Special Issue "Beyond Conventional Medicine: Ethnomedical Approaches for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention"
A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2019) | Viewed by 10756
Special Issue Editor

Interests: epidemiology; stress and health; social and behavioral health; training and curriculum
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Significant achievements in conventional medical science and public health have advanced our knowledge about preventing and treating disease. Nevertheless, allopathic medicine is still a young science. Globally, there is recognition that traditional medical practices (ethnomedicine) continue to be utilized in the culture of origin. There is also recognition that many of these practices are being adopted and adapted for use outside the culture of origin—for example, Yoga, a part of Ayurveda, India’s 5000-year-old medical system is increasingly being utilized and researched in the U.S. The importance of food as medicine, which has been an integral component of Ayurveda, has also garnered attention in the public health field. Mindfulness practices, which originate from the Zen Tradition, are used in numerous ways to address health and well-being. A key distinction between Western allopathic medicine and traditional forms of medicine is that most ethnomedical paradigms view the body as a whole, health as multidimensional, and the importance of lifestyle as medicine. Ethnomedicine also recognizes the importance of the subjective view of illness and patient experience. Western medicine is primarily concerned with the physical dimension of health, diagnosis, and treatment, which separates mind and body. We are at a critical juncture to increase our knowledge of how traditional medicine is utilized, either alone or integrated with conventional medicine for healing, disease prevention, and health promotion. This is especially the case given that non-biologic agents such as stress and trauma are pervasive worldwide.
This Special Issue seeks papers on ethnomedical approaches for healing, health, and well-being. Epidemiological studies of the utilization of ethnomedical practices will be considered, as well as rigorous mechanistic studies. High-quality case studies and systematic reviews will also be considered. We seek papers that examine the use of ethnomedicine for infectious diseases, mental illness, chronic diseases, pain, and other associated ailments. Papers that examine ethnomedical medical practices with conventional medicine will be considered.
Assoc. Prof. Shanta R. Dube
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- Ethnomedicine
- Traditional medicine
- Complementary and Integrative Medicine
- Depression
- Mental illness
- Substance abuse
- Nutrition
- Obesity
- Life course
- Self-care
- Traumatic stress
- Prevention
- Health promotion