Monday, June 4, 2012
My Foray into Herbal Medicine, by practitioner
My foray into medicine
Dr. Idowu Olawale is a herbal practitioner based in Lagos. He speaks on the efficacy of herbs in treating ailments and his foray into the profession.
How did you get into herbal medicine?
I came into herbal medicine out of personal experience. I was privileged to have been born into the family of herbalists, but because of the superstition and mystery created into the practice, it became repulsive to my father. He stopped practicing. And as a result of western education, we didn’t consider it something to do, a no go area I should say.
I took ill in 1989 and that changed my perception because no orthodox medicine helped in any way, and I had recourse to herbal medicine.
They took me to all the notable hospitals in Europe and America all but to no avail. The sickness persisted. So, I told those taking care of me to take me to my country that I do not want to die in a
foreign land. Today, I say thank God for bringing me to Nigeria because I would have died. There was no way I could have made it. While trying to board the plane that brought me back to the country, the doctor gave me injections to sedate me because the pain was too much for me to bear.
I got to know about herbs in the United States when I met Mark Hughes of Herbalife in 1997 and I came back to Nigeria I 1999. Then I went to Lagos State Board, but to my utmost surprise, what I thought to be new was in the country.
Are you a member of any herbal medicine association?
We have an association, at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Health established the National Association of Nigerian Traditional Medicine Practitioners (NANTMP). So, it’s existing at the instance of the former Health Minister, Mrs. Adenike Grange in all 36 states of the federation.
What do you want the government to do for the association?
The government has been responsive, but I still want them to integrate traditional health practice into the national health care delivery by writing another memo to all the organizations that are involved like the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), so that they can accept us. We want to become primary health provider in the scheme. Each state and local government should identify their practitioners, train and give them accreditation so that they can be used to support primary healthcare delivery. Qualified ones can even become civil servants who will not charge exorbitant rates. The registered traditional practitioners on herbal
medicine should be integrated as civil servants. The government should put them on its payroll. We should be integrated in the area of work force and medicine.
The former commissioner for Health, Lagos, Dr. Leke Pitan and Dr. Bunmi Omoseyindemi, Chairman Lagos Traditional MedicineBoard, made the move for that to be done. The proposed regulation by National Food Drug
Administration and Control (NAFDAC) would be very difficult because of the money involved. It is too prohibitive. It should be free registration by NAFDAC like that of the bakers and in accordance to Herbal Doctor Magazine volume 2 No.3 Edition.
What are the major contrasts between orthodox and traditional medicine?
The orthodox is trained for emergency cases and surgery while herbal is not into such. Herbal medicine is good for chronic diseases management.
This is for those who have used various therapies with no result.these are the people who are vulnerable to charlatans and quacks. The healthcare delivery system is not well defined in the country, because if the structure of the delivery system is strictly adhered to, the deathrate will greatly reduce. They carry the primary health problem straight to Lagos University Hospital (LUTH) and we live in a country where everybody knowls what to use. Orthodox medical practitioners are learned while 95 per cent of herbal practitioners are unlettered.
Have you made any feat in the profession since you started?
Yes, I have researched into various drugs and at the moment, I have a product that heals diabetes. What to do is drink the herb judiciously and the healing process is on.
What advice would you give those patronizing herbal medicine?
Medicine is medicine, either orthodox or traditional. You are free to make your choice. None is greater than the other. They are both good medicines. However, if you want to combine the two, meet the
doctors in the professions to work as a team, not independently. For example, a herbal practitioner should explain the medical composition of his drug, otherwise, there may be complications whereby an ulcer patient also has hypertension and diabetes and there are drugs which a diabetic patient can use, but ulcer patient can’t.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Lagos and the craze for herbal options
herbal medicine on display
During the strike period by Lagos doctors, in which government-owned hospitals shut their doors against patients, many patients
resorted to use of herbs to treat ailments.
Even though the over 700 sacked doctors have since been replaced by the state
government, many Lagosian still patronise herbal clinics.
In many parts of the city, herbal medicine men boldly come out en masse into the streets promoting many products, which seem to have gained new heights in
patronage by people of different ages, gender, education and income levels.
At Mushin, Agege, Ojo, Badagry and Mile 12, areas which Daily Independent
visited, scores of herbal drug marketers were seen displaying processed and
semi-processed medicines which they claimed could cure pile, hypertension,
diabetes, malaria, hernia, diarrhoea, gonorrheoea, infertility and many other
ailments.
