DR COMPTON SEAFORTH INVENTION SKIN

This was done as part of the larger Caribbean-wide TRAMIL (Traditional Medicine in the Islands) network. We hypothesized that humoral medicine was still being actively practised in rural Trinidadian communities and undertook to conduct an ethnobotanical survey to document the use of ‘cooling’ medicinal plants, as well as plants used for the treatment of fever, a ‘hot’ humoral state.Ī survey was conducted in 50 rural communities to include 450 households by face-to-face interviews over the period October 2007 to July 2008. Traditionally, ‘hot’ states required ‘cooling’ treatments, which included medicinal plant preparations that supposedly restored the body’s balance.

DR COMPTON SEAFORTH INVENTION SKIN

‘Hot’ diseases appear to be associated with fever, infectious skin manifestations (such as rash and ringworm) and inflammatory conditions such as hives. In most instances ‘cooling’ is used traditionally as preventative medicine (prophylactic) to bring the ‘body back in balance’ in ‘hot’ conditions. Although modern evidence-based medicine has effectively replaced humoral medicine in the Western world, remnants of humoral medicine (pertaining to body fluids) and its practice remain alive and well in many parts of the developing world, including Trinidad.

Disease was defined as an imbalance between these spheres, with associated excessive ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ conditions. For many centuries, European and Asian societies used the concept of humoral medicine to explain health and wellness as the delicate balance between ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ spheres in the body.

Dr compton seaforth invention