The state of the integrative medicine in Latin America: The long road to include complementary, natural, and traditional practices in formal health systems

IntroductionIntegrative medicine is not an entirely new concept in Latin America. With a deeply rooted tradition in medical practices by ancient indigenous peoples, two milestones are part of the road towards integration. Álvarez Chanca wrote the first records on medicinal plants in Latin America (1493), when accompanying Columbus on his first voyage to the New World. Subsequently, de la Cruz and Badiano wrote a detailed document on autochthonous medicinal plants (Badianus Manuscript, 1552: “First American Pharmacopeia”).MethodsSearching in MEDLINE, LILACS, Google Scholar/Books. MESH: complementary, alternative, traditional, natural, health system, intercultural, ethnomedicine, phytotherapy, and herbs, among others.ResultsIt has been estimated that more than 400 million people in Latin America use traditional/natural and/or complementary/alternative medicine (TN-CAM). The yearly expenditure on TN-CAM products of around 3 billion dollars illustrates that these practices have grown exponentially in this region as well. The quantity and quality of scientific studies on TN-CAM, although relatively scarce, has steadily increased. Cuba and Brazil, where formal health systems for different reasons accept inclusion of TN-CAM, are in the forefront of this movement. Considerable advances are also being made in other countries, such as Mexico, Peru, Chile, Argentina and Colombia.ConclusionsImmediate challenges are how to improve multidisciplinary management, research, professional training, address legal/policy issues and a scientific approach to the extents and limitations of TN-CAM both in conventional health care and in the society as a whole. To ignore or fight the existence of TN-CAM therapies, practiced in a scientific approach, may harm health-care systems. This article belongs to the Special Issue: T & G Health Issue.