Taking the Traditional Cure

Although “alternative” may be a misnomer for traditional health treatments that have been around for centuries, they are sometimes the final alternative for people affected by life-threatening illness. Advocates swear by their benefits, but the debate rages on about their effectiveness and safety.  Bhimanto Suwastoyo reports. 

When modern conventional medical science gives up on treating certain cases, many of the patients seek out the lifeline of traditional healing options. 

Whichever treatment they choose, a common rallying point binds them: Hope.

The yearning for recovery is what drives many to nonconventional medical to fight or alleviate the suffering from their disease.

The attraction of traditional healing is usually fueled by word-of-mouth stories about the recovery of others, and the cheaper cost of treatment compared to conventional medicine.

"Most of my patients come to me once medical treatment they sought elsewhere had failed," said WP Winarto, who from the mid-1990s has pioneered a series of herbal clinics where medical diagnosis and checkups are provided along with herbal medicine.

Although many patients are already in the advanced stages of their illness, he added that if the patients persevered with his prescriptions then their sought-after cure was possible.

"Modern medicine is now generally viewed as impersonal, high-cost medicine. The amount of time we accord our patients allows us to get to know them much better and enables us to tailor treatment and medicine to their specific needs," he said.

Sarah Kriswanti, a therapist who uses herbal tonics accompanied by diet therapy to treat cancers and other serious diseases, said that almost all of the people visiting her small home in Bandung, West Java, "came here as a last option, after ruining themselves with medical treatment elsewhere".

She said she invariably tried to secure the medical records of her patients to complement the results of her own interviews and observations of them.

"Nobody is alike, and a remedy may be good for one person but not for another. Every patient is different," she said.

While more rational, scientifically healing methods abound, no less attractive to many are those healing methods claiming fast relief or recovery despite the obvious lack of scientific credibility.

The Ministry of Health recognizes different categories of traditional healers -- healers using nonconventional medical means and methods.

They range from therapy based on skills -- such as acupressure, acupuncture, chiropractic services and various massage forms -- to those using natural potions to heal;  religious approaches of prayer and meditation,  and even extend to downright supernatural intervention.

But so far only acupuncture is legally recognized after a decree from the health ministry in 1996 allowed its use in medical services, said Tomi Harjatno, a University of Indonesia lecturer in anatomy who also heads the Indonesian Association of Acupuncture Practitioners.

Unlike other forms of nonconventional healing who only need to register their practice with the authorities, acupuncturists have to seek a license to practice.

About half of the association’s 2,000 members are medical doctors, he said, while about 40 percent of the rest are university graduates in various other sciences,

The health, education and manpower ministries have already prepared standard guidelines for acupuncture services, as well as competence requirements for practitioners.

"Acupuncture is a science that has been gradually receiving wider recognition and acceptance in the world, including in Indonesia," Harjatno said, adding that its rapid development had now prompted specialization, including in the fields of cosmetics and hair care, anesthesiology and ear disorder treatments.

Acupuncture has also become the basic science for other healing methods, such as acupressure.

Benny, who has been practicing acupressure for decades out of his home in Central Jakarta, said he picked his customers.

"Although I could [treat them], I do not accept patients with internal disorders. I only treat problems related to muscles and nerves, an area where I think acupressure works best," he said.

The perennial question is whether traditional healing methods produce results: Do they cure?

It’s hard to give a definite answer, especially because of the lack of standards governing traditional healing practices and methods, a lack of credible studies on them, as well as the heterogeneous nature of the methods.

Yuda Purana, a medical doctor now practicing holistic medicine, said in a 2003 paper on alternative medicine that some ineffective traditional healing approaches sometimes appeared effective due to several extenuating factors. These include the known fact that diseases can sometimes cure themselves naturally, that diseases have remission cycles, the existence of the placebo effect and of psychosomatic ailments imagined by many patients who feel unwell but are diagnosed as healthy.

Mardiana Lilita felt a temporary sensation of wellness after taking herbal medicine to combat kidney problems.

"I felt much better after some time and it gave me hope. But it was only for a brief period. The problem was that my kidney problem remained," said Lilita said, who discontinued the traditional medicine after six months and returned to her doctor.

But for Sangap Sidauruk, a successful lawyer and boxing executive, traditional medicine produced real results and complemented modern medicine.

"All I knew was that I should not lose hope, that I could overcome this disease," Sidauruk said of his reaction when diagnosed with lymphoma in 2001.

He studied all the available literature on cancer treatment, including from the internet, and decided chemotherapy was among the most effective ways to kill the malignancy.    

"But in order to able to withstand chemotherapy, I had to fortify myself and that was where traditional medicine, including Chinese medicine, came in.”

