COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE

THERAPIES IN PRIMARY CARE 00954543 /97 $0.00 + .20

FOLK MEDICINE
AND HEALTH CULTURE
IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY
David J. Hufford, PhD

Many parents insist that their children eat a hot breakfast on a cold
winter morning. Some people eat a small amount of poison ivy to produce
immunity-and end up in the Emergency Room! Many women drink
cranberry juice to prevent urinary tract infections, and a recent study pub-
lished in JAMA3supports the practice. Most people pray for help when
they are seriously ill-and some also pray for the effectiveness of their
medical care, while others reject medical care as contrary to Divine heal-
ing. Each of these practices can be a part of folk medicine-though they
might not be identified that way by those who use them. Folk medicine
sometimes helps prevent or relieve physical illness, and sometimes it
causes injury or death. It can help people to cope with incurable sick-
nesses, and sometimes it can aggravate the social and emotional problems
of patients and their families. Recognized and understood, folk medicine
can enhance medical care, but it also has the capacity to disrupt care and
prevent adherence to medical regimens.
Folk medicine is found throughout modern society. It influencesprac-
tically all patients and doctors to some degree, and it is a fundamental
source of ideas and values in alternative medicine. It is a central feature
of the cultural differences among patients, but at the same time folk med-
icine is a basic aspect of health behavior that all patients have in common,
so folk medicine should be taken into account in caring for any patient
population. Yet, despite its great importance, most of folk medicine is
invisible, unnoticed by those who encounter it, including most physicians.
But, as important as it is, folk medicine is too enormous and varied for

From The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine; and The Doctors Kienle Center
for Humanistic Medicine, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pennsylvania

PRIMARY CARE

VOLUME 24 NUMBER 4 * DECEMBER 1997 723