Health Seeking Behavioural Practices of the Elderly in Rural Community of Ekiti State, South-western Nigeria

BackgroundThe ageing process increases the risks of contracting a disease among elderly people. Health-seeking behaviour is poor among the aged in sub-Saharan countries like Nigeria, escalating the burden of Non-communicable diseases and the cost of healthcare which further impact the utilization of Orthodox medicine. This study aims to assess the healthcare-seeking behavioural practices and associated factors among elderly people in Ido-Ekiti.MethodA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted amongst 420 elderly respondents in Ido-Ekiti. An interviewer-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information. The data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 25 and results were presented in form of tables and bar charts. Chi-square tests were used to test for associations. All data analysis was done at a 5% level of significance.ResultsThe age range of respondents was between 65-95 years with a mean age of 73.88 +/- 6.84 years and 64.0% within the age range 65-75 years. About 63.3% of the respondents have had an episode of illness in the last year preceding the study and only 35.3% consulted a doctor for treatment (Good Health seeking behaviour), however, 57.9% admitted utilizing any of the following; self-medication, consult spiritualist, use of herbal medicine (poor health-seeking behaviour). The factors statistically significantly associated with respondents’ health-seeking behavioural practices are employment status(p<0.001), educational level (p<0.002), cost of health care, access to the health facility, length of time before consultation, beliefs, and lack of support from relations(p<001). ConclusionThis study shows the majority of elderlies had poor health-seeking behaviour due to educational and .economic factors. Making the free or subsidized cost of health care for the elderly in rural communities and the provision of monthly financial support to the aged by the government will promote and encourage good health-seeking behaviour of old people.

Yoruba Indigenous Medicine in Search of Justification

Yoruba Indigenous Medicine (YIM) faces the question of empirical justification. This presents a satisfying conditions of the scientific requirements for its significance and recognition. YIM is questioned for lack of empirical justification whereas Orthodox Medicine (OM) takes pride in being justified. This paper argues that if being justified is being empirically verifiable, then science, which is the foundation for OM, is also ultimately unjustified. If YIM is magical because it is not empirically justifiable then OM suffers the same fate. However, the paper further argues that if being justified is defined by being efficacious, then YIM is as justified as OM. The paper intends to show that science is ultimately empirically unjustified. Showing this disqualifies OM from alleging YIM as empirically unjustified. The paper concludes that in matter of empirical justification, both YIM and OM fall whereas in matter of efficacy they stand. Employing philosophical means, the paper holds that YIM shares the same lot with OM. Therefore, OM lacks sufficient grounds to declare YIM as unjustified.

Sociocultural Factors Influencing the Management of Meningitis Among Older Adults in Kwara State, Nigeria

During epidemic and non-epidemic seasons, the Kwara North, Nigeria, has consistently reported high incidence rates for meningitis, a disease which mostly affects older members of the community. Limited studies have investigated the nexus between climate change-meningitis and socio-cultural factors influencing the management and control of meningitis among the older adults. This study explored the lived experiences of older individuals with meningitis and relationships with their caregivers in Kaiama Local Government area of Kwara state, Nigeria. 15 participants, 6 men and 9 women, aged 65+ years were purposively selected, and in-depth interviews were conducted. Results indicated that most of the older adults believed that the disease is caused by spiritual or supernatural forces (such as witchcrafts, demons, evil spirits among others), and the treatment and management, using orthodox medicine of it has been hampered by certain socio-cultural beliefs. Due to beliefs about contagion, older adults are mostly left on their own, with adult children occasionally visiting their parents to provide care only to return to their own homes. Also, children visit with traditional healers who perform rites of purification and give older adults concoctions to use. The study concluded that meningitis is one of the leading causes of untimely death of some older adults in the study communities and it has been worsened by some socio-cultural practices. Based on this conclusion, the study recommended massive enlightenment of the general public about best practices in the treatment and management of the disease among the older members of the study communities.

