The Chinese art of healing is about more than acupuncture and herbalism. It also encompasses a healthy lifestyle and a good diet to bolster the immune system against illness. We embark on a search for the origins of natural healing practices in China’s southern provinces
Dr. Lydia Reutter from Tübingen in southern Germany travels to Cairo to learn about traditional Arab medicine. But this knowledge is not easy to come by. These days, few hakims – or traditional healers – still work in the timehonored fashion.
Minerals such as sodium chloride, sulphur and chalk have a healing effect on the human organism in specific medical applications. For example, saline air alleviates the symptoms of asthma, sulphur baths ease tensions, and chalk with special healing properties is used to treat skin diseases.
The Kallawaya people of Bolivia continue to practice their centuries-old shamanistic art of healing to this day. The approach combines vegetable, animal and mineral substances with rituals. Aurelio Ortiz, one of the last Andean healers, embarks on a journey by foot from Bolivia to Peru with his son Cerilo. During the hike, Cerilo’s suitability for the vocation of healer is put to the test.
Doctors have known for centuries that the point where a poison becomes deadly is primarily a question of dosage. Tiny amounts of these deadly substances can actually even have a healing effect. Research on poisonous substances is aimed at developing new medicaments based on the highly effective agents produced by nature.
Many people find leeches repulsive. But more and more doctors are rediscovering them as an alternative to using drugs for pain therapy. One of the advantages is considerably fewer side-effects.
It might be hard to believe, but the inhospitable deserts of southern Africa offer a veritable treasure trove of medicinal plants. Many of these herbs have been used by traditional healers since time immemorial. Now even western science is discovering the healing potential of the “desert pharmacy”.
Injuries that don’t heal properly often result in amputations. But if doctors were to treat the wounds with maggots, then the affected limbs of up to a third of patients could be saved. The fly larvae consume dead tissue and thereby accelerate the healing process.
Radiation therapies are seen today as a highly credible alternative to medicinal treatment. For example, bathing in radium-rich water is often prescribed for rheumatism, arthritis, spine complaints and respiratory ailments. The sun’s ultraviolet rays are known to alleviate neurodermatitis and psoriasis.
Homeopathy is one of the best known alternative therapies. But neither scientists nor homeopathic practioners themselves can explain how it works. One of the fundamental principles of the treatment is that homeopathists devote a great deal of time to their patients. They treat illnesses in accordance with the maxim “like cures like”.
One unusual remedy that is drawing renewed attention is music. The realization that rhythms can promote the healing process is the basic principle of a musical therapy established more than 1,000 years ago in what is today Uzbekistan. The approach is used to treat patients with serious brain damage.
Since the early 1990s, a German medical historian has been scouring the libraries of European monasteries for documents detailing old remedies, recreating them and testing their efficacy. His conclusion: In the treatment of chronic ailments such as asthma, rheumatism or neurodermatitis, the old herbal preparations have greater healing powers than those conceived by conventional medicine.
Horses are highly sensitive animals. They are capable of responding to movements barely perceptible to humans and can effect healing where regular therapies fail. For example in the case of people who have been in a coma following an accident and have to relearn bodily functions such as breathing, swallowing and picking things up. Equine therapy promotes the healing process on both a physical and psychological level.