In this past week, I have witnessed at close quarters, the wonderful wholistic approach to HEALTH in CUBA. Health is not the absence of disease, it is obvious from the Cuban approach.
when I talk about Cuban doctors, I mean Cuban doctors who work under the Cuban System of Public Health and not the doctors of Cuban origin who work in the USA who have a reputation of blue collar fraud.
The Cuban Public Health system is a good model for the developing countries and there is greater emphasis on prevention of diseases.
What does wholistic mean in Cuba?
In the western countries including USA and those countries which follow the western system, such as India, the emphasis is on the treatment of symptoms and the mechanical concept of Body as a Machine.
Cuba is blessed with an excellent cadre of caring physicians and health care workers who attended to the bodies of the patients but they are much more socially and psychologically aware than their counterparts in other parts of the Americas.
I would roughly divide the attention to health into three distinct but overlapping categories of care:
Medical or Biomedical which is the conventional medical care offered in most western countries, including Medications, Investigations and procedures as well as instructions about Nutrition and Activities.
Cuba excels in this aspect (just look at their longevity, 78 plus just the same as USA!)
There are two other aspects which are stressed not only by the care providers but also by the state as well as the Public Health system: Psychological as well as Spiritual Healing
In which other country do you see, psychologists assigned to people who suffer from chronic diseases such as Diabetes or Cardiovascular diseases and the in-patients at clinics and hospitals are seen and counselled by qualified psychologists.
The third aspect is Spiritual Healing. Cuba has evolved a syncretic belief system with the african belief systems brought over by the slaves. This system referred to as Santeria or Orishas is predominantly healing in nature.
This week I had the chance to observe the powers of spiritual healing in a patient and the dramatic after effects in the mind and emotions of the patient.
It is said that Cuba is the only country where the descendants of European immigrants have adopted a belief system of the African immigrants, brought over as slaves. Fantastically enough, Cuba is one of the least racist countries one can encounter in this world.
Many people have little shrines or images and symbols of African High Spirits in their home.
(this one at my home in Havana, Cuba)
when I talk about Cuban doctors, I mean Cuban doctors who work under the Cuban System of Public Health and not the doctors of Cuban origin who work in the USA who have a reputation of blue collar fraud.
The Cuban Public Health system is a good model for the developing countries and there is greater emphasis on prevention of diseases.
What does wholistic mean in Cuba?
In the western countries including USA and those countries which follow the western system, such as India, the emphasis is on the treatment of symptoms and the mechanical concept of Body as a Machine.
Cuba is blessed with an excellent cadre of caring physicians and health care workers who attended to the bodies of the patients but they are much more socially and psychologically aware than their counterparts in other parts of the Americas.
I would roughly divide the attention to health into three distinct but overlapping categories of care:
Medical or Biomedical which is the conventional medical care offered in most western countries, including Medications, Investigations and procedures as well as instructions about Nutrition and Activities.
Cuba excels in this aspect (just look at their longevity, 78 plus just the same as USA!)
There are two other aspects which are stressed not only by the care providers but also by the state as well as the Public Health system: Psychological as well as Spiritual Healing
In which other country do you see, psychologists assigned to people who suffer from chronic diseases such as Diabetes or Cardiovascular diseases and the in-patients at clinics and hospitals are seen and counselled by qualified psychologists.
The third aspect is Spiritual Healing. Cuba has evolved a syncretic belief system with the african belief systems brought over by the slaves. This system referred to as Santeria or Orishas is predominantly healing in nature.
This week I had the chance to observe the powers of spiritual healing in a patient and the dramatic after effects in the mind and emotions of the patient.
It is said that Cuba is the only country where the descendants of European immigrants have adopted a belief system of the African immigrants, brought over as slaves. Fantastically enough, Cuba is one of the least racist countries one can encounter in this world.
Many people have little shrines or images and symbols of African High Spirits in their home.
