The Association of Integrative Medicine Practitioners of Nigeria, Edo State Chapter, recently had its inauguration and maiden conference/awards presentation in Benin City, the Edo State capital. The Vice Chairman of the Chapter, Mrs. Caramel Emuobome Dane-Osaghae, speaks to Bill Okonedo and Victory Okonjo about the efficacy and encompassing nature of integrative medicine and efforts to embrace practitioners in all segments of the discipline and standardise practices and medicament.
Good afternoon, madam. Please tell us about yourself.
I am Dr. Mrs. Caramel Emuobome Dane-Osaghae. I’m from Delta State and I have my first degree in Medical Laboratory Science, BMLS at Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma. Then I went further to study Naturopathic Medicine at Colombo, Sri Lanka, to be specific at Medicina Alternativa. There I got an MD in Naturopathy, and an MD in Energy Medicine.
I also went further to delve into very more mainstream medicine. I didn’t want to just limit my knowledge to naturopathic medicine alone. I wanted something really integrative. So, I decided to go for integrative medicine, and then I went further to bag a degree in M. D. Integrative Medicine from Texas, USA at Highstone Global University, to be precise and currently, I’m working on my master’s.
You represent the Association of Integrative Medicine as the Vice Chairman. What does this association set out to accomplish?
The Association of Integrative Medicine is a national association and then we have our Edo State chapter. On the national level, we have the secretary, being the person of Alhaji Dr. Usman Paiko Ciroma. And then we have the president, who is Honorable Johnson Elechi. We also have the person of Bankadejo. That’s the BUC chairman.
In Edo State, recently we inaugurated precisely on the 31st of May, 2024. It’s a maiden association and it is centred on marrying different fields of medicine. You know, we have the Nigeria Medical and Dental Association of Nigeria. We have the Optometrists Association of Nigeria, the Osteopathic Association of Nigeria, and the likes. Now, the World Health Organisation defines health as a state of wellbeing, not just physical, but the whole being .So, it will mean that to attain that state of wellbeing, we’re not going to bank on just one mainstream form of medicine. So, the integrative medicine association is centered on marrying different aspects of the field of medicine as a whole to make it one.
How do we mean? The mainstream medicine that was fathered by the great Hippocrates, and also marrying it with what we call the naturopathic doctor who basically treats with anything in nature. Then we have other fields of medicine like acupuncture, homeopathy etc. So, marrying different fields of medicine by bringing them together forms the integrative medicine. Nurses are there, medical doctors are there, pharmacists and medical lab scientists and the likes, we are all there together working as a team.
Now if you come to a clinic where we have integrated medicine, it means we as different individuals have a wide range of specialties. I can stand as a medical laboratory scientist, as a natural pathologist, as an allopathic medical practitioner because of my knowledge and having MD in Integrative Medicine in Texas. So, this has given me the room to be able to expatiate and create a strong impression on people, in terms of health, because I have suffered issues with spasming and I lost a child seven years ago and I couldn’t walk. That was what brought about delving deeply into another field of medicine. I had a degree in natural medicine, but I didn’t take it seriously. But when I couldn’t walk and I had seen different physiotherapists, I decided to delve into this path, and it was successful. Within a period of a month and a half, I could walk again and today I wear heels. So, I came to realise from my personal experience and the experiences of many others, that just one field of medicine won’t cut it all because no man is an island of knowledge. So, the Integrative Association decided to bring different people with their different specialties to be able to deliver great healthcare to humanity.
Now, these women on the streets, in every state capital and every small town, that are selling herbs and tinctures, do they have any value to society?
We can never say that they don’t. Now, even the great Hippocrates, on whose foundation the field of mainstream medicine or western medicine was established, as we all know, started as a person who believes in the saying, “O Man, let thy diet of food be thy medicine, and thy medicine thy food.”
Why am I saying this? He started small, and he began to do what? Expatiate, do more research. So, for those local herbal sellers, we’re not going to rule them out. That’s why we’re trying to incorporate them into the system. They are not useless at all. Our forefathers, our grandmothers based their beliefs and their drugs on that foundation. So, the fact that the foundation of a building is outdated doesn’t mean that it cannot be restructured into a modern building.
So how do we go about this? That’s why we have continuous development program. We have CPD in professional development programs like that, and we have trainings, certifications, and recertifications to help these people understand that they don’t have to operate in a particular way. There’s a better way to achieve this through neatness, to prevent sepsis. So, we teach them aseptic techniques, standard operating procedures, and invite them from further training so that there will be standardisation and regimen will be given according to those and what is needed for each individual, not the “one shoe fits all”.
Does natural medicine really hold solutions to health challenges, especially at this time that formal pharmaceutical medicines are becoming too expensive?
