Cultural Comparison of the Muslim African and Catholic Mexican Research Paper

Cultural Comparison of the Muslim African and Catholic Mexican cultures related to Healthcare - Research Paper Example Mexicans have several illnesses in their healthcare culture that have varied meanings among them. While others are of the idea that health is as a result of good fortune or comes as a recompense for good conduct, others believe that illnesses have either natural or supernatural causes. For example, Mexicans have an illness in their culture known as humoral imbalance that they believe that mental and bodily sickness results from an inequality between the sick person and the surroundings. In Muslim culture, health is often believed to be lost through a lack of balance and moderation in one’s lifestyle and this creates a situation where it is difficult. Mexicans generally have three meals per day with dinner and lunch larger than the breakfast and the family takes their meals together especially when they have a large extended family and the meal is usually prepared by grandmothers. Food in the Mexican culture can be traced to the Galen’s humoral theory that is based on th e notion that the body is composed of four humors that is the blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile which in order to have the best health must be balanced using the qualities of heat, cold, moisture or dryness. Ethnopharmacology The African Muslim culture has a long history of pharmacology and this includes the use of knowledge from the ancient world as well as newly developed medicines. Today, African Muslims use both traditional and modern western medicine for the purpose of treating various medical afflictions. This is the same for Mexicans who use both traditional healthcare providers and Western medicine and the Mexican medication is prevalent in the urban areas though the poor who cannot afford the often expensive Western medicine resort to long-established practices in healthcare. Traditional medicine may be through home remedies such as taking herbal teas or if home medicine is ineffective, the Mexicans consult herbalists known as yerbero or massage therapists (sobador) or partera(midwife). Treatment can also be through religious rituals that may include prayers or the use of religious symbols worn on the body or kept in the house, making promises or commitments or visiting religious shrines. Mexicans can purchase prescription medicine anywhere without necessarily having to consult Mexican pharmacies but in some instances such as a person suffering from tuberculosis (TB) will purchase the drugs back in Mexico for fear of divulging their status that may result into stigmatization in a Western healthcare provider. Ethnonutrition When African Muslims deal with the matter of diet, they often follow the Islamic teaching on moderation, and when defining self-control, the Prophetic direction on the best of common diets is one-third food, the other third is composed of water and the final third should be air (Books, LLC 2011). This is because of the belief that when the stomach is overfilled with food, it will not be able to consume water, and when food a nd water go beyond their required level, one may experience from pulmonary problems. Therefore, this leads to anxiety and fatigue from lungs being incapable of easily delivering