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Public Agenda (Accra)

Ghana: Western Medicine VS. Traditional Afrikan Medicine

Dr. Kwame Osei

16 May 2008

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opinion

Based on previous news reports that have warned Ghanaians to be very circumspect about some of the western drugs they are taking, we thought it appropriate to examine the issue of western medicine and traditional medicine.

It is apparent when one walks through the major cities of Ghana that there is a plethora of Pharmacy shops that are supplying Ghanaians with an array of prescriptive medicines for various diseases.

However, in the days of our grandparents, there was not even a single pharmacy shop, so why is there now an abundance of these shops and what has been the situation that has led to these pharmacy shops?

Because of the plant based vegetarian diet of our ancestors and the holistic lifestyle they practiced, coupled with a strict adherence to the laws of nature/creation our ancestors did not need the services of a pharmacy shop.

Their diet was their medicine. Indeed when they did fall ill, they used natural traditional remedies in accordance with biblical teachings as outlined in the book of Genesis which talks of the tree of life. In actual fact in the days of our ancestors there was no such thing as western medicine!

Scientifically speaking the root of what is called western medicine is actually traditional Afrikan medicine.

Using traditional and natural medicines coupled with a vegetarian/vegan diet and a holistic lifestyle, our ancestors were able to live to in some cases more than 300 years of age.

The advent of enslavement and colonialism saw a change in the dietary habits and lifestyle practices of Ghanaians that has resulted in the current health crisis that is facing the country.

Therefore as a result of changing our diets from a vegetarian one to a diet high in starch, meat, salt, sugar and saturated fats and from changing our Afrikan-centered holistic way of life to a western type lifestyle particularly in the major cities, Ghanaians are now suffering from aliments like cancers, diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, cardiovascular disease and so forth.

It is precisely because of these diseases and the abandonment of natural traditional remedies that Ghanaians are now resulting to western medicine hence the increase in pharmacy shops.

However despite the abundance of these outlets the truth of the matter is that western medicine is very dangerous for Ghanaians to take.

Firstly, there are a lot of fake western drugs/medicines that are on the market that have been made with an unusually high dosage of chemicals when taken can cause serious side effects including death.

To buttress this point BBC Radio Five Live made a documentary on 19 September 2004 entitled "How safe are your drugs". The documentary highlighted the point that most of the drugs sent to Afrika are counterfeit drugs and are entirely useless.

The programme then went on to state that ALL the anti-malaria drugs that are sent to the West Afrika sub region are fake and therefore useless and intimated that the fake drugs industry is worth a whopping $30bn a year.

Secondly the normal western drugs are made with synthetic chemicals that have been added to the natural Afrikan plant meaning that the natural effectiveness of the plant is eroded and as such making the medicine/drug useless in curing disease - in many cases it adds new diseases.

Thirdly western drugs/medicine are not good for Ghanaian people because fundamentally Ghanaians have got different genes from European people.

What many Ghanaians do not appreciate is that western medicine is made using the genes of Europeans which differ greatly from that of Ghanaians. Ghanaians have a significant genetic difference than European people that is never mentioned in western science/medicine.

This significant difference is a chemical compound called Melanin. Ghanaians along with their Afrikan brothers are a highly melanated people. Melanin is the chemical compound that causes pigmentation in the skin; in essence it is what makes our complexion the different shades of Black.

Therefore taking western medicine, made with synthetic drugs destroys or slows down the ability to produce melanin. Therefore this melanin deficiency makes Ghanaians twice as more addictive to certain drugs than European people.

Scientifically speaking, melanin is in every human being; however Afrikans possess the most melanin with Europeans possessing very small amounts of melanin which in the case of Albino Whites is virtually nil.

This lack of melanin is why European people burn in the sun, because they do not have the protective layer of melanin to protect them from the sun's ultra-violet rays - this is why they invented sunglasses so that the sun could not damage their non-melanated eyes.

So because of this lack of melanin which also acts as a defence barrier against disease if protected correctly, western science and medicine used the genetical make up of Europeans deficient in melanin to produce the drugs that are on the market.

In essence the western drugs that most Ghanaians use were NOT designed for the genetics of the Ghanaian and as such is totally useless.

Referring back to an article in Britain's The Independent Newspaper dated 8 December 2003, a senior executive of Britain's biggest drugs company admitted that most prescription drugs do not work on most people who take them.

At the time Allen Roses who was worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) - one of the world's biggest pharmaceutical companies - said fewer than 50% of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs derived any benefit from them.

Dr. Roses, an academic geneticist from Duke University in North Carolina, spoke at a scientific meeting in London, UK where he cited figures on how well different classes of drugs work in real patients.

In this meeting he stated that "the vast majority of drugs - more than 90% - only work in 30 or 50% of the people," Dr. Roses continued by saying "I wouldn't say that most drugs don't work. I would say that most drugs work in 30 to 50% of people. Drugs out there on the market work, but they don't work for everybody".

Some industry analysts condemned Dr. Roses's comments but others believe Dr. Roses deserves credit for being honest about a little-publicized fact known to the drugs industry for many years.

The comments by Dr. Roses goes against a marketing culture within the industry that has relied on selling as many drugs as possible to the widest number of patients - a culture that has made GSK one of the most profitable pharmaceuticals companies, but which has also meant that most of its drugs are at best useless, and even possibly dangerous for many patients.

Dr. Roses added "doctors treating patients routinely applied the trial-and-error approach which says that if one drug does not work there is always another one. I think everybody has it in their experience that multiple drugs have been used for their headache or multiple drugs have been used for their back or whatever.

"It's in their experience but they don't quite understand why. The reason why is because they have different susceptibilities to the effect of that drug and that's genetic," he said.

Now if the then vice-president of one of the world's biggest drugs companies is saying that most of the drugs his company produces does not work and that people get a reaction to those drugs because of their genetics, this then raises serious concerns about why Ghanaians in their millions are taking these western drugs.

This can only be answered by successive governments of Ghana who have been tricked into allowing foreign drugs to come into the country without any checks or authenticity of these drugs some of which have been found to be dangerous fake drugs.

Also there is a lot of ignorance on behalf of Ghanaians themselves in that they are not educated about leading holistic lifestyles and believe everything foreign is good .

So as someone who has not taken western drugs for more than 25 years and as a scholar and researcher, I strongly urge Ghanaians to throw away western medicine and use the natural more traditional form of medicine just as our ancestors did.

Encouragingly, there seems to be a new trend in using more traditional remedies for aliments. Products like Angel cream, Mercy cream and Akobalm are becoming popular amongst some Ghanaians.

Also the Moringa plant is fast becoming popular with Ghanaians. The re-emergence of traditional medicine is sign that some Ghanaians are getting tired of using western drugs as they do not work and are turning to natural remedies to alleviate their suffering.

Traditional medicine is by far the best form of medicine to take as opposed to taking western medicine. Traditional medicine is made in its most complete natural state and has not been laced with other synthetic chemicals or artificial drugs that are damaging to the system.

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