Arthropods in Cosmetics, Pharmaceuticals and Medicine: A Review

Apart from food, other important needs in the care of human bodies are cosmetics and drugs. For long the latter two are obtained from chemical formulations and phytochemicals (commonly used in Ethnomedicine), use of bioactive compounds from insects (i.e. “ento medicine” and “ento cosmetics”) is a recent development in research, even though the bioactive compounds were discovered long ago. This chapter is a review on a number of substances extracted from various insect species that are useful in cosmetics, pharmaceutical industries as well as those that form part of prescription for healing in orthodox and traditional medicine. The review is based on information from scientific reports, Google, e-library, textbooks. A number of substances were found to have been incorporated into cosmetic and pharmaceutical products and as part of prescriptions for healing in orthodox medicine, many others at elementary stages of investigation, purification and development. The findings showed that insects have a lot of bioactive substances that need to be harnessed for the good man.

EVALUATION OF ANTICONVULSANT ACTIVITY OF CALLISTEMON CITRINUS (CURTIS) SKEELS (MYRTACEAE) VOLATILE OIL

The use of medicinal plants is on the rise due to the increase of various diseases and shortcomings of orthodox medicine. For many ailments including convulsion, conventional medicine has not been able to find a lasting solution. This study was directed towards assessing the ethnomedicinal use of Callistemon citrinus leaves in the management of convulsion. The volatile oil of the leaves was extracted and an acute toxicity test was carried out following Lorke’s description. Maximal electroshock (MES), strychnine and pentylenetetrazol anticonvulsant methods were used. Separate groups of albino mice were given 200, 400 and 800 mg/kg doses of the volatile oil. Drug solutions; 30 mg/kg phenobarbitone for MES and 2 mg/kg diazepam for strychnine and pentylenetetrazol models were administered as a positive control. The start of tonic leg extension, duration and percentage mortality was recorded. Doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg significantly (P<0.05) inhibited seizure in the mice with scores of 40 % each in the MES model. There was a dose-dependent reduction in the duration of seizures with 68.47, 70.27 and 81.08 % reductions in the pentylenetetrazol model. No significant coverage was given in the strychnine model. C. citrinus oil protected the mice against pentylenetetrazol and maximal electroshock-induced convulsion hence could contribute to the medical treatment of epilepsy.

The Spirit of the ’70s

This chapter explores how in the 1970s, freedom of therapeutic choice advocacy, previously the domain of right-wing extremists, became bipartisan and mainstream. It examines how various cultural trends contributed to this trend, including a loss of trust in orthodox medicine, government, and other establishment institutions; a “rights revolution” (including the rise of patients’ rights); and the emergence of the women’s health movement. The chapter shows how Americans’ use of alternative remedies surged during this period and discusses in detail two 1970s social movements in favor of alternative treatments: a successful rebellion against the FDA’s attempt to regulate vitamin and mineral supplements more stringently and a campaign to resist the FDA’s ban on Laetrile, an alternative cancer treatment derived from apricot pits. The chapter also describes how American courts briefly seemed prepared to elaborate the holding of Roe v. Wade into a generalized right to freedom of therapeutic choice.

Storming the Bastille of Orthodoxy

After describing orthodox medicine and its alternatives in early America, this chapter discusses the rise of country’s earliest medical licensing laws, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. These schemes strove to exclude unorthodox practitioners from the medical profession. American arguments for freedom of therapeutic choice were born in opposition to these original licensing systems. The chapter examines in detail the medical liberty advocacy of Benjamin Rush, an influential Founding Father who was also the most prominent American physician of the early national period. The chapter analyzes the genesis during this time of various strains of medical freedom rhetoric that would persist, to varying degrees, throughout American history.

Effect of leaf extracts of Carica papaya (Paw paw) and Pakia biglobosa (African locust bean) on some biochemical parameters of albino rats

