¿Which Doctor?

Even though we usually think of medicine as a "science" and as something that should be standard, medicinal practices vary from culture to culture and even from family to family.  All of us inherit beliefs from our parents about what causes what illnesses and what to do to cure them.  In my family, for example, my parents taught  me from a young age to always wash my hands to kill germs, which are a main cause of disease.  They taught me that we should cook our food well to prevent it.  That to cure a sickness the best thing is rest and to be well hydrated.  When we are sick our have a surgery there is always ice cream.  I vividly remember sucking on mickey mouse popsicles when I got my tonsils out as a child.

Mayan Surgeon Dentist

These things probably seem normal enough to all of you, but for some, some of our health ideas are pretty far out there.  For example, in Mexico and much of Central/South America, the idea of giving a sick child a popsicle would send chills down his mother's spine.  Many health ideas there have to do with hot and cold.  If you have a cold then you probably drank some water that was too cold or ate too many popsicles.  If you want to recover you MUST avoid any cold drink or food.  If someone has a cold disease you give them hot remedies and vise versa. (read more HERE about Hispanic folk medicine)  This is just one example, but medical remedies and ideas are something that always get passed down in a culture and vary widely from place to place.

This idea of hot/cold remedies and sicknesses actually has its roots all the way back to pre-colombian times.  Many of the pre-colombian Mesoamerican cultures (such as the Maya, Olmec, Aztec, and Zapotec cultures to name a few) were actually very advanced in their practice of medicine.  The Aztec medical knowledge was actually seen by many Spaniard conquistadores as superior to their own European doctors and many preferred Aztec medical care. (see this article about pre-columbian medicine)  Among the Aztecs this knowledge was purely hereditary.  A father would teach his son all that he knows, although the son could not practice medicine until his father's death.

Patecatl - The Aztec god of healing and fertility

Almost all of the pre-colombian cultures also mixed their scientific and medicinal ideas with religious and mystical ideas.  If you were a pre-colombian native, your doctor was probably also a witch-doctor and priest.  Your visit may have included a prescription of medicinal herbs, blood letting procedures, rubbing, and most definitely some sort of ceremonial ritual.

Over time these medicinal practices changed and with the advent of the Spanish explorer, much of the information we have about these cultures and their health knowledge was lost, but many of their ideas and practices continue affect modern central-american thoughts about the origin and cure of diseases.

All of this makes me wonder how many of my own thoughts about sickness are really true and what else might other cultures do that has some sort of medical benefit that we might not recognize in our culture (i.e. eastern medicine is VERY different from western but has proven to be effective).  I should probably cut back on the ice cream when i'm sick now. . . i guess its not THAT nutrient rich.

More sites -- Here is another site about general pre-colombian medicine, or Here you can find some info on Mayan medicine (for you spanish speakers).