Indian Culture: Healthcare, Traditional Practices, and Religious Beliefs

Indian Culture
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Indian Culture
Focus on healthcare
The Indian culture refers to the heritage of traditional and social norms, political and belief systems, and ethical values that originate from or associate with the Indian people. It means that it extends to Indians who live in other countries away from India (Dalal, 2016). The Indian culture is a collection of several cultures that have been influenced through time into having a common cultural practice. Like any other culture, health issues are a concern that is addressed comprehensively to preserve life.
Traditional practices
Indian culture has a variety of traditional Ayurvedic medicine and home remedies. The health providers often inquired about the patient’s treatment preference before attending to him. Hindus believe that all physical and mental illnesses have physiological, biological, and spiritual elements, and Ayurveda seeks to balance the three. Hindu traditions do not allow the use of medicine from cows, pigs, among other animals. Whenever there is no alternative, the healthcare informs the patient who then makes a decision (Leng & Keane-Rao, 2019).
Religious beliefs
The Indian culture values prayer, meditation, and generally observe religious practices. A healthcare practitioner should first ask the patient about his religious beliefs on health for the practitioner to attend sufficiently to the patient. The practitioner should discuss the patient issues that touch on prayer and meditation (Leng & Keane-Rao, 2019).
The most common religious remedy is the vibuthi (holy ash), commonly used in religious worship. Hindus believe that the sacred ash has protective, healing, and purifying properties when applied on a person's forehead when they carry it in the pocket or consume it in small quantities.
Responsibility for health
Indian culture believes that every member of the family should be responsible for making personal decisions concerning health. However, elders have a strong influence on decision-making that includes consent decisions.
Transplantation
Hinduism values life and believes in the preservation of life. The culture, therefore, accepts and supports the transplant and donation of organs. However, the decision to donate or get a transplant is solely left to and individual (Dalal, 2016).
Rehabilitation or chronicity
As earlier stated, the Indian culture values and treasures life. The community cares about people suffering from chronic conditions like cancer. More often than not, Hindus use their right hand for eating or drinking. When an Indian person has lost his right hand, the healthcare provider should know that sensitivity is req...