Dr Chigozie Iwuagwu, the Founder of Equitable Healthcare for Ordinary People Everywhere (E-HOPE), says the potency of some traditional medicine have been scientifically proven.
Iwuagwu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday that the curative effects of the medicines had been studied by people and evidence published.
“For those that have been scientifically established, their ability to treat or cure is established. For those that have not gone through trials, the claims on their efficacy are simply guesswork and not valid,” the medical practitioner said.
Iwuagwu explained that the word ‘traditional medicine’ had been interpreted by different people to mean different things, and as such, had remained a controversial topic anytime or day.
According to him, to some people, traditional medicine might mean charm, and to others, it means a concoction of several elements that had some healing or treatment benefit.
Iwuagwu said that to some, it was a representation of anything beyond the conventional medical practice, including practices like acupuncture that was alleged to proffer heath relief to those that consumed it.
“We need to have the evidence that the active ingredient of such medicine has been subjected to thorough empirical research which findings are accessible and clear,” he said.
Iwuagwu stated that several active ingredients of most ‘orthodox’ drugs had been subjected to scientific studies, like that on ‘bitter kola’ by Prof. Maurice Iwu.
He said that beyond the verbal claims based on mere historical antecedents, on the ‘treatment’ or medicinal ability of an element, there should be empirical studies that were scientifically established.
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