I wouldn’t want to use the word cheaper at the moment, because you know, there’s a statement that says “necessity is the mother of invention”. When people tend to know that this thing is very good, the price increases. Let me give an example. Zobo drink used to be very cheap and we could get some at N20, N50. A cup used to go as low as N400, N300 but now a cup goes for as high as N4,500. Why? Because people know the value now, they know the value of herbal or natural medicine. So, I wouldn’t really want to push it to the side of being cheap. There is deforestation now. So, you see, the places we used to get these plants in times past, we no longer get them like that.
Talking about efficacy, I don’t want to blow this out of proportion but herbal medicine is very, very efficacious. I’ll tell you one thing. Let me be very specific on this one. I had my baby two and a half years ago and when I gave birth to the child, she had a distended abdomen. There were also suggestions that she most likely couldn’t pass stool. While I was breastfeeding her, I noticed it was getting worse. You know, there are some children that are lactose intolerant, right? So, I noticed that even when I tried introducing these normal foods to wean the child from cow milk and the rest, the situation became terrible and it was sleepless nights for all of us. Then I noticed that once I started feeding her natural food, organic food, I’m not talking about eba, I’m talking about plant-based milk. As soon as I started that, within four weeks, I noticed a change. She started passing stool normally, that crying in the night stopped.
Now, recently we had a patient who had endometriosis. That patient had gone to the clinic. She came from Lagos and they told her that she needed to carry out hysterectomy. We decided to give her a very simple remedy, which I wouldn’t want to mention because that would be selling my point out. We gave it to her for just three weeks and there was a great change. Everything is beautiful. She went back to her doctor and her doctor was like, “What did you take? What did you do? Did you travel out?” She said, “No. I went to Benin City, Edo State, and there was this doctor that gave me this and that.”
When it comes to dosage, you see, there’s a difference between a tailor who went to school and the one who never passed through the four walls of the university. Quite a number of persons who are into herbalism right now are professors. Some are medical doctors too. Some are scientists or medical laboratory scientists. So, they know the value of precise drug dose and duration to be given, and they research further into when it should be given and how it should be given. So, talking about dose, in modern herbalism, yes, we are concerned about the dose and it’s working well.
Where does the integration come in because you are called the Association of Integrative Medicine? What exactly are we integrating here?
Well, not just Western. Integrative medicine will mean having at least two fields of medicine. For example, you can be an acupuncturist and an osteopath. An osteopath takes care of the whole body, the bones and the rest, while the acupuncturist uses filiform needles to take care of the body and balance the meridian according to the Chinese acupuncture therapy or principle. If a person has those two degrees, we can call that person an integrative medical practitioner. Now, if you are a nurse and at the same time a herbalist, you are also practicing integrative medicine. So integrative medicine doesn’t really mean I have to give you herbs to do this or that. In my clinic, I am also a physical therapist. For a very long time, I’ve practiced physical therapy and I’m an osteopath. I have MSc in Osteopathy presently. So, as we speak, what we do is that we marry the treatment with osteopathy and when necessary prescribed drugs. Let’s give an instance. Say a person has arthritis, or osteoarthritis around the knee. We use osteopathic methods to help align these bones to make sure that it releases the joints for free mobility, using an inclinometer to check the range of motion. So, after using that, you see the range of motion is little, then you know the person needs osteopathic care.
So, having given the osteopathic care, there are other analysis the person may have to go for, like checking for your calcium level, your magnesium level, and the other salts and trace elements in the system. Now, if this person lacks this, we now prescribe drugs for the person to take, so that while taking that and carrying out osteopathic techniques or therapy, you are achieving a very great result. Now, that is integrated medicine. We gave the drug that is sold over the counter: magnesium, and we are carrying out osteopathic care. That’s integrated medicine.
Now if somebody needs surgery for myoma, which is commonly called fibroid, after the surgery, a herbalist will give something, especially if that fibroid is either subserous or intermural. Now if it is like this, we wouldn’t want to delve much into herbal medicine because it’s engrafted in the uterine wall. So, what we do is after the surgery, a surgeon will come, do his part, then a herbalist after some days, helps the person to take some herbal medication to facilitate speedy healing, boost the immune system and prevent a further regrowth of that same fibre. That’s integrative medicine.
How much patronage do herbal and integrative medicine get in Nigeria?
I don’t want to deceive you, herbal medicine is getting massive patronage, and if the government would just focus on growing it, it’s going to be a major revenue earner. Trust me, I’m telling you.
When you go to Ring Road, you see even people riding their jeeps and the rest, they are parked, trying to buy agbo. Sometimes the male folks may feel shy to see the normal orthodox medical practitioner. They will prefer to see the other person on the roadside first because it is cheaper to them, and they can easily just, you know, rap in their local dialect and get it done. Nobody is going to look at them strangely. I have experienced those things at the clinic and I’ve seen the way they are freer talking to the roadside agbo sellers. So, you see, they have great patronage. You see those ones hawking drugs around? They make good money from it than sometimes, even the doctors in the office.