In spite of the advances made in orthodox medicine, there has been an increasing interest in herbal medicine. The leaves of Carica papaya and Pakia biglobosa have been reported to contain lots of beneficial medicinal compounds, hence their use in the traditional prevention, management and treatment of ailments/diseases. In this study, the effect of varied concentrations of the ethanol leaf extract of the plants on some biochemical parameters of albino rats was assessed. The phytochemical compositions of the leaves were determined using established standard laboratory methods. Fifty four male Albino rats weighing between 150g-200g were randomly distributed into nine groups of six animals each. A daily single dose of 500mg/kg, 1000mg/kg, 1500mg/kg and 2000mg/kg body weight of either of the extracts was respectively, administered to the eight test groups for fourteen days. The control group was given only feed and water. Biochemical parameters such as the serum activities of Aspartate Aminotransferase, Alanine Aminotranferase and Alkaline phosphatase as well as the serum concentrations of Bilirubin, Albumin, HCO3-, Urea, Creatinine and Na+ were assessed. Result of the analyses showed that the administration of the extracts did not significantly raise the serum activity of ALT. The decreases in serum concentrations of Urea and increase in the concentration of HCO3- were directly proportional to the concentration of the extracts. It can be deduced from this study, that 500mg, 1000mg 1500mg and 2000mg/kg bw of either C. papaya or P. biglobosa did not elicit any marked hepatotoxicological or renotoxicological effect on the experimental animals

Prevalence and Predictors of Traditional, Complementary/Alternative Medicine use, and types of herbal remedies used for COVID-19 in the South West Region of Cameroon

Background Up to the 21st century, traditional, complementary and alternative medicine(TCAM) is still used despite the wide spread of orthodox medicine. The magnitude, predictors and types of herbal remedies used for COVID-19 are assessed to tailor evidence based policy and drug formulation against COVID-19. Methods A community based cross sectional study was conducted among 1100 respondents from nine (9) communities selected in three health districts from May to July 2020. Pretested structured questionnaire were used to collect data from selected households on the use of TCAM, predictors as well as on the herbal preparations used for COVID-19. Nineteen (19) traditional healers were also interviewed on the types of herbal preparations use on patients tested or suspected for COVID-19 and the signs and symptoms identified. P-value < 0.05 were considered to be statistically significant in multivariate logistic regression analysis. Atlas ti V 7.5 was used for types of herbal species reported. Results Of the 1100 participants sampled, 754 (68.5%) had used TCAM in the last 12 months, 95%CI: 66.3–71.5. A total of 24.4% [95%CI: 20.6–29.1] of the participants used herbal remedies for COVID-19. Allium sativum, Azadirachta indica, Zingiber officinale, Artemisia annua were most commonly used herb for COVID-19. Cough, catarrh and fever were the main symptoms of COVID-19. Herbalists 79.7% [95% CI: 77.3–82.1] and bone setters 14.9% [95% CI: 12.8–17.0] were mostly visited. Logistic regression analysis showed age > 41 years (95% CI: 1.09–4.91), being a farmer (95% CI: 1.99–5.34), income levels between 185–370 USD (95% CI: 1.33–4.55), participants who resided in a rural setting (95% CI: 1.04–3.98), being knowledgeable on TCAM (95% CI: 1.54–6.45) and having a positive attitude towards TCAM (95% CI: 1.94–6.45) were predictors for TCAM use. Conclusion TCAM is widely used even in the era of orthodox medicine, and many factors contribute to its use in the Southwest region of Cameroon which should be taken into consideration in healthcare interventions that are sensitive to TCAM. Herbal preparations used during the COVID-19 pandemic can serve as baseline for drug development through efficacy and toxicity tests.

Epistemological Base of African Traditional Herbal Medicine Among Primary School Teachers in Uganda

There is a noticeable usage of African Traditional herbal medicine in the treatment of physical and metaphysical diseases. This is largely due to the perceived high costs of orthodox medicine and the feeling that traditional herbs are more dependable. This research established the epistemological underpinnings of African traditional herbal medicine among primary school teachers in the Central Region of Uganda. The researcher used interviews, document analysis and focus group discussions to collect data from different schools. A total of eighteen (18) teachers were sampled, teachers claimed that African traditional herbal medicine is based on testimonial seeming, perceptual seeming, and memorial seeming. The study, therefore, found that the epistemological theory which can appropriately explain the basis of African Traditional herbal medicine in schools is the Bucket Theory of mind as advocated for by Karl Popper. The study recommends Poppers’ falsification theory in the operations of primary school teachers as a measure to do away with falsity content in the usage of traditional herbal medicine in schools