Resumen

et al. NATURE AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE, HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND CURRENT STATE. Rev. CENIC Cienc. Biol [online]. 2024, vol.55, pp. 8-16.  Epub 01-Abr-2024. ISSN 2221-2450.

Traditional medicine encompasses several medical systems that currently coexist with the hegemonic western medical paradigm. They are based on theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to differents cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness. Each of them originated in a particular sociocultural context and are used all over the world, regardless or despite of the access to conventional medicine. Their theories support particular visions of life, health and the connection between man and environment. As holistic, complex and dialectical systems, they are different from Western medicine and their object is to restore the broken balance of the different components of the system that the disease implies. The objective of this review was to demonstrate the essential role that traditional medical systems give to nature as a basic agent in the health-disease process. The characteristics and main elements of the theoretical subsystem of traditional medicine from China, India, Peru and Mexico are reviewed, alluding to its current state. It concludes with the affirmation that it is possible to integrate the ancestral knowledge of current Traditional Medicines to the modern practice of medicine, taking advantage of its holistic vision of health and man as part of his natural environment.

Palabras clave : traditional medicine; medical systems; environment.