What is natural medicine and how is it recognized by the WHO?

Understanding the place of traditional, natural, and ancestral medicine in current health

Natural medicine is a set of knowledge and care practices that use elements found in nature — such as plants, water, food, rest, and connection to the environment — to promote the overall well-being of individuals.

This knowledge does not originate in laboratories, but in the observation of the body and nature over generations. It has been passed down by indigenous peoples, farming communities, and especially by women who preserved care practices linked to the territory and the human body.

Today, this knowledge is recognized within broader frameworks such astraditional medicine.

🌿 What does the WHO understand by traditional medicine?

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as:

“The body of knowledge, skills, and practices based on theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, used for the maintenance of health and the prevention of well-being.”

This recognition does not imply that it replaces conventional medicine, but rathervalues its cultural, educational, and complementary rolein the well-being of individuals.

For this reason, the WHO promotes the respectful and safe integration of traditional medicine within health systems, especially in contexts ofintercultural health.

🌺 Natural medicine as cultural heritage

Natural medicine is part of the cultural heritage of the peoples. It is present in:

• The use of medicinal plants in family gardens

• The practices of ancestral midwifery

• The feminine knowledge about the menstrual cycle and menopause

• The link between body, territory, and community

These practices do not seek to intervene in the body, but to accompany it through observation, respect, and connection with nature.

🌎 Intercultural health and gender approach

The recovery of natural medicine is linked to current approaches of intercultural health and gender perspective, which recognize:

• The value of knowledge transmitted by women

• The importance of territory in care practices

• The right to understand the body from different cultural perspectives

• The sustainability of practices that do not depend on industrial processes
  
  
  

⚠️ A complementary, not substitutive approach

It is important to understand that natural and traditional medicine are used asa complement to well-beingand do not replace medical attention when it is necessary.

Its value lies in education, accompaniment, and the recovery of cultural practices that strengthen the relationship between people and their environment.

🌿 From the perspective of Earth Medicine

In Earth Medicine, we recognize natural medicine as part of a living knowledge, present in plants, in territories, and in the memory of those who have cared for the body from nature.

Our work integrates this knowledge within educational spaces, integrative therapies, and intercultural health, respecting the cultural value of this knowledge and its complementary role in human well-being.