x10 feet and could be used by small families (for their own personal use), large scale companies that are producing and selling herbal supplements along with vitamins and mushrooms, and anywhere in between. We will also find ways to regenerate the soil (since conventional agriculture has stripped our soil) with the use of worms and farm animals. Luckily, because of the internet and social media, herbal medicine has become common knowledge, and patients are experiencing an increase in personal freedom and power, especially when also knowing that herbal medicine is freely available and accessible in natural or health stores. One does not need a doctor’s prescription for herbs, and they can take their health into their own hands. On the flip side, a negative ramification of this is that natural does not always equal safety and because herbal medicine is so easily accessible, a person who did not thoroughly research or receive guidance from a Holistic Health Coach, Alternative Medicine Practitioner, Naturopath, Health Guru, etc. before taking certain herbs that don’t mix well with other herbs or pharmaceuticals may cause themselves or others harm. According to Ozioma, J. (2019), “as with synthetic drugs, the quality, efficacy, and safety of medicinal plants must also be assured. Despite the widespread use of herbal medicines globally and their reported benefits, they are not completely harmless. In as much as medicinal herbs have established therapeutic effects, they may also have the potential to induce adverse effects if used incorrectly or in overdose. The likelihood of adverse effects becomes more apparent due to indiscriminate, irresponsible, or nonregulated use and lack of proper standardization” (para. 10). Lastly, because we are all different with different ailments and health genetics, one herb that is well suited for one may not be well suited for another.
People of this world deserve to understand how they can take their healing into their own hands so if you would like to learn more about how to do that using an affordable holistic health coach and/or by receiving supportive and healing energy work with intuitive guidance, sign up for a free 22-minute consultation with Lioness Holistic Health today!
References:
Josephine Ozioma, E.-O., & Antoinette Nwamaka Chinwe, O. (2019). Herbal Medicines in African Traditional Medicine. https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/64851
Medical News Today. (2022). What to know about Ayurvedic medicine. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/ayurvedic-medicine
Tawalare, K. A., Nanote, K. D., Gawai, V. U., & Gotmare, A. Y. (2014). Contribution of Ayurveda in foundation of basic tenets of bioethics. Ayu, 35(4), 366–370. https://doi.org/10.4103/0974-8520.158982
