Nontraditional Healthcare: Chinese, Maori, and Indian Cultures

Non-Traditional Healthcare Practices
Name
Institution
Due Date
Non-Traditional Healthcare Practices
The use of nontraditional healthcare practices to supplement modern medicine continues to rise all over the world. People take time to travel for long distances as they seek to find ways to heal some of the diseases in the world today. Non-traditional healthcare practices can be explained to be the use or adoption of indigenous healthcare practices. The word indigenous means occurring naturally and these practices or approaches seek to use natural energy and the workings or functioning of man’s body to help the healing process. For a majority of these practices, the goal is to induce healing from the inside. Different cultures of the world appear to be taking a stroll down memory lane as many are seen to be embracing nontraditional healthcare practices. This paper seeks to address the rapid increase in the use of nontraditional healthcare practices by first comparing three cultures, looking at the effects of these practices, and finally identifying the nontraditional healthcare options.
Comparing Nontraditional Healthcare Practices
The world has experienced a lot of development in the field of medicine. However, nontraditional healthcare practices continue to find their way into the medical field. Some of the cultures that still embrace nontraditional healthcare practices include the Chinese culture, the Indian culture, as well as New Zealand’s Maori culture.
The Chinese Culture
The Chinese culture boasts of one of the oldest histories in the world. Some of the healthcare practices in China are more than several centuries old and have been passed down from generation to generation. Cosio and Lin (2016) agree with the statement above noting that “Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is one of the oldest systems of medicine.” One good example is acupuncture which is believed to be one of the most effective healthcare practices. Cosio and Lin (2016) define acupuncture as “the practice of inserting and manipulating needles into the superficial skin, subcutaneous tissue, and muscles of the body at particular acupuncture points.” This practice is believed to keep the “balance between yin (associated with the parasympathetic nervous system) and yang (associated with the sympathetic nervous system).” The goal is to induce healing from inside the patient’s body.
New Zealand’s Maori Culture
The Maori culture is known to practice some of the oldest healing practices in the world. Their healing practices make use of four elements which include “Mauri (spark of life), Wairua (spirit), Tapu (natural law), and Whakapapor (genealogy)” (Chilson, 2014). The healing process mainly includes the combination of these elements which are believed to induce healing. Sardini (2019) notes that the healing rituals of the Maori culture “are intended to produce alterations in the mind, body, and spirit of the subject as a means of bringing the body’s spiritual energy, or mana, back into balance with nature thereby healing the participant.” As with Acupuncture, Maori’s healthcare practices seek to use the patient’s physical body to induc...