,
,
o
a
e
00
offers an insider's 100 at cul­
ral practices many of us have
experienced only in fiction.
other cultures. Her new book,
"Walkin' Over Medicine," re­
veals the secrets of many of
those remedies - and also takes
to-task today's health care pro­
fessionals who don't often take
this centuries-old form of medi­
cine seriously.
"There are two different sys­
tems existing at the same time, "
Snow said. "This creates a con­
flict, a clash many doctors don't
even know exists."
"Walkin' Over Medicine" is an
account of how some exotic, and
even some not-so-exotic plants
and herb are used to treat
everything from high blood pres­
sure to warts to a broken heart.
Written in story form, the book
It's so many things we use!
Why, there's a Lotta weeds out
there now; why, you're uialkin'
over medicine!"
- Detroit woman Imervlewed In
·W.,k'n' Over ed/elM-
"ONE NIGHT," Snow says,
"she was just about to sleep
through her midnight do e
when he felt someone shaking
her shoulder. She opened her
eyes and her dead mother was
there saying, 'It's time for your
medicine. ,,,
Whether 'Or not the woman's
long-dead mother was really
there is irrelevant, Snow says.
The woman truly believed it, 80
that's all that matters.
"We have a cultural bias
against this," she says. "If dead
people came to you to give you
advice, you'd keep it to "ourself
or people would think you're
crazy."
A question often asked of
Snow is "Do folk remedies really
work?" She says in some cases
there is proof that plants and
herbs produce biochemical
changes. Other times, it can be
just a placebo effect.
"Thinking that you are doing
something, taking some kind of
action, can be very beneficial,"
Snow said. .
On the other hand, here'
the danger that if people believe
omething bad is going to hap­
pen to them, it will. Snow calls
this the "nocebo" respo e.
"The 1S good evid n tha
beli f cures but i also can kill "
she y."1 f you have a belief
y tem that tells you this kind of
thing IS ible you can, in fact,
die."
o 0 S OW mo t
yaluabl re arch came rom
serving as a behavioral sci ntist
helping young physicians in p -
diatnc clinics.
"Qui e often the doctors
were calJed on to treat families
whose beliefs were very differ­
ent from their own," she said.
Modern medicine is letting
down both the people who rely
on folk r medies and the physi- .
cians who eventually treat thes
people, Snow said.
"We don't train young physi- .
cians to ask people why they
think they're ick, what brought
them to the doctor and what
they've been doing about it," she
said.
"We have to do a better job of
training young physicians to be
sympathetic, to listen to their
patients and know what some of
their beliefs might be," she said.
There is orne progress being
made. At MSU, first-year medi­
cal students are required to take
a course in the doctor-patient
relationship.
Despite the centuri of his­
tory behind many folk and tradi­
tional cu ,Snow say more
and mo people are turning to
alternative medicine, including
acupuncture and faith healing.
"Th ar not just little old
ladi in the Ozarks, either," he
says .
People who are using th
things tend to be younger, afnu­
ent and well-educated."
.•
"YES, THIS BOOK is a u t
of home remedies, but they are
in a context," Snow says. "They
are in the context of stories of
what people's lives are like."
For example, she tells the
story of a woman held "captive"
by an abu ive husband. The
man's power over her stemmed
from a potion he made of roo
and her ,a potion which con­
tained a form of voodoo that
wouldn't allow her to leave him.
"Her husband kept her cap­
tive because she was convinced
he had worked magic on her,"
Snow said. "It was part of her
belief system and she believed it
worked."
'Walkin' Over Medicine" is a
culmination of more than 25
years of research by Snow. She
has spent those years poking .
around "folk pharmacies" in in­
ner city Detroit learning from
faith healers and talking to hun­
dreds of people who never doub
the medicinal power of the
plants and roo most of us only
step on.
he book chronicles a set of
belie ha modern medicine
qu ite often ignores. Th
lie � r n from som hin
impl= as u ing catnip tea to
'It i t acolicky baby to the wear­
ing of n asafetida bag to ward
off d ise se. The book al 0
touches upon a s rong belief in
. the pow r of the upernatural.
S now ells the story of a
woman, a licensed practical
nu from Lansing, Mich., who
was seriously ill and on medica­
tion she needed to take every
four hours around the clock ..
'Do folk
remedies
really
work?
In some
cases
therels
proof
that
plants
and
herbs
produce
changes.
Other
imes it
can be
just a
placebo
effect.'
EAST LANSIN�, Ie h.
Loudell .g now is a woman of
medicine who thinks it's high
time the health care profession
literally returned to its "roots."
And for that matter, to its
herbs and its plants, too.
Snow is a Michigan State
University medical anthropolo­
gist who's a firm believer in the
potential benefits of many of the
folk and traditional remedies
used by African Americans and
.RY.
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