Posted on 12/07/2007 2:09:39 PM PST by Coleus
Johnny DelValle, a pensive, cigar-smoking 35-year-old, takes regular baths in herbal leaves to cleanse himself of "negative vibes" from his 18 months in Iraq as an Army reservist. "You can't wipe out your memory," he said. "But there are things I've done to help."
-snip-
Many go to botanicas for the "natural" remedies favored by immigrants who lack health insurance or don't trust doctors. Others are seeking health and life advice from an espiritista, or spiritual leader. Because Latinos often view emotional, spiritual and physical health as interconnected, it makes sense for their health providers to address multiple aspects of their well-being, said Noel Chavez, an associate professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who co-authored a 2001 study of botanicas as a health care option.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
“As Latinos settled into New Jersey towns, so did botanicas. Their products — from tiny bottles of snake oil used to treat asthma, to long and thin vials of purified sheep placenta used as hair conditioner — are so popular, particularly among recent immigrants, that even a few traditional neighborhood pharmacies have been stocking the items.”
Snake oil. No foolin’.
Witch doctors.
Hey some want them to be the majority here and make us just like Mexico.
Doing the jobs hippies won’t do?
Makes sense to me. Perhaps there is something in that idea that our health care providers should consider.
On the basis of what I’ve read previously, I’m not totally against the idea either.
Certainly, there are times and places where holistic medicine can work hand-in-hand with traditional medicine.
But as for me, if I get negative vibes, a beer or two will usually help get rid of ‘em.
Makes sense to me. Perhaps there is something in that idea that our health care providers should consider.
***
Agreed, but please not with snake oil and sheep placenta! It’s not hard to see why some cultures remain backwards.
If we get socialized medicine, this may be our best source of help.
My emotional health is derived from my relationship with my girlfriend (don’t tell my wife) and my spiritual health is derived from my relationship with God. If I should ever get shot, I hope they wheel me in with the surgeon that paid attention in med school and not the surgeon that spent a lot of time ‘finding himself’ in Peru.
Joking aside, I don’t necessarily disagree with you.
I don't know that it's any more backward than our hospitals selling human placentas to cosmetics companies to use for skin and hair care products.
Yeah, and some of the stuff they're advertising is a bit too close to paganism for me...but I don't know why it isn't common sense that spiritual, physical, and mental health are intertwined.
Yeah, I was just thinking, "when his wife and God find out about that girlfriend..." ;-)
According to the FDA, sanitation is not an issue:
Human placenta is the nourishing lining of the womb (uterus), which is expelled after birth. When placental materials were first used as cosmetic ingredients in the 1940s, manufacturers promoted the products as providing beneficial hormonal effects such as stimulating tissue growth and removing wrinkles. (Although newborn infants emerge from the womb with wrinkled skin!) The hormone content and the tissue-growth and wrinkle-removing claims classified the placenta-containing products as drugs, and FDA declared them to be ineffective and therefore misbranded.FDA's challenge caused placenta suppliers to change marketing strategies by claiming that hormones in their placenta ingredients had been extracted and were no longer in the product. They then offered placental raw materials without medical claims--only as a source of protein.
Can you get a disease from placental cosmetic ingredients? Bailey says no. Placenta used in cosmetics is washed and processed many times to destroy any harmful bacteria or viruses. Besides that, says Bailey, the cosmetic matrix (components that bind the ingredients in products) is made from a wide variety of substances, such as alcohol and preservatives, that would present a hostile environment to any viruses or bacteria the placenta might have carried.
And it's not a black market; it's just not very well known, apparently.
Yes, I know.
I would love to see the FDA's take on it...
Google around a bit. You can probably find it.
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