World Health Organization introduces Initiatives for bridging Traditional and Modern Medicine
World Health Organization Traditional Health Summit
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Back in December, the World Health Organization held a summit on building a bridge between modern science and Traditional medicine.
Here's a quick vid about it:
Through 2034, the WHO will be expanding the evidence base for scientific innovations in traditional medicine (aka putting more funding toward scientific proof of its benefits!).
Traditional medicine is basic self-care.
Practices like breath, stretching, meditation, and food-as-medicine; used for centuries in different cultures to maintain health, treat illness, and promote long-term well-being.
In many countries, we are lacking in the self-care department because we've been taught to just take a pill.
Or more coffee.
Or a redbull.
You are your own primary healthcare provider,
but you might be living in a culture that raised you not to care for yourself.
Here's my experience, as an '80s baby growing up in Canada:
I was raised on Tylenol for my physical aches and sugar for the emotional ones. Every cold led to a trip to the doc for antibiotics (which were handed out like candy then).
By age 12, I had chronic stomach pain, chronic migraines, chronic anxiety, and was overweight and on multiple prescriptions.
In my 20s, I found 'natural health'... in the form of thousands of unregulated supplements hitting the shelves.
(seriously there's zero regulation. what's in the bottle could contain zero of what's on the label)
I attended yoga classes... but they were the super bougie popularity contest type ones where you sneak a peek at yourself in the big mirror after every sun sal and pull your waistband up.
It wasn't until my 30s that I found Ayurveda and the piece of the-puzzle-that-is-life I'd been missing out on for decades.
Rest. Calm. Responding instead of reacting. Feeling nourished instead of inhaling protein bars.
I started spending a lot less money on trends and a lot less time dragging myself to the gym.
Within 3 months, my entire life changed.
We don't need all of this wellness crap being peddled to us as traditional medicine. But we do need to understand the very real ways traditional medicine can improve your health and well-being.
Government ministers, scientists, and practitioners from over 100 countries are coming together to push these initiatives forward. It's about time.
If 2026 is the year you want to bring old-school self-care into your too-busy modern life, here's where over 1,000 students have jumped in.
xo Carly