Now, where the mainstream medicine has an upper hand is for cases of surgeries. Caesarean sections. Prostatectomy. Those are the things that give them the edge over herbal medicine. However, I will never tell you that orthodox medicine does not have its place or that it is bad. It has a massive role it’s playing and it’s a beautiful field of practice. But for them working together makes it work better.
What does government need to do?
I think government needs to integrate medical practice more often, take people for training, especially the ones we call the uncertified ones. I have gone through school and come back, but I still went for apprenticeship with these people. They know this job. As an osteopath, you may not be perfect at setting bones, but bone setting is part of osteopathy, and we are not taught so well. But when I went to meet a traditional bone setter, he taught me well. He taught me how to be able to set a bone and fix it within days, not weeks.
Now this goes to show one thing: Government needs to come and integrate the field of medicine together. There’s no case of saying I am better than this or this one is below me. No, it’s not going to help us save humanity. So, if government is interested in humanity and saving lives, then it should integrate every field of medicine together and take them for training.
So in this process, what do you think is the role of the Association of Integrative Medicine, or the Integrative Medicine practitioners in getting attention and delivering value to the community?
There are CPDs (continuous professional development) trainings, research work, certifications. We are talking about these things on radio, in talk shows, so that we can help people know that this association has come to stay. Being on social media will also help, talking about it instead of just coming out of the blue and just going to one random place.
There’s also a traditional board at the Ministry of Health. What they do is that they see your certificate if you’re qualified. They give you a license to practice within the state as regards the instruction given from the Federal Ministry of Health. Then the traditional board itself helps to make sure that the organisation or the association is standardised, and we are to go there for a meeting to get updates on how it should go. So, we always have this constant communication with the traditional board under the Ministry of Health.
What is the biggest challenge of integrative medicine? Is it dosage, cooperation, formalization, recognition by government, or is it perception?
I can’t give you a single answer on that. You know, it takes a complete dressing to make a person look fine. So, I’ll tell you, we have more than one big challenge or biggest challenge. However, one of the biggest challenges we have is cooperation from the local herbal sellers. When you meet them to tell them “we want to teach you”, they usually don’t respond positively. They will tell you, “what I’ve known since, that my forefathers have also taught me, you still want to teach me? What do you know?”
Perception is another issue as well. So, when somebody walks up to you and you tell them you’re into natural medicine, their first impression is that you’re just a herbalist engaging in diabolical practices, which is very inappropriate. So, then you have to start defining and redefining your profession.
Tell us about the programmes and activities of the Association of Integrated Medicine
We had our inauguration and conference on May 31st, and we hold meetings every third Saturday of the month, and while doing that, we make sure that one person gives an educational health talk because it’s not just those who went to school that are there. We have those who are also selling along the road that need to be taught some of these things. So, it’s an eye opener for them. Then we have training programmes which will help them to understand basic and newer technologies on how to handle medical conditions. That’s it.
Is the average person safe going to these women hawking tinctures on the street and making health complaints? Because some of these fellows who sell these substances may not fully fall into the herbal group. There are some people, for instance, who walk along the road selling things that they claim can cure any and all ailments.
Let me ask you, although this is not a question, I expect you to answer, because it’s actually rhetorical. Have you ever seen a real professional, who is not a charlatan, parading up and down the road to advertise their craft? You never see that. That’s not an average practitioner of the field of medicine. So, those in the marketplace telling people, “If you drink this it will cure HIV, cure coronavirus, cure the disease yet to come…”, we can’t refer to those ones as average herbal or natural practitioners. When you’re talking about the average herbal or natural practitioners, we’re talking about those who have their physical shops, and they’ve been practicing for quite a while. Yes, you are safe to meet those ones, because those are average natural medical practitioners. But the ones that walk along the street telling you what they can cure even more than God does, I wouldn’t mention them as the average practitioners, so I wouldn’t call them part of us.
What is the nature, if any, of your interface with government and what has come out of it?
Well, so far, on the national level, the government is trying to work on it in such a way that we will become very relevant, and standardise our participation on the national level. However, as per the state level, it’s still a work in progress.
Thank you for your insightful answers. Is there anything you want to add?
One thing I also want to make us understand is that the reason that this association exists is to make sure that every average Nigerian is able to get access to health care at the minimal rate and yet very efficacious. That’s our vision. Secondly, we are interested in not just treating symptoms or suppressing symptoms, but treating holistically: the mind, the body and the entire individual. You cannot come to meet a natural medical practitioner and say you have headache and they only give you something for headache. No. What we are teaching is to treat the whole person. Be it headache, you have to know what’s causing that headache, take care of it completely, do your very good checking of your patient, history taking, and then you will be able to know the underlying reason why the person is having headaches.
The association is also interested in training programmes, so that the local herbal practitioner can become relevant and his knowledge will not fizzle out or die, and we can promote the herbal practice to a greater height so that tomorrow, we know that we have achieved a very great height.
