African Americans and Alternative Medicine

CAM or Complimentary and Alternative Medicine have been around centuries but have seen its greatest utilization and growth in the United States in recent decades. This proposes the question what has changed in health care to cause society to turn to alternative therapies that are not even guaranteed to work? CAM's utilization among African Americans has an even shorter history simply because African Americans were not even able to receive equality of health care until the ladder half of the century and still battle prejudice and disparity to this day. Historically African Americans have developed mistrust for the American health care system mainly due to the inhumane acts done during the Tuskegee experiments.

This prompts society to question why would African Americans charter into alternative medicine practices when they already have a negative history with traditional Western Medicine? CAM has had enough of an impact to force the United States health care system to adapt and even include coverage for it. The United States Government was so intrigued by America's rise in the utilization of CAM that they set up a fully funded research center within the NIH. NIH (National Institute of Health) is a recognized leader in health research and now houses the NCCAM (National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine) which determines the validity and efficacy of Alternative treatments. To better understand the CAM's significance to African American Health Care and its future one must simply know what it is and how it emerged, African American's contribution, and most importantly its utilization and relation to African Americans.

CAM is exactly what it states in its acronym. CAM is a modality or therapy that either compliments or serves as an alternative to traditional medicine. NIH defines it as a group of diverse medical and health care systems, practices, and products that are not presently considered to be part of conventional medicine. Society helped CAM emerge recently because of the recent rise in health care costs and as a solution to terminal illness to individuals desperate for another answer to sickness and pain. CAM is cheaper than western medicine because it does not require a lot of technology or man factory manipulation. CAM uses many natural forms of herbs, body movement, and body energy. Unlike going to a hospital and using pharmaceuticals and million dollar equipment CAM can often be made with simple household materials and alternative therapy education. The other factor that leads some to CAM is a diagnosis with no answer or solution to the patient's sickness. These patients figure that there may be an alternative solution or just come to the conclusion that it will not hurt them to try other forms of medicine.

Many people fail to realize that CAM dos not have to be as advanced or ancient as acupuncture or massage. CAM can be as simple as putting butter on a burn or even rubbing toothpaste on a sting. Many of the simple alternative techniques emerged as a result of some African American families having a need to have pain relief or be cured but lacking the funds or access to traditional care. This led to the coining of the term "home remedies." CAM has not seen its greatest growth as far as its utilization until recently. By the early 1990's some form of modality/therapy of CAM was use by 1 in 3 Americans and by 1997 this number would increase by nearly 43%. The population that contributed to the initial growth was wealthy educated people. Because this statistic is true it is also the answer to why the initial growth of CAM did not include many African Americans. African Americans in health care are generally overrepresented in the impoverished sector of health care and therefore would be eliminated from the traditional CAM users. Because African Americans are also a group that tends to lack more education about their health due in part to denial, failed compliance and mistrust, this also eliminates them from the traditional users. This leads to the question do African Americans really use alternative Medicine?

The above statistics were taken on a general population on adults. There would prove to be a bigger disparity between those who used Alternative therapies and those who did not among the African American Society. When the same survey was given to African American anthropologists discovered among this group that those who tried any form of alternative treatment were the frequent users and those that did not use it often typically never used home alternative treatments at all. These discoveries were directly linked to education, size and geographic location of the current family and or co-habitation with an elder who was raised in the southern United States. The education of the family plays a significant factor because a well educated family member would be more aware of the options available not only in a traditional health care facility but also in alternative settings. The size of the family is a factor simply because more members of the family present in a household leads to an increased cost in the overall family's spending therefore an alternative to being healthy would be a logical solution to try and find. Because of the rural culture is not as advanced in technology or does not live in a moment's notice of immediate technology, living in the south leads many to find an immediate solution. This immediate solution is simplified CAM or what health experts and traditional southerners refer to as home remedies. There are some members of the African American society who contest that religion is a decisive factor in there alternative therapy use. Simply if a religion does not condone some form traditional Western Medicine than this would force an individual to look elsewhere.

