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• Culture-Specific Syndrome and Illness

  Alternative medicine in the philippines with its motley of saints & disease-inducing mythological creatures, unique system of health care belief
• Alternative forms of treatment in rural areas

  • Herbal concoctions
  • Rural alchemy
  • Prayer-based folklore therapies
  • Faith-healer
  • Albularyo or hilot
• Alternative forms of treatment

  Contribute to the conundrums of disease etiologies: duwende, nuno, kapre, tikbalang
• Illnesses also attributed to sorcery
• Initial approach to therapy


  Creature-induced maladies
• Therapeutic approaches of Philippines alternative treatment modalities


  • Herbal-infused
  • Prayer-based
  • Way out fringe to near mainstream
  • Colored by rural mythologies
  • Profusion of indigenous rituals
• Suob (hilot-midwife)


  Ritual of rural post-pastrum care, incorporates modalities of herbs, prayer, smoke, heat
• Kudlit


  Treatment of rabies & other poisonous bites
• Pasma


  Exposure to cold water manifesting in varied ways, tremors, numbness, & various rheumatic manifestations
• Bangungot


  Sleep disorder, sudden nocturnal deaths, continues to be wrapped in folklore, Bangungot entity ilocano: batibat
• Bales (nausog)

  Believed to be caused by an admiring or compliment greeting
• Symptoms of Bales

  • Dizziness
  • Loss of appetite
  • Stomach cramps
• Treatment of Bales (nabales)

  1. Saliva: apply fingertip wet w/saliva, on the abdomen/forehead

  2. Herbal remedies: rice grains, atis, leaves

  3. Bulong: a prayer in piglatin whispered in the course of treatment

  4. Orasyon: written on a small piece of paper

  5. Tapal: the small paper pasted on the abdomen/forehead

  6. Mangdudura: spittle specialist, chew herbs & dabs it on parts of the body

  7. Union: used for infants & young children prone to bales; a pouch filled w/indigenous ingredients like seeds, pinned to the child's upper clothing
• SUNDS/SUDS (sudden unexplained nocturnal death)

  Attributed to bangungot, consists of a nightmare, frequently after a heavy meal accompanied by a alcohol
• Alternative medicine


  • Isn't part of biomedicine
  • Contradicted by science
• Complementary medicine


  Used together w/ conventional medical treatment in a belief that it complements the treatment
• Unscientific belief system


  Based on common belief system that are not consistent w/ facts
• Unscientific belief system


  • Homeopathy, a substance that causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people will cure similar symptoms in sick people
• Naturopathic medicine

  • The body heals itself in supernatural vital energy that guides the bodily processes
  • Opposed vaccinations
  • Doesn't support claims that can cure cancer
• Supernatural energies & misunderstanding of energy in physics


  • Supernatural energies flow from the palms of the healer into the patient near Chakras influencing disease (Japanese reiki & New age)
  • Existence of supernatural energies
  • Undetected by science of physics; inconsistent w/ the laws of physics
• Biofields

  Influence energy fields that surround & penetrate the body
• Energy medicine

  Bioelectromagnetic use verifiable electromagnetic fields such as pulsed fields
• Herbal remedies & other substances used medicine


  Use substances found in nature such as herbs, foods, non-vitamin supplements, etc.
• Body manipulation


  • Done in bodywork & chiropractic manipulation
  • Osteopathic manipulative medicine (Osteopathic manipulative treatment) techniques of osteopathic & osteopathy medicine distinguishing these fields from mainstream medicine