Sule Wonaka, indigene of Kano State, who has been marketing herbal drugs in
Lagos since 2002, boasted the power of herbs to cure all ailments. According to
the 30-year-old man, who said he inherited knowledge about traditional medicine
from his grandfather, “herbal remedies are a good option for irregular
menstruation, ovarian cysts, tooth ache, deafness, skin diseases, fibroids and
barrenness.” Confidently, he added: “I can use the root of plantain, extracts
from cabbage leaves and bitter leaf to treat obesity and diabetes.”
All the herbal medicine traders have bottles loaded with pieces of wood and
medicinal powder which they stated if blended with water, lime, lemon juice,
citrus or strong spirit become therapeutic wonder.
A co-trader, who plies his trade at the popular Mile 12 Market, is Ibrahim
Borno. He explained that the bark, wood and latex of Iroko, a popular tree in
the rain forest of Nigeria, can be used for the treatment of hernia while its
powdered bark is used as antiseptic or for wound or dressing. Bark of oak, tea,
acacia, bramble, nim, shea butter and rubber trees are said to be raw materials
for health-giving drugs.
Middle-aged Fatimo Salawu was holding a jar of herbal drug bought at Iyana
Oba, Ojo, Lagos, when Daily Independent accosted her a fortnight ago. The mother
of four disclosed that her ailment was painful monthly periods which western
medicine could not alleviate satisfactorily. “But since I started taking this
herb about six months ago, I enjoy comfort and peace whenever my ‘visitor’
arrives,” she said.
But the medical challenge of 38-year-old Queen Okafor, who lives at Idi-Oro,
Mushin, Lagos, is not related with body pain, but infertility, an emotional
trauma, especially in an African society that cherishes children and considers
infertile women almost as social misfits.
“I have been married for eight years now, but I have never been able to
conceive despite visiting many hospitals and doing many tests which have proved
that my general condition was satisfactory, my pelvic examination normal; even
my husband’s semen analysis showed no abnormality,” she sadly told Daily
Independent.Some herbalists have also claimed that the seed of cherry can be
useful in curing impotence.
Though doctors believe in the curative potential of herbs, nephrologists
however implored Nigerians to be wary of abuse of herbal medicine because it
could result in kidney damage.
According to them, management of kidney disease usually attracts huge
financial burden. For example, dialysis costs about N80, 000 per week while
kidney transplant costs about N7 million.
They also warned that many herbal medicines abused or blended with strong
alcohol are toxic and could result into heart failure or seizure, lower
breathing rate and ultimately cause death.
Two out of the six men, who said they patronize herbal medicine traders, said
they suffer from relapsing typhoid fever and acute dysentery.
They complained that the cost of hospital treatment of their cases was
exorbitant. The other four stated that their challenge was piles, which are
expanded blood vessels in the anus. They noted that they have lost hope in
western medicine as solution to their ailments, and would rather prefer
anti-piles herbs which cost almost N2,000 per bottle.
Doctors explained that piles are caused by excessive pressure in the
rectum.
One of them, Ayodele Eshinola, a carpenter, said the drug also functions as
aphrodisiac because it corrects erectile dysfunction or failed manhood erection,
a widely believed consequence of chronic piles.
Eshinola, who confirmed that herbal medicine is more effective for piles’
treatment than western medicine, confessed spending a fortune in hospitals
without improvement or cure to his health.
Another piles sufferer, Ayobami Omoyajowo, corroborated Eshinola, saying “the
disease makes manhood turgid during sexual relations.”
These men’s reasons could have informed why those who trade in piles-treating
herbal drugs in the metropolis – at roadsides, on train and public buses, local
markets and bus stops – lace their advertisement messages with lewd phrases and
sensuous images that evoke erotic feelings.
Although no woman was seen demanding piles herbs, but Mustapha Ilyasu, a
street herbal products seller at Ipaja Road, Agege, said some women also buy it
mostly for their “husbands and “to facilitate mutual sexual pleasure.”
culled from dailyindependentonline, may 22, 2012
During the strike period by Lagos doctors, in which government-owned hospitals shut their doors against patients, many patients
resorted to use of herbs to treat ailments.
Even though the over 700 sacked doctors have since been replaced by the state
government, many Lagosian still patronise herbal clinics.
In many parts of the city, herbal medicine men boldly come out en masse into the streets promoting many products, which seem to have gained new heights in
patronage by people of different ages, gender, education and income levels.
