The term “Traditional and Indigenous Medicine” refers to the healing systems used by various countries and ethnic populations for thousands of years, before the arrival of modern medicine. These practices developed out of the specific nature of the culture, history, philosophy and availability of natural resources in different regions of the world. The World Health Organization estimates that between 65% and 85% of the world’s population relies on traditional medicine as their primary form of health care. Despite this long tradition of use, traditional medicine has not had strong official support in most countries since the rise of modern western medicine, resulting in an under development of formal education, training and research into its effectiveness.

The Center currently integrates several Traditional & Indigenous healing systems into its services. Please select a system from the drop down menu to learn more about its philosophy and practice. We recognize, however, that almost every culture has developed a unique indigenous healing system and we hope to describe this diversity more completely in this section as we develop our web site.

Content last modified on Mar 31, 2003