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NST1502PORTFOLIO
ANSWERS
SEMESTER 2
, SECTION A
Activity 1.1
How traditional healers and Western medical doctors discover their medicines.
In the modern day and age there are many types of healing that takes place, amongst them are
two key types of healing, through traditional ways and through western medicine. The
processes differ from one another. In this brief write up I will discuss how these differ in the way
they acquire their medicines.
Traditional healers may use various diagnostic assessment methods to determine the problem
of a client. In some instances they may use herbs or perform some initial rituals. If the disorder
does not respond to these treatments, there is a re-diagnosis, and other assessment methods
are considered. Essandoh (1995) has described this practice as similar to the use of decision
trees and differential diagnosis in clinical practice in the West and has suggested that
when traditional healers rule in or rule out causes of disorders, there is the implication that
something else (often supernatural) is causing the disease. Essandoh, has suggested that some
disorders do not respond to initial treatment because traditional healers give instructions that
are impossible to follow leading to a high “patient relapse rate” which benefits the healer. Re-
diagnosis, according to Essandoh; involves giving the client “a few simple post-treatment
instructions to enable him to carry them out daily with success, and less anxiety. The methods
used by traditional health practitioners are normally environmentally friendly. Although
traditional health practitioners cannot explain their procedures in scientific terms, their
methods have been found to be effective for generations.
On the other hand, western medicines are discovered in a totally different way. It has more to
do with research and scientific methods. Creating a new medicine is a long and rigorous
process, and it can take up to 15 years to progress from a promising idea in the research
laboratory through clinical development to a medicine receiving approval from regulators.
Firstly they do research. They use growing understanding of biology to identify ‘targets’. A target
is a molecule or pathway in the body (for example, an enzyme) that contributes to the
development of a disease or its symptoms. Initially, it is important to build confidence that the
target they select is valid, meaning that it affects the disease process in the way that the science
suggests. Once a target has been identified and validated, the next step is to find molecules that
might inhibit or enhance the target’s activity. Current techniques allow many hundreds of
compounds to be screened very quickly for this activity. Compounds that initially show the
effect they want are called 'hits’. Once they have identified the hits, they narrow down the
number of possible compounds by further testing, to come up with lead compounds that they
believe to be originators to the ultimate drug they are looking for. At this stage the researchers
do more detailed investigation of the lead compounds. By testing with living cells, bacteria or
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