Traditional Indigenous medicine in North America: A scoping review

Abstract

Background Despite the documented continued use of traditional healing methods, modalities and its associated practitioners by Indigenous groups across North America, it is presumed that widespread knowledge is elusive amongst most Western trained health professionals and systems. This despite that the approximately 7.5 million Indigenous peoples who currently reside in Canada and the United States (US) are most often served by Western systems of medicine. A state of the literature is currently needed in this area to provide an accessible resource tool for medical practitioners, scholars, and communities to better understand Indigenous traditional medicine in the context of current clinical care delivery and future policy making. Methods A systematic search of multiple databases was performed utilizing an established scoping review framework. A consequent title and abstract review of articles published on traditional Indigenous medicine in the North American context was completed. Findings Of the 4,277 published studies identified, 249 met the inclusion criteria divided into the following five categorical themes: General traditional medicine, integration of traditional and Western medicine systems, ceremonial practice for healing, usage of traditional medicine, and traditional healer perspectives. Conclusions This scoping review was an attempt to catalogue the wide array of published research in the peer-reviewed and online grey literature on traditional Indigenous medicine in North America in order to provide an accessible database for medical practitioners, scholars, and communities to better inform practice, policymaking, and research in Indigenous communities.

Different Data Mining Approaches Based Medical Text Data

“…At the same time, the information construction of traditional medicine is insufficient. For example, the traditional North American indigenous medical literature mainly involves clinical efficacy evaluation and disease application, which is complicated in recording methods, leading to difficulty of data mining [ 74 ]. Chinese medical texts have the particularity of language.…”

Patient-Planetary Health Co-benefit Prescribing: Emerging Considerations for Health Policy and Health Professional Practice

“…Western and Indigenous health systems (48,49), as well as evolving scholarship (50, 51), expanding integrative health delivery systems (52)(53)(54), and discussions around the ethical basis for medical pluralism (55, 56) is on the rise. Despite differing worldviews between biomedical clinical settings and Indigenous traditional knowledge settings, we are at a clear interface in time where our ability to sustain ourselves on this planet is in question.…”

Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine use among Indigenous peoples with diabetes in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States

“…Keyword selection was guided by our previous systematic review on TCIM use in Indigenous populations with cancer. 20 Diabetes search terms were selected using database-specific controlled vocabulary and broad free-text terms such as 'diabetes' . We further searched the reference lists of articles that had previously conducted systematic literature reviews on similar topics to ours (e.g.…”

“…17,18 Examples of traditional healing practices and medicines include singing/chanting, ceremonies, bush medicine, traditional healers and external remedies. 17,19,20 The WHO defines traditional medicine as "knowledge, skill, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health". 15 These traditional medicines and practices are usually unregulated and operate outside the public healthcare system, while complementary medicine refers to healthcare, both selfadministered or practitioner-led.…”

“…13 A review of traditional medicines among North American Indigenous peoples for general health and wellbeing also found limited disclosure of use to healthcare providers. 20 This is concerning due to the potential for harmful interactions and compounding effects between complementary medicines and conventional diabetes care, 13,24 missed opportunities for culturally safe care 20 and the benefits of optimal integration of complementary medicines and conventional medical perspectives.…”