CUBA: Better Health Care, Naturally

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Oct 8 2004 (IPS) - “There’s nothing better than a good caña santa (lemon grass) infusion for the flu. It brings down a fever, relieves a cough, it even improves your digestion,” many Cuban mothers and grandmothers say.

There’s a long tradition of herbal remedies in Cuba, and today the country’s medical institutions also recognise the benefits of “green medicine”.

But there’s often the risk of relying exclusively on the “miraculous” powers of certain plants or other natural remedies, which aren’t necessarily the best course of treatment.

An example of this is noni or Indian mulberry (Morinda citrifolia), a fruit that is native to the South Pacific and is believed by some to possess over 100 medicinal properties, including the ability to cure cancer. The plant was brought to Cuba in the early 20th century, but has only recently begun to be seen as a “miracle cure” for a wealth of ailments.

“Noni saved my life,” 59-year-old Ramón Hernández told IPS. Sitting next to him, his wife, Carmen Neira, nodded in agreement and added in the faintest of whispers, “He has lung cancer and almost died, but then he started drinking noni juice, and he’s much, much better.”

Hernández only knows that he was in critical condition, not the actual cause of the illness that kept him bedridden for months, and brought him to the brink of death last December. “Now I can eat, and walk. I’ve gone from 70 to 110 pounds (roughly 32 to 50 kilograms) and I sleep peacefully. My doctor is out of the country right now, and he’ll be amazed when he gets back,” he declared.

But doctors warn that there is no scientific evidence for this fruit to be classified as medicinal, although they do acknowledge that it has some beneficial effects on health, “probably because it has antioxidant properties and stimulates the immune system,” Dr. Leoncio Padrón told IPS.

“In situations like these, we have to be cautious, especially in the case of patients undergoing medical treatment,” he added. Dr. Padrón is the director of the Cuban National Centre for Natural and Traditional Medicine, and an ardent defender of the integration of these methods into everyday clinical practice.

In his opinion, “the best medical treatment is the one that incorporates all available resources, and the best doctor is the one trained to use them.”

The severe shortages of prescription drugs resulting from the economic crisis of the early 1990s opened the way to a whole host of alternative treatment methods, ranging from “green” medicine to acupuncture, chiropractic treatment, massage therapy, relaxation exercises, flower therapy, music therapy, and apitherapy (the use of bee products, including honey, pollen and bee venom), among others.

Although some Cuban health care professionals remain sceptical, many of these treatments are now commonly prescribed for a wide variety of ailments, and are used in conventional hospitals and clinics, as well as facilities specialising in natural and alternative medicine.

“According to official statistics, some form of what we classify as natural or holistic medicine is now used with over 20 percent of hospital patients,” noted Padrón.

Clara Delgado, 60, has been a firm believer in the benefits of acupuncture since her first experience with this procedure in a neighbourhood clinic, after she injured her arm. “The physiotherapist asked me if I’d like to try acupuncture. I agreed to try it, and now I prefer it over any other kind of treatment,” she explained.

The use of acupuncture as an analgesic or anaesthetic during surgery is becoming increasingly common, even for major operations, and especially when general anaesthesia could pose a risk. According to statistics from the Cuban Ministry of Health, acupuncture anaesthesia was used in over 24,000 surgical operations between 2001 and 2002.

As well as having virtually no harmful side effects, acupuncture is much less expensive to use. The average cost for endotracheal general anaesthesia – one of the most commonly used conventional methods – is 215 dollars for a single operation, while acupuncture can be used for less than one-tenth of the cost.

Proponents of traditional and natural medicine are quick to point out that in addition to their economic benefits, these treatments have few if any adverse side effects, they aren’t addictive, and they help the body’s own natural immune defences to develop.

“For me, natural medicine is always my first choice,” said Marta Martínez, a psychologist at the Institute of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery in Havana. “Of course, there are always organic pathologies that can’t be treated with flower therapy, which is what I use.”

The Cuban programme for the development of holistic and natural medicine, established in 1996, encompasses a broad range of sectors and activities, including training for practitioners, scientific research and development, the integration of natural treatment methods into the public health care network, and the production and distribution of natural medicine products.

“Natural medicine is not an alternative or a complement to conventional Western medicine,” stressed Padrón. “It is fully integrated into the health care system, in order to expand the spectrum of treatment resources that our health care professionals are trained to use.”

Statistics compiled in 2003 reveal that 76 percent of physicians, 80 percent of dentists and 76 percent of nurses in Cuba have been trained in the use of natural medicine.

“It is also a field of specialisation, like paediatrics, surgery or internal medicine. There are master’s degrees, as well as doctors who train to be specialists in natural and holistic medicine,” Padrón explained.

While traditional remedies like herbs and other plants are often the first recourse for large sectors of the population in the countries of the South, natural medicine is widely accepted in much of the industrialised world.

Reports from international organisations show that over 50 percent of people in the United States use or have at some time used natural medicine, as have 70 percent of Canadians and 90 percent of Germans.

Nevertheless, these treatment methods are not completely risk-free, especially if they are implemented by individuals who have not had the proper training. This fact led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue a series of guidelines for developing consumer information on the proper use of what it calls traditional, complementary and alternative medicine.

Adverse reactions to these types of medicine have doubled in the last three years, which is why WHO believes it is essential to regulate their use and give consumers the information they need to avoid unnecessary risks.

The most common risks include the contamination of herbal remedies with heavy metals, injury or even paralysis resulting from physical manipulation carried out by unqualified practitioners, and above all, adverse reactions caused by combining these treatments with prescription drugs.

Padrón said he was aware of the measures adopted by WHO, and explained that Cuba has developed its own natural medicine regulations. “But wouldn’t it be wonderful,” he added, “if the biggest problem in Cuba, or the rest of the world, was the abuse of natural drugs.”