African Medicine

African Medicine

The 21st century has begun with a global health crisis of new and

re-emerging diseases spiralling out of control, which coupled with

escalating violence and poverty, threatens to cripple entire

communities and countries. To tackle this crisis, it is currently

essential that the Medical community work to access and harness as

many resources and partners as possible. One of the resources often

overlooked and underestimated, is the role of traditional medicine and

healers, and the potential contributions they can make at many levels

of health care delivery.

One of the most famous traditional medicine being African medicine.

Yorubic medicine is native to and widely practiced on the African

continent. Yorubic medicine has its roots in the Ifa Corpus, a

religious text revealed by the mystic Prophet Orunmila, over 4000

years ago in the ancient city of Ile-Ife, now known as Yorubaland.

Within the last 400 years, this healing system has also been practiced

in the day to day lives of individuals in the Caribbean, and South

America. The traditions were brought over by African slaves arriving

in America.

Orunmila’s teachings were directed at the Yoruba people which centered

around the topics of divination, prayer, dance, symbolic gestures,

personal and communal elevation, spiritual baths, meditation, and

herbal medicine. The purpose of Yoruba is not merely to counteract the

negative forces of disease in the human body, but also to achieve

spiritual enlightenment and elevation which are the means of freeing

the soul. As with all ancient systems of medicine, the ideal of Yoruba

herbology is to condition the body in its ...

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...er1. However, these compounds have also been reported

to demonstrate antibacterial, antiviral, anticarcinogenic,

anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and vasodilatory actions and may be

a useful component in the treatment of a number of conditions.

Jobelyn plays a tremendous role in the management of HIV/AIDS,

increasing cellular immunity in HIV positive individuals either alone

or in combination with antiretroviral drugs. In a preliminary study

involving 64 patients, Jobelyn significantly increased the CD4 counts

in HIV/AIDS patients receiving triple therapy of Nevirapine,

Lamivudine and Stavudine for 12 weeks whose initial CD4 counts were

low. It also effectively increased the CD4 counts of HIV/AIDS patients

whose CD4 counts were lesser when given alone. There was general

improvement in the well-being of the patients.