Traditional healing: Is it effective?
Traditional healing: Is it effective?
As the appeal to get back to nature grows stronger, more and more people are turning to alternative healing and medicine. Does this truly heal? The Jakarta Post discusses this issue in conjunction with National Health Day, which falls today. More stories on Page 6.
JAKARTA (JP): Traditional healing has long been criticized by certain people in the community, but last year it gained credibility with the government's decision to include it in the national medical system.
Many people are turning to traditional medicine and alternative healing. They are going back to nature.
Alternative medicine has been around for ages, and long after the introduction of chemical medication and professionally trained doctors, it remains popular.
Alternative medicine practitioners examine patients without a stethoscope, or other modern instrument. Soetijono Darsosentono, who claims he can cure cancer, is armed with a Koran. He puts the holy book above the patient's head and prays before giving the patient medicine: traditional herbs made from the leaves of benalu (Loranthes sp.), tapak dara (Catharanthus roseus, Vinca rosea or Lochnera rosea) and sirih (betel).
Handoyo Lukman uses a pendulum to analyze the electrostatic signals of his patients. Lukman, whose practice is in Purworejo, Central Java, combines what is called radiesthesia, or the science of pendulum, and medical science in the therapy.
Lukman believes that the ability to heal is a gift from God. People acquire the talent either by accident, through training, or hereditarily.
Acupuncturists make use of needles, but Prof. Hembing Wijayakusuma, a graduate of the Chinese Medicine College in Hong Kong, has replaced needles with bee stings. Hembing, chairman of the Association of Indonesian Traditional Medicine and Acupuncture, has received various international awards for his discoveries in alternative medicine, including the bee-sting therapy.
Retno Widati kneads certain nerves of a patient and rolls burning incense just above the skin to improve blood circulation. She helps people with sexual and infertility problems.
Ahmad Afif Solichin, a healer and an artist, draws the patient's rajah (anatomy) before the healing process. The drawing, which is full of symbols, is meant to give the healer and the patient spiritual confidence. With the help of such drawings, combined with an unexplained supernatural power, Solichin is said to be able to remove tumors from fully conscious patients.
There are also healers like Sabihi Mudasir, who practice pijit refleksi, or reflexology.
"The first time I saw him was four or five years ago. He gave me a massage for myopia, and it worked," Ahmad, one of his patients, told The Jakarta Post.
Since then he always comes to see Mudasir whenever he does not feel well.
Most traditional healers don't have formal medical education. They learn about healing methods from their ancestors and books, or by experience. But others, including Hembing, attended medical school. Part of alternative healing includes the prescribing of traditional herbs.
Medicinal plants
Indonesia is rich in medicinal plants.
Pharmacologist Sardjono Oerip Santoso from University of Indonesia said that 940 of the 7,000 cultivated plants in the country are used as medicines.
In June, Sardjono started testing traditional herbs on animals in the hope of finding a cure for cancer.
There are plants that have the potential to prevent Human Immunodeficiency Virus from worsening, but further study is needed, he said.
Globally, the belief in traditional medicine's potential grows as modern medicine sometimes proves to be ineffective.
Luc Montagnier, who isolated HIV 12 years ago, has recently called for any possible means to fight AIDS, including the testing of traditional drugs. But he said the testing should be conducted rationally and with intensive long-term laboratory experiments.
Alternative medicine is growing in popularity, but many modern doctors refuse to accept its effectiveness.
The case of Gunawan Simon in 1985 is still fresh in the minds of many people. It was a prominent case at the time and highlighted the modern medical community's staunch opposition to alternative healing.
Gunawan was expelled from the Indonesian Medical Association in 1985 because he gave his patients herbal medicines, which he formulated himself. Among his patients was Adam Malik, a former vice president, who died from cancer earlier in the same year.
Indonesian Medical Association chairman Azrul Azwar said that Gunawan's membership from the organization was revoked because he refused to have any clinical tests done on his concoctions.
The organization recognizes acupuncture because it has been scientifically proven. But it does not acknowledge reflexology, radiesthesia or other alternative healing methods, especially those related to supernatural powers.
Azwar said that he has conducted his own research on reflexology. "I found that, unlike acupuncturists, reflexologists do not have a (universal) system. Every reflexologist has their own system," Azwar told the Post.
Even though some patients claim to be totally cured by herbs, or alternative treatments, Azwar is skeptical. The patients may recover by accident, he said.
"Maybe the patients did not really have cancer and the early medical diagnosis was wrong," he added.
He recommended that clinical trials be conducted to prove the effectiveness of herbal medicines and alternative healing methods.
The call for scientific study may serve as a caution for the public to take much care. Traditional medical practitioners may truly heal, but their work needs to be properly evaluated. (sim/jsk)