To answer the question why African Americans use alternative medicine is best described as either financial causation or happening naturally. Naturally causation meaning that an African American's first instinct is to take action because of a responsibility for self-care, the caregiving network, alternative indigenous health practitioners, and formal health professionals. This is according to Eric Bailey. Self care is the most logical reason because this involves taking any necessary actions without the help of a physician to maintain or restore health by making certain personal decisions about the way one lives. The care giving network is a reason to turning to alternative medicine because it is nearly the same as self-care but involves a community effort. The community only consists of individuals who are trusted with health issues such as family members, church members, and close friends who have a NON-professional background on the disease but have tremendous input on how to deal with it. Alternative indigenous health practitioners are also non-professional helpers who have private offices and can be affiliated with religion but have no ties to professional health organizations. These three factors are also linked to finances because finances are indirectly swaying the patient's decision in this case. If a patient has the opportunity to visit a licensed facility and likely be charged a large amount of money then many times the patient will opt to take the advice of their informal health network of friends and family that is free. This can include home remedies from family and friends or even faith healing form church members. The formal health physicians have to do with cost. Statistics show that African Americans have significantly less visits to formal physician offices than whites. African Americans also traditionally have less follow-up visits and communication. In the urban community, typically overrepresented by African Americans, patients tend to be financially out reach but physically within moments notice of a formal licensed physician.

Furthermore another reason for African American use of Alternative medicine that does not deal with finances is the notion that the traditional U.S health care has failed the urban black community by discrimination and by leaving gaps in coverage which make it difficult for impoverished patients to access quality health care. In the book "mama might be better off dead" the author tells a story of how one family is directly impacted by discrimination and lack of finances but unfortunately like many non-users of Alternative medicine the family depicted in the story was not well educated in or proactive in their own health care solutions. The situation told in the book would be one of many reasons today to turn to a common alternative practice known as faith healing. Many black families with roots in Christianity would "put it in God's hands" or "let go and let God." The discrimination factor is a means to divert to alternative healing because it further complicates the already bad relationship that African Americans have with the U.S health care system. Discrimination and continued prejudice continues to build the mistrust already built from the clinical trials of Tuskegee.

The emergence of Alternative medicine in the African American community can be trace back to the 1500's when African slaves were first brought to America and carried with them the traditional West African culture forms of medicine. Being a slave automatically meant being subjected to sub-par health care if any health care at all. Forced into this situation African Americans had to use individuals experienced as voodoo workers, witchdoctors, and make-shift physicians to find some kind of care because slaves typically could not use the same type of care and facilities as the whites. Since the days of slavery, folk doctors and rituals based on religion African American alternative practices have had a profound impact on the face of medicine because the African American medicine that exists today is only present because of the foundation set by the alternative care practitioners in the past.

There are some popular diseases that African Americans have used alternative therapies to treat historically. The number one killer among African Americans is hypertension usually called high blood pressure among the black community. One of the main reasons for hypertension and heart disease being so high up on the disease list is because of the number of factors that contribute to the disease. The factors can be age, sex, heredity, diet, stress, alcohol, smoking, being overweight, and having a lack of exercise or a combination of more than one which would quicken the likely hood of death. Death usually results by way of heart disease, kidney failure, or ailments resulting from a stroke. The typical alternative modalities used as preventative and treatment methods which have a better defined impact include diets based on organic vegetables, supplements, herbal remedies, and stress reduction/relaxation techniques. Having a diet based on organic vegetables has a profound impact on the development of heart disease because it takes away the armful red meats and high fat content away from the meal plan. High fat items and meaty products are typical of the average African American male diet and is usually a contributor to diseases such as hypertension and cancer. Taking supplements contributes to the success of alternative therapies because it is a way to give the body nutrients that are not obtained either because the diet was filled with not nutritious items or the diet was small and inadequate altogether. Herbal remedies tend to have the same effect as supplements and vitamins but they have an organic and all natural make-up to them. Herbal remedies are very prevalent among the traditional Chinese alternative health practices and can be seen used as a mix in a drink such as tea to being burned on top of an acupuncture needle. Stress reduction/relaxation techniques are clearly the physical complement and or addition to alternative therapy treatments. These techniques lower blood pressure by allowing the patient to become less tense by activities through breathing like tai chi or even massage therapy to stimulate blood flow to what some alternative therapist may refer to as a block in the energy flow. Bailey gives some actual examples that people testified to using in the book. These home remedies developed for specific use against hypertension come in a variety of forms. One form is garlic that can be drunk, eaten, mixed with water, cooked with, or taken as a tablet. A popular remedy is tea which is mixed with water or even sometimes eaten alone. Another remedy previously explained is the multivitamin which can be taken as a tablet or capsule and can be mixed with the above remedies as well. The last home remedy mentioned is mixing traditional juices like apple juice, grape juice, and apple cider vinegar and other aloe vera juice and lemon juice. Surveys taken on a small group indicate that around one-third of African Americans with hypertension have taken a form of alternative medicine and just over ten percent of whites have tried an alternative form of treatment for their hypertension. In contrast the typical treatments used in mainstream western medicine to combat hypertension are diuretics, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, angiotension antagonists, calcium and channel blockers, alpha blockers, alpha-beta blockers, nervous system inhibitors and vasodilators.

