For the purpose of this essay, I interviewed eight informants, both close friends and family members, at length about recent ailments or illnesses they have suffered from. I received much detail about symptoms, treatments, and continuing processes they do to prevent the ailment from reoccurring. After a thorough investigation, I was able to compare the informant’s ailments and remedies against each other and also to Marsha Quilan’s research in her ethnography From the Bush: The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village. Informant 1, an 18 year old male, recently suffered from an ear infection. This informant has suffered from ear infections most of his toddler life. As a young child, at the age of 19 months, this informant got PE tubes inserted into bilateral ears, yet the ear infections kept reoccurring. That is when his mother began to use natural garlic oil to treat his ear infections. After the first time using it, this informant claims he never had to go to the doctor again for treatment, and his ear infections occurred less frequently and eventually subsided. The most recent infection this informant battled with was pretty typical for him. He got his usual symptoms of a mild earache accompanied with some purulent discharge from his left ear canal. This informant told me that he did not want to use antibiotics to remedy his ear infections. He deferred to his mother’s treatment of using a couple drops of garlic oil. This informant administered a couple drops of natural garlic oil into the affected ear canal. He resided on his side for a couple minute after administering the drops to allow the garlic oil to seep into the Eustachian tube. Symptoms and the infection subsided without antibiotic intervention. Informant 1 also increases his water intake during the time of infection in order to help flush his body of this illness. This informant did not seek help from any medical professional because he is trying to live more of alternative lifestyle since he recently began college. He claims he “wants to be as natural as possible” (Informant 1, 2012, personal communication).
Informant 2, a 22 year old female, recently suffered a broken tibia related to a sports injury. She used NSAIDS to help relieve any discomfort she experienced. She kept her extremity elevated and iced anytime she was home. Informant 2 relied on friends and family for transportation since her driving extremity was the injured one. This informant was mostly giving herself sponge baths due to the fact that the cast had to remain dry. Informant 2 was in a plaster cast for 8 weeks. She was sadly unable to finish her final soccer season with her team. This informant required attention from an orthopedic surgeon to help set her leg back into proper position. She did not require any pins, plates or screws. After the cast was removed, informant 2 attended physical therapy three days per week for several weeks to gain back her strength and normal functioning of the extremity. (Informant 2, 2012, personal communication).
Informant 3, a 29 year old female, is currently suffering from a common cold. It started with a “sore throat and lots of sneezing” (Informant 3, 2012, personal communication). It has since progressed into a runny nose with yellow drainage and a productive cough. She is not seeking medical attention because she claims that “doctors scare me and I don’t trust them usually” (Informant 3, 2012, personal communication). To treat this cold, Informant 3 is taking Sudafed and Nyquil to help relieve her symptoms. She is eating chicken noodle soup at least once a day because “that’s what my mom told me to do. I also try to drink lots of orange juice because I heard vitamin C is good at fighting colds” (Informant 3, 2012, personal communication). This informant has been suffering from this cold for 6 days and feels that she is almost back to normal.
Informant 4, a 32 year old male, is currently suffering from a cold similar to Informant 3. His symptoms have started about three days ago and include a “stuffy nose, cough, and sore throat” (Informant 4, 2012, personal communication). This informant does not seek medical attention because he is “completely against medicines and I don’t want to put anything in my body that doesn’t belong there. I just let nature take its course” (Informant 4, 2012, personal communication). The only thing this informant does to remedy his cold is try to sleep more by taking a nap if he can and go to bed a little earlier than usual. He claims there is no change in his diet or otherwise normal routine. (Informant 4, 2012, personal communication).
Informant 5, a 48 year old female, chronically suffers from heartburn. She has gastroesophageal reflux disease. This informant sees a gastroenterologist on a regular basis. This informant was diagnosed with GERD at the age of 36. Symptoms for her include heartburn, regurgitation, and nausea. Her GERD is adequately controlled by taking Prilosec, but sometimes claims she needs to take Tums for “breakthrough heartburn” (Informant 5, 2012, personal communication). This informant has also made some chronic changes to her diet. She avoids any tomato based products and caffeine as “they seem to trigger my heartburn. I also sleep with two pillows to keep my head elevated. This helps the acid stay in my stomach at night, and I don’t seem to wake up coughing as much. I also quit smoking 7 years ago which made a huge difference in my symptoms” (Informant 5, 2012, personal communication).
Informant 6, a 63 year old male, was recently diagnosed with colon cancer. Informant 5 says that “the cancer is in the beginning stages, so I am going to have an operation to have part of my colon removed and resectioned. I don’t need any chemo or radiation, that’s what the doctors say right now. I should be back to normal in no time” (Informant 6, 2012, personal communication). This person never had any symptoms and found out he had developed colon cancer after a recent colonoscopy. “I usually had a few polyps on any given colonoscopy, but this was the first time they found something different. My dad was diagnosed with colon cancer when he was 57, and he lived to be 86. I reckon I’ll be just like him” (Informant 6, 2012, personal communication). This informant says he has his surgery scheduled in four weeks. After surgery, he says he will do “whatever the doc tells me to be as healthy as I can be for my grandkids” (Informant 6, 2012, personal communication). He claims he will stick to a low fat, high fiber diet and has been researching natural remedies to help prevent any cancer from reoccurring.
