Traditional Medicine

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/opinion/traditional-medicine.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

“How to Talk to Your Child’s Doctor About Alternative Medicine” (Here to Help, March 7) raises important issues but does so in a culturally insensitive manner that undermines the legitimacy of traditional medicine in modern life.

The writers, all doctors, encourage caution in the use of pseudoscientific treatments, and in doing so, don’t acknowledge the role of traditional healers in the cultural life of many Americans.

Traditional healing practices, like Ayurveda, Chinese medicine and Native American medicine, have existed for millenniums and provide health benefits. By suggesting caution in the case of “alternative” treatments used largely by affluent white Americans, and ignoring traditional healing, the article underscores a larger issue in Western medicine: doctors’ lack of cultural competence concerning indigenous and minority populations.

If Western medicine refuses to acknowledge the legitimacy of indigenous knowledge, then how can these populations learn to trust their health professionals?

GREG BLOCKI, BROOKLINE, MASS.

The writer is a doctoral student in occupational therapy at Boston University.