The next disease combated frequently with alternative therapy treatments is cancer which is very high not only on the African American list of killers but the general population as well. Cancer is a malignant neoplasm defined medically and is basically an abnormal growth of tissue. Studies have shown that African Americans are more likely to die from cancer than any other ethnic group. Cancer serves as an example of one of the diseases in which traditional medical doctors may not have a definite solution or terminal diagnosis therefore leaving patients with more of an interest in finding alternate solutions. A study done just before the break of the new millennium indicated that 54 percent of cancer patients had use an alternate from of treatment and 40 percent of cancer patients completely relied on CAM as the only form of treatment used to combat their cancer. Bailey also explains that some reasons why alternate forms of treatment are taken due to the appeal of "natural" and "holistic" remedies, the need to have a sense of control over one's own life, pressure from family and friends, and mistrust of the conventional medical establishment and authority figures and mainstream allopathic medicine can be overly expensive. Because a large portion of risk for cancer is connected to diet, the biggest alternative treatment for cancer is the ingestion of certain fruits and vegetables. Different varieties of fruits and vegetables for different types of cancer were clinically tested to have an impact. For example there is evidence that diets high in green vegetables protect against lung and stomach cancers is convincing, and these diets probably protect against mouth and pharyngeal cancer. Another example is that diets high in cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and cabbage) probably protect against colorectal and thyroid cancers. Again the traditional western medicine practice uses treatments such as Chemotherapy, Cryosurgery, Radiotherapy, laser therapy, and bone marrow transplant.

Another common affliction among the African American population that can be treated by CAM is Diabetes Mellitus. This disease is described as an insufficient production of insulin or from inadequate utilization of this hormone by the body's cells. Type II is the common form of diabetes that affects blacks and accounts for about 85-90 percent of Americans diagnosed with cancer annually. Recent studies show that roughly 30 percent of patients diagnosed with diabetes have invested in alternative treatment for the illness and 44 percent invested in over the counter drugs. As far as the CAM methods of treatments Garlic, Echinacea, herbal mixtures, and glucosamine were the most commonly used alternative medications. Western medicine emphasizes treatment with various pills to control insulin levels.

The last disease that does not sit high on the charts as a killer among African Americans but is common is the treatment of Strokes or Cerebrovascular Disease. This is the result of improper blood circulation to the brain eventually leading to death of brain cells in a matter of minutes which is typically why many victims loose certain motor functions and have erratic movement patterns following an attack. Strokes typically follow the southern states along a path known as the stroke belt. Bailey discusses that fruits and vegetables are of particular interest because of their potassium and antioxidant content and because of national programs aimed at increasing intake of these foods. Very similar to the alternative treatments developed for cancer the CAM program developed for strokes focuses on an increased intake of fruits and leafy greens as a preventative and treatment method.

African Americans contribution to the world of Alternative Medicine is significant and largely due to the fact that when slaves were taken from Africa they had to rely on their alternative treatments because no ready medical assistance was given to them. It is this circumstance that allowed/forced Africans to find so many alternative ways to combat illness and stay alive. Because it is all natural the main risk is wasted time and no side effects unless taken with traditional medicine that is not compatible. CAM shops filled with herbal and therapeutic home remedies will always be readily available in the African American community because it represents a tie to the original culture adapted from Africa, a symbol of self control of African Americans health, and ties into the traditional religion of African Americans which is Christianity. CAM will continue to be prevalent in the general population including African Americans simply because of the cost effectiveness and treatment efficacy whether it be mental (placebo effect) or real compared to traditional Western Medicine.