Making a Case for Integrative Medicine in Yoruba and Western Health Care Paradigms

Abstract

The world is evolving and conservative positions are giving way to practical and existential ones. The Western healthcare paradigm has conservatively been the formally acceptable healthcare paradigm in Nigeria although WHO knows and supports African Traditional Medicine (ATM). Current healthcare needs to show the limitation in both methods, when isolated, in such a way that either cannot give holistic care every time a patient requires it. This paper focuses on disease causation, diagnosis and treatment found in Yoruba Traditional Medicine (YTM) as a framework for integrative healthcare in Africa. There is a need for a complementary blend between the ATM and the Western model. The blend is necessitated because of the limitation experienced when one excludes the other. The Western paradigm focuses on the empirical analysis of disease causation and treatment whereas YTM focuses on both the empirical and spiritual dimension of disease causation and treatment as recognized by WHO. This study calls for an integrative healthcare aimed at providing a holistic approach to diagnosis and treatment of the mind, body, and spirit. To achieve the purpose of this paper, the Yoruba principle of ‘Àgbájọ ọwọ́ la fí  ń sọ àyà, àjèjé ọwọ́ kan kò gbé ẹrù dé orí’ (one hand is not good enough to lift a heavy load unto one’s head) will be used, with the objective of making a strong case for the integration of ATM and Western healthcare.