Holistic Medicine: My Personal Window into Pre-Modern Medicine

 Jonah Diaz

HST 401-A
Professor Horgan

11 February 2026

“I pledge my honor that I have abided by the Stevens Honor System” -Jonah Diaz

Holistic Medicine: My Personal Window into Pre-Modern Medicine

My mother was never fond of doctors or modern medicine in general for that matter. This indifference can largely be attributed to a lack of familiarity or exposure to “standard” medical care given that she was raised in a low-income, rural setting under the Chilean Pinochet regime. Furthermore, my mother belongs to the Mapuche indigenous people, a people who have long resisted assimilation and subjugation from foreign actors to this day. The Mapuche practiced a systematic form of holistic medicine in which a machi (healer/religious figure) carries out ritualistic healing ceremonies based on extensive herbal knowledge. Current Mapuche society and culture is merely a shell of its formal self but fortunately, much of the knowledge remains preserved through subsequent generations. My personal experience with holistic medicine and its attestable success reinvigorates my faith in medical knowledge that has persisted through much of human history, knowledge that may be beneficial when approached from a modern filter and angle.
To my younger self, such experiences of holistic medicine can be plainly stated as being often unpleasant and/or unusual. Whenever I fell under a strong cold or fever, I was prepared tea of a herb known as “uña de gato,” or cat’s claw, which is recognized for its anti-inflammatory anti-oxidant properties as well as being an overall aid to the body's immune response. The long term and regular consumption of this herb is also said to mitigate the risk of cancer given its anti-inflammatory properties as previously stated. However, it was also one of the most awful things that I have ever tasted, being bitter and sour beyond my taste buds’ belief. Another “odd” treatment that I personally received was for nasal congestion and wet cough. The treatment involved cutting a red onion in half, sprinkling fresh oregano over the exposed face and applying a mixture of tea-tree and rosemary oil over the surface. The concoction was kept by one’s bed whilst one slept, preventing a restless night of periodic suffocation due to stuffed sinuses. The last remedy that I will provide is one for throat infection or throat soreness. The treatment involves placing turmeric, ginger, garlic, red onion, star anise, and water to boil in a stainless steel pot. The boiled mixture was then drained of solids and combined with lemon juice, a pinch of salt, and raw honey. As I mentioned prior, the fact that these treatments worked to a significant and repetitive degree made me respect holistic medicine and by extension, practices closely associated with the era in which such medicine was prevalent.

The points made in John Horgan’s article, “More Medicine Does Not Mean Better Health” reverberated with my own personal sentiments of modern medicine. I do not dispute the benefit of modern medical technologies and treatments, but I also recognize that collectively, as a society, much emphasis on deterrence has been lost. To clarify, individuals disregard how lifestyle and habits significantly culminate to their overall long-term health and well-being. Much of the population in this country consumes an unbalanced diet consisting of overprocessed foods. The work and schooling culture of many developed nations encompasses being away from natural light which regulates and promotes the body’s circadian rhythm. Frequent and adequate exercising is also not a constant in much of the population and in retrospect, the consequence of these factors is seen in trends across general population health statistics. The CDC acknowledges chronic diseases and their risk factors as it states that, “Many preventable chronic diseases are caused by a short list of risk behaviors: smoking, poor nutrition, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol use” (CDC, 2024). I firmly believe that a radical and profound societal transformation is necessary to resolve the current predicament that continues to threaten the health and livelihood of individuals in the developed world. This solution lies at a crossroad between government policy, economic reform, cultural emphasis and social stigmatism. Such a transformation is not only necessary for the well being of the individual but for the collective as a whole. I also propose that inspiration be drawn from traditional and holistic medical practices of the past by adopting what worked and filtering out what did not. However, to overlook, undermine and disregard the past entirely would be completely ignorant and surely detrimental as the current scope of our medical industry stands.
On the rare occasion that I do see my doctor (most likely to get a doctor’s note excusing an absence), I find myself disappointed with the treatment I receive, and I can state that this disappointment extends to many medical practitioners with whom I have interacted. My visits usually boil down to a quick assessment of the problem, a procedural solution, and then an assessment of success or failure in the following visit. If said treatment fails (and it often does), then I get assigned another treatment that also may not work. As Sneha Mantri describes it, “Although the modern dominance of pathologic anatomy has yielded centuries of medical progress, at times it threatens to divide and reduce the patient to a silent sum of mechanistic parts” (History of Medicine, 2008). There always seems to be a lack of personal connection between the patient and medical practitioner nor is there ever a thorough assessment to truly verify the root of the problem without some interventionary solution. The interaction is often methodical and experimental but I have always felt that because the human body can present itself in various and unique ways, that there will never be a “one size fits all” solution to a problem. Surprisingly, the solution for me has rarely been a treatment prescribed to me but rather corrections to lifestyle if circumstances permit them. With respect to a plethora of ailments, the solution will often be to abide by the law and intended purpose of human design. 

References

CDC. (2024, October 4). About chronic diseases. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/chronic-disease/about/index.html ‌

Horgan, J. (2024, October 25). John Horgan (The Science Writer). John Horgan (the Science Writer). https://johnhorgan.org/cross-check/more-medicine-does-not-mean-better-health ‌

Mantri, S. (2008). Holistic Medicine and the Western Medical Tradition. AMA Journal of Ethics, 10(3), 177–180. https://doi.org/10.1001/virtualmentor.2008.10.3.mhst1-0803. ‌