What is popular medicine?
Popular medicine, also known as folk medicine, is any form of medical treatment that does not fall within the borders of professional medical services. Popular medicine usually includes medicines that families have passed several generations. With the advent of modern medicine, popular medicine in many countries has become less common and is often considered legitimacy, but it was much more common than the treatment of a doctor before the 20th century. Trained experts were often too far or too expensive, so many people relied on friends and relatives on their own knowledge to provide treatment of their diseases. There were many printed texts to help people in treating themselves when they were ill. The quality of care was extremely different, but there were practitioners of popular medicine who were quite familiar with medical knowledge of the time.
Yet many of the treatment procedures that have been derived from the knowledge that were passed on from generation to generation or which were part of the cultTour tradition, had a small grounding in scientific knowledge. Several unprofessional practices of therapeutic art resorted to spiritual methods of treatment, including prayer and in some cases sophisticated rituals. Herbal remedies were common, as well as bans against certain behavior.
scientists divided popular medicine into four categories or "worlds" based on a source of illness. Treatment for the "world of the patient" involves a change in factors that the patient can control, such as diet, smoking or drink. The aim of treatment including the "natural world" to cure diseases that are the result of natural causes, including infections, insects and bite of animals and even natural disasters. The treatment of "social world" includes diseases that are the result of other people through physical injury or through a curse or witchcraft.deals with diseases that are assumed that it is the result of spiritual influences of ghosts, gods or ancestors.
The place of popular medicine during the 20th century has changed significantly with the rise of the medical industry. It was much easier for the patients to access professional medical care, so popular medicine came to refer to alternative therapies specifically, whose potential benefits of Western medicine have not been formally recognized. Today, this term includes a wide range of alternative treatment. Herbal products are still a common form of popular medicine, as well as many spiritual forms of treatment.