Folk medicine

Folk medicine refers to healing practices and ideas of body physiology and health preservation widely known to much of the population in a culture, transmitted informally as general knowledge, and practiced or applied by anyone in the culture .

 

All cultures and societies have knowledge best described as folk medicine.

Folk medicine often coexists with formalized, education-based, and institutionalized systems of healing such as Western medicine or systems of traditional medicine like Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, but is distinguishable from formalized or institutionalized healing systems.

Use of folk medicine knowledge is not restricted within the society to those who have served an apprenticeship, undergone some sort of training or testing, or have achieved a specific social status.

Theories and practices of folk medicine influence, and are influenced by, the formalized medicine systems of the same culture.