7-5
Healthier
local
tradition
MORE EXAMPLES OF HEALTH PROBLEMS
THAT RESULT WHEN OLD CUSTOMS ARE
REPLACED BY LESS HEALTHY NEW ONES
Modern medicines have replaced folk remedies and
traditional cures in many areas. In some cases this has
improved people’s health. But in many cases traditional
medicines are cheaper, safer, and just as effective
as modern medicines. The overuse and misuse
of modern medicines, due partly to promotion
by international drug companies, has become
a major economic and health problem in the
world today.
Unhealthy
new
custom
The traditional squatting position for
childbirth is usually easier for the mother,
because the weight of the baby helps her to
push. The modern lying-down position is
easier for the doctor, but not for the mother.
This is only one of many examples of how
modern medicine often puts the doctor’s
needs before the patient’s.
Most traditional cultures limited the use of
alcohol and other drugs to special occasions
and religious rites. As old traditions break down,
drinking and drug abuse have become enormous
problems in many societies. Alcoholism, with
the resulting family problems and malnourished
children, has become an especially big problem
where Christianity has replaced religions that had
strict ‘taboos’ (prohibitions) against drinking. In
parts of Africa, for example, children are generally
better nourished in Islamic villages, where drinking
is prohibited, than in neighboring Christian villages
where the men drink.
In some parts of the world, the smoking of tobacco
is a relatively recent custom. Since it has been proved
to cause lung cancer, harm unborn babies of women
who smoke, and to be generally dangerous to health,
people in rich countries now smoke less. As a result,
the big tobacco companies now push their products
in poor countries, using massive advertising and
sales campaigns. This is causing more people in
poor countries, including women, to become
smokers. The World Health Organization has
called smoking “the biggest preventive health
problem in the world today.”