For six months, he took traditional medicine regularly to prepare for the discomfort of chemo sessions.

"All I can say is that I was able to undergo the chemotherapy with much less pain and discomfort. My doctors even expressed surprise that I could still endure the sessions without losing my hair or going through the usual abdominal pain.”

After two years of combining traditional healing -- herbal medicines and urine therapy -- and conventional medical practices, he was pronounced medically cured.

But the glut of newspaper advertisements, with so-called healers claiming to be able to cure every kind of ailments through prayer or a single miraculous potion -- and sometimes without even meeting the patient in person – attests to the irrationality that emerges amid the desperation of facing a health crisis.

The extent of the claims usually reflects the healer’s background; the more scientific their base, the more frank they are in their statements.

"To be honest, it is impossible to completely eradicate cancerous cells,” said Kriswanti, who has devoted more than half of her 60 years to herbal medicine. “What we can do is to stunt their growth, curb the pain they cause, fortify the general constitution of the patient and in general stop the malignant cells from posing a threat to someone's health.

"I don’t cure cancer, but I prevent it from relapsing into the painful stages.”

Her patients come from near and far, drawn by the recommendations of others. A glance at her registry shows a preponderance of cancer cases, among them a middle aged Indian woman currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer and a man from Colorado who returned home two months ago with a supply of herbal preparations after undergoing three months of treatment for prostate cancer.

"But the best illustration [of the effectiveness] of my medicine is the case of my late mother who died two years ago. Doctors gave her three months to live because of cervical cancer. Herbal medicine gave her 18 years of a relatively pain-free life," Kriswanti said.

One of her patients is Warsiah, a 62-year-old retired nurse who traveled hundreds of kilometers from her home in Jember, East Java, to treat her advanced breast cancer.

She had vaguely remembered friends telling her about Kriswanti, who dispenses her herbal medicine from an unmarked house in the Gegerkalong suburb.

"I had nothing to lose and I was quite desperate," Warsiah said, remembering the first time she set eyes on the house, its garden overflowing with numerous types of plants.

After seven months of taking bitter herbal potions twice a day, and following a diet plan that included a fruit supplement, the pain is a thing of the past.

"I continue to have medical checkups every three months, and the doctors said that the cancer cells are still there but now dormant. I don't suffer from pain anymore and I feel much healthier," she said, adding that travels every two months to Bandung for a fresh supply of medicine.

"It is not an easy life, and you have to be serious once you opt for this. You have to regularly take your potions, and live a much healthier life, with exercise and by sticking to a healthy diet as well,” Kriswanti said,

"It is hard work."

Wiratno acknowledged the attraction of traditional healing, apart from being much more individually focused than impersonal modern treatment, also lay in its financial and practical considerations.

"For many, it makes sense that our body, an organic entity, is treated with organic medicine rather than synthetic ones. For other people, just as numerous, traditional healing means much less cost and a therapy that can be easily done at home, further cutting down the expense of treatment and medicine," he said.

The retired former central bank executive began to help others with herbal medicine after he used it to rid himself of nagging back pain. On the advice of a friend, he had consumed an herbal tonic.

"Although knowledge of herbal medicine remains mostly empirical, I thought that there must be something to it because it has been around since ancient times," he said.

His herbal clinic has now outgrown its South Jakarta base and expanded to 18 clinics across Java and Bali over 10 years. He now focuses on preparing the various herbal remedies.

"Doctors are now doing the job of dealing with the patients," he said of his clinics.

But traditional medicine is not without its own dangers: A healthy dose for some can be poison for others.

"Like everything else we consume, moderation is the rule. The consumption of natural ingredients such as herbal medicine, if it is not in line with the proper dosage or taken in excess, can also lead to serious side effects, and can become even more dangerous if their use is combined with synthetic chemical drugs," said Andria Agusta, a researcher on herbal medicine at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences' biological research and development department.

Andria said that a thorough understanding of herbal materials and their interactions with the active components of synthetic remedies was needed for effective use of traditional medicine.

Martha Ervina, from Widya Mandala Catholic University's Center for Traditional Medicine Research, said that both academics and the government were working to establish quality standards for traditional medicine, and studying the active components of plants. She warned that such a copious task would require years, if not decades, to accomplish.

So far, the government has ruled that traditional medicine may contain five different plants at most and has also set quality parameters for natural medicine. These include determining the limits for metal and microorganism contamination and that they must be free from pathogenic bacteria, she said.

Even as the public awaits binding and comprehensive legislation governing natural health practices, the desperate will continue to head to the practitioners for what ails them. Whatever the risk, it’s still better than the alternative.

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