Plantain – Medicine that Treats Everything Throughout years, I was taught to believe that the best medicine is not a pill, but a folk medicine. The most common folk medicine in my culture was plantain. This herb meant to help in a variety of sicknesses. For instance, when I got food poison followed by high fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, my mother prepared a tincture based on plantain, vinegar and salt. I had to drink 15 drops of this mixture every hour and after 5 hours the reaction of poisoning in the stomach terminated.
At the same time my mother also put the fresh leafs of plantain on my abdomen to relieve my pain. In addition, plantain was also believed to treat other diseases such as burns, hemorrhages, dysentery and bronchial asthma. For example, when my cousin had symptoms of bronchial asthma, she was given a mixture based on granule of plantain. She had to drink it 5 times a day to stop her symptoms. After repeating procedures for 3 months, her symptoms stopped and she fully recovered.
I think the root of the belief that plantain treats many diseases is cultural. My mother learned about plantain from her parents, relatives and friends and thus passed her knowledge to me. Even though fresh plantain was available only in a summer, many people in Russia collected plantain and dried it for the use during the winter. Now that we live in USA we are able to buy the granules of plantain in stores and continue to use plantain when needed. I believe that experience in the folk medicine taught me about another way of treating a sickness. I also think that besides my culture, there are also other cultures who believe in folk medicine.
The Essay on Culture Shock 6
Studying, working or living abroad can be a wonderful experience. However, this can also be an awful time in one’s life with some people finding a lot of discomfort in adapting to a new society. This impact of moving from a familiar culture to one which is unfamiliar is referred to as culture shock. It includes the different feelings and apprehension people have when learning the ways of a ...
Thus, when working in a health care field it will help me to understand better why some patients refuse particular medicine and incline toward another medicine.
