PROPER ILLNESS MANAGEMENT

Years before and now a days a lot of people believe in the capacity of faith healer especially in the third-world countries like Philippines. Because of not having much money, they go to a certain person (albularyo) who is believed to have the capacity to heal their illness when they are are sick or when they feel that they have to be treated. The faith healer uses different kinds of leaves and prays different kinds of prayers which he believes given or dictated to him by God to use as his arm in defeating illness.

There are different kinds of faith healer. Some say they are being commanded by God, some say good spirit come upon their body and the spirit is the one who heals, and some says they just felt that something is pushing them to do so that they cannot even explain for it is a gift.

"Albularyo"

"A herb doctor lives in a village and has an occupation. He may be a farmer, a plow maker or a carpenter. He is well sought after. He will not perform surgery, He will accompany his patient all the way to the hospital. But even there his task is not always finished. When the relatives of the patient feel that the hospital treatment is not adequate, they may still resort to the herb doctor. One such "doctor" said: "At times the parents or relatives still call me in. I remember several instances where I would be smuggled into the hospital posing as a visitor. When the doctors and nurses are out of the room I treat the patient, using herbs and oraciones (prayers)."

The matter of treatment seems strange to the Westerner. If the herb doctor attributes a relatively mild case of fever in a child to the spirits, he may try to drive them away through the offering of prayers and food. Dr. Juan M. Flavier, president of the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction in the Philippines, interviewed some herb doctors. He asked one, "What types of illness do you feel doctors don’t know about?” The herb doctor replied, "Those of the spirit and those that are unseen, as for example, the sickness of the soil." The "sickness of the soil" refers to being struck down with illness brought on by spirits living in the ground. The disease may take various forms. The herb doctor commented to Dr. Flavier, "No one can deny the existence of such spirits but doctors continue to deny them as causes of some diseases. That is why there are illnesses doctors cannot cure. Those cases eventually end with albularyos."

Appeal is made to the faith of the patient. Dr. Flavier inquired of a herb doctor about the many methods of treatment used. He answered, "Five; prayers, spitting, rubbing, plastering and murmuring." "Can you explain each so I can understand?" asked Flavier. He replied that prayer is nothing more than the use of prayers to invoke some saint or God. Spitting is associated with chewing and spitting on the object for a cure. For example, in circumcision, tobacco mixed with guava leaves is chewed. Then the mixture is spat on the newly cut foreskin. Rubbing may include little massage with the use of an ointment or a liniment, Kerosene is used to rub on the joints that are painful or aching. Plastering means that the herbs are pounded in the mortar and applied with a piece of cloth. Murmuring means a special secret phrase with specific wonders on certain ailments. This is not directed to God or a saint. The words themselves are responsible for the results. They can also be used to ward off evil. 

As modern medical practices are beyond the reach of a vast percentage of Filipinos who live in rural areas, the herb doctor will continue to function for years to come."

(source: http://www.reformedreflections.ca/studies/faith-h-in-philippines.html)

Thus, many believe that this kind of healing is effective. However, people who believe in this kind of healing or medication may risk their lives because it has no scientific proof. With all due respect to them, i might say, people are only clinging to them because they have no money to go to the hospital for proper medications and care. For me, hospitals are the safest place to be healed because there are doctors that are highly capable of doing so and all their way of healing are proven not only scientifically but also by people who get healed through the proper care of doctors.