At Mushin, Agege, Ojo, Badagry and Mile 12, areas which Daily Independent
visited, scores of herbal drug marketers were seen displaying processed and
semi-processed medicines which they claimed could cure pile, hypertension,
diabetes, malaria, hernia, diarrhoea, gonorrheoea, infertility and many other
ailments.
Sule Wonaka, indigene of Kano State, who has been marketing herbal drugs in
Lagos since 2002, boasted the power of herbs to cure all ailments. According to
the 30-year-old man, who said he inherited knowledge about traditional medicine
from his grandfather, “herbal remedies are a good option for irregular
menstruation, ovarian cysts, tooth ache, deafness, skin diseases, fibroids and
barrenness.” Confidently, he added: “I can use the root of plantain, extracts
from cabbage leaves and bitter leaf to treat obesity and diabetes.”
All the herbal medicine traders have bottles loaded with pieces of wood and
medicinal powder which they stated if blended with water, lime, lemon juice,
citrus or strong spirit become therapeutic wonder.
A co-trader, who plies his trade at the popular Mile 12 Market, is Ibrahim
Borno. He explained that the bark, wood and latex of Iroko, a popular tree in
the rain forest of Nigeria, can be used for the treatment of hernia while its
powdered bark is used as antiseptic or for wound or dressing. Bark of oak, tea,
acacia, bramble, nim, shea butter and rubber trees are said to be raw materials
for health-giving drugs.
Middle-aged Fatimo Salawu was holding a jar of herbal drug bought at Iyana
Oba, Ojo, Lagos, when Daily Independent accosted her a fortnight ago. The mother
of four disclosed that her ailment was painful monthly periods which western
medicine could not alleviate satisfactorily. “But since I started taking this
herb about six months ago, I enjoy comfort and peace whenever my ‘visitor’
arrives,” she said.
But the medical challenge of 38-year-old Queen Okafor, who lives at Idi-Oro,
Mushin, Lagos, is not related with body pain, but infertility, an emotional
trauma, especially in an African society that cherishes children and considers
infertile women almost as social misfits.
“I have been married for eight years now, but I have never been able to
conceive despite visiting many hospitals and doing many tests which have proved
that my general condition was satisfactory, my pelvic examination normal; even
my husband’s semen analysis showed no abnormality,” she sadly told Daily
Independent.Some herbalists have also claimed that the seed of cherry can be
useful in curing impotence.
Though doctors believe in the curative potential of herbs, nephrologists
however implored Nigerians to be wary of abuse of herbal medicine because it
could result in kidney damage.
According to them, management of kidney disease usually attracts huge
financial burden. For example, dialysis costs about N80, 000 per week while
kidney transplant costs about N7 million.
They also warned that many herbal medicines abused or blended with strong
alcohol are toxic and could result into heart failure or seizure, lower
breathing rate and ultimately cause death.
Two out of the six men, who said they patronize herbal medicine traders, said
they suffer from relapsing typhoid fever and acute dysentery.
They complained that the cost of hospital treatment of their cases was
exorbitant. The other four stated that their challenge was piles, which are
expanded blood vessels in the anus. They noted that they have lost hope in
western medicine as solution to their ailments, and would rather prefer
anti-piles herbs which cost almost N2,000 per bottle.
Doctors explained that piles are caused by excessive pressure in the
rectum.
One of them, Ayodele Eshinola, a carpenter, said the drug also functions as
aphrodisiac because it corrects erectile dysfunction or failed manhood erection,
a widely believed consequence of chronic piles.
Eshinola, who confirmed that herbal medicine is more effective for piles’
treatment than western medicine, confessed spending a fortune in hospitals
without improvement or cure to his health.
Another piles sufferer, Ayobami Omoyajowo, corroborated Eshinola, saying “the
disease makes manhood turgid during sexual relations.”
These men’s reasons could have informed why those who trade in piles-treating
herbal drugs in the metropolis – at roadsides, on train and public buses, local
markets and bus stops – lace their advertisement messages with lewd phrases and
sensuous images that evoke erotic feelings.
Although no woman was seen demanding piles herbs, but Mustapha Ilyasu, a
street herbal products seller at Ipaja Road, Agege, said some women also buy it
mostly for their “husbands and “to facilitate mutual sexual pleasure.”
culled from dailyindependentonline, may 22, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)