Informant 7, a 23 year old female, was recently diagnosed with walking pneumonia two months ago. This informant prefers to remedy any ailments naturally, but this was one illness she needed medical attention from. Her early symptoms included “a gross cough with green chunky mucous, fever, and fatigue. I would also feel like I couldn’t catch my breath sometimes, which really made me go see my doctor” (Informant 7, 2012, personal communication). Her diagnosis was confirmed with a chest x-ray, and she was sent home with a week supply of Zithromax. She would also eat “a lot of chicken noodle soup. I also drank a lot more fluids because my doctor said that would help clear my mucous” (Informant 7, 2012, personal communication). She states after taking her course of antibiotics, she felt healthy again and returned to living her natural lifestyle.
Informant 8, a 37 year old female, was recently diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis in her left calf. This occurred about four months ago. Her early symptoms included swelling, tenderness, and redness on her left lower extremity. She went into to emergency department where she underwent testing and ended up staying five days in the hospital. She was on bed rest for a couple days because the clot extended from her calf to popliteal vein. “I was getting injections of Lovenox and taking a pill called Coumadin to help dissolve the clot. They wouldn’t let me go home until my INR was therapeutic on the Coumadin. I had a nurse come visit me at home once to check on me and help educate me on eating healthier and cleaning up my lifestyle. I quit smoking and am no longer using any kind of nicotine replacement.” (Informant 8, 2012, personal communication). Her doctors told her she was at high risk to develop a blood clot because she is obese, smokes, and has a sedentary job (she’s a secretary). “I am still on Coumadin and will be on it for about six months the doctors said. I need to make sure I avoid foods high in Vitamin K, or too much ginger or garlic, because these will interfere with the effects of Coumadin. I know that after being in the hospital, I needed to change my lifestyle habits because I have to be a good example for my children” (Informant 8, 2012, personal communication). After her course of medication is complete, informant 8 also states that she will increase her consumption of garlic because of its natural capability to prevent clots (Informant 8, 2012, personal communication).
After interviewing the eight informants, I have come to a conclusion that most of them prefer to remedy their ailments/illnesses in a more natural way. The informants are not completely against medicine, but prefer more natural ways of healing. I think these similarities exist because of our innovative culture of being organic and natural in our lifestyles. Sure, not everyone buys into this lifestyle, but many of my friends and family members do. Organic is a big buzz word nowadays, and some modern media is using tactics to lean towards a more holistic lifestyle. The people I interviewed are family members and close friends, and this was part of our upbringing as part of middle class America. We have the capability to access almost anything we need because we live in a city with an abundance of natural markets, and we have the means to do so.
The research conducted in this essay parallels what Quinlan has done in her ethnography From the Bush: The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village. It explores the world of folk medicine and sorcery in Dominica - local beliefs and practices concerning how the body functions and malfunctions and the home remedies Dominicans use to cure common illnesses. Many of the informants I interviewed preferred home remedies as opposed to seeking medical intervention. The people of the Dominica in Quinlan’s book do not always have the means to seek medical attention the way most of us do. So they utilize the world that surrounds them to help heal ailments. It discusses how folk medicine is practiced in Dominica. The theme of Quinlan’s ethnography is that cultural ideas about the body and uses of medicinal plants are deeply intertwined. Ideas about illness direct the consequent medical response. Quinlan's book illustrates and emphasizes the need to understand the balance and relationship between home remedies, folk medicine, and western bio-medical health care in our world. The people I interviewed seemed open to trying home remedies and practicing folk medicine even though they were not fully aware that they were doing it. We have so many cultural notions of our own as do the people of the village of Bwa Mawego. We each have cultural notions of the body and its functions and malfunctions and its relationship to medicinal, organic, natural, and/or botanical treatments.

References:
Adams, Sasha. Informant 8. 2012. Personal Communication.
Baskin, John. Informant 1. 2012. Personal Communication.
Herrema, Kate. Informant 3. 2012. Personal Communication
Johnson, Tammi. Informant 2. 2012. Personal Communication.
Quinlan, Marsha. 2004. From the Bush: The Front Line of Health Care in a Caribbean Village. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. ISBN: 0155085670
Smith, Cindi. Informant 7. 2012. Personal Communication.
Smith, Gary. Informant 6. 2012. Personal Communication.
Smith, Joaane. Informant 5. 2012. Personal Communication.
Young, Stephen. Informant 4. 2012. Personal Communication.