a third of Russians combine official and traditional medicine

Slightly less than half of Russians (40%) believe that in some cases traditional medicine can be more effective than official medicine, 32% combine official and traditional medicine, and 6% even trust only traditional medicines. Such preferences were revealed by the VTsIOM poll. Experts remind that the effectiveness of treatment should be clinically justified, but they admit that doctors themselves, in some cases, are increasingly resorting to naturopathy, herbal medicine, climatotherapy and many other methods of “basic treatment”.

As shown by the VTsIOM survey conducted in July 2023 among 1.6 thousand respondents over 18, every second Russian believes that official medicine is more effective in treating the same disease. There are about 6% of adherents of exclusively traditional medicine, and a significant part of the audience hesitates, noting that somewhere official is more effective, and somewhere folk (40%). This means that, in general, 46% of Russians recognize traditional medicine to one degree or another.

Among Russians, two treatment strategies are especially popular, the authors of the survey point out. The first one is a visit to a doctor and treatment only with what the specialist has prescribed – 47%. There are more of them among young people aged 18–24 (74%), those who consider official medicine more effective (71%), as well as among active TV viewers (58%).

The second most popular strategy is the combination of official and traditional medicine. Every third Russian (32%) does this. More often they are women (35% versus 27% among men), people aged 35–59 years (38–37%), an audience with higher education (35% versus 24% in the group with incomplete secondary education) and poor and average financial situation (37–33% versus 25% in the good group).

17% of Russians do not go to doctors in case of illness, including 11% who are not treated in any way and hope that everything will go away on its own. The rest resort exclusively to the methods of traditional medicine. These are, as a rule, citizens over 45 years old (8% versus 0% among young people under 25 years old), people with incomplete secondary education (17%), residents of a small settlement (up to 100 thousand people) or a village (7% each) , active viewers (10%).

At the same time, according to the majority of respondents, education is needed to practice traditional medicine (79%). Including 60% of respondents consider it necessary to have a medical education, and 19% – a special education in traditional medicine. Such results may indicate the perception of traditional medicine as part of the official one.

In general, among Russians, the practice of resorting to various methods of traditional medicine is quite common (71%), regardless of age, gender and place of residence. The most popular phytotherapy is herbal treatment (38%), followed by treatment with bee products (30%) and bath treatment (23%). The top 5 also included manual therapy (18%) and acupressure (17%). Another 15% practiced acupuncture, 13% practiced homeopathy. Every tenth person noted aromatherapy, cleansing the body of toxins and home bioresonance therapy devices (10% each), another 7% named osteopathy. From a healer or psychic, 4% received help in the treatment of diseases, and 5% practiced conspiracies from diseases and the evil eye.

Ekaterina Serebrennikova, a general practitioner at the Doctor Nearby medical company, says that for some diseases, alternative treatment is indeed acceptable, but with reservations. “This is possible, for example, with ARVI, a self-healing disease,” explains Ms. Serebrennikova. “There are narrow areas where manual therapy can be used. It has a proven effect. But still it is not a panacea. It is all the more difficult to talk about the effectiveness of treatment when the patient resorts to the use of dietary supplements, herbs, and so on. The dose of the active substance in such preparations may differ in different packages, all the more so it is impossible to talk about exact dosages if the medicinal product is offered, for example, in sachets for brewing.

Olga Shuppo, scientific director of the network of immunorehabilitation and preventive medicine clinics Grand Clinic, believes that traditional and official medicine are links in the same chain of therapeutic medicine. At the same time, she notes, in preventive anti-aging medicine, the focus of treatment among doctors is increasingly shifting towards natural drugs. “Doctors are increasingly turning to naturopathy, herbal medicine, climatotherapy, and many other basic treatments, sometimes referred to as traditional medicine,” says Ms. Schuppo. we are approaching the personalization of the view of the body and treatment, which means that both protocols and standards need to be revised. The use of methods of traditional medicine and naturopathy should not be excluded. However, she emphasizes that only a doctor with knowledge of biochemistry, physiology, anatomy and genetics can prescribe treatment with natural preparations.

In Art. 50 of the Law “On the Fundamentals of Protecting the Health of Citizens” it is said that a citizen who has received permission from the executive authority of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation in the field of health protection has the right to engage in traditional medicine. Fedot Tumusov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Health Protection, says that in some regions, permission, “of course, is not issued.” The MP has been working on a bill for two years already, which proposes to separate the concepts of traditional and folk medicine. “There is an emasculation of previously permitted methods of traditional medicine, phyto-, hirudo-, apitherapy, homeopathy, which are not in clinical guidelines, from the medical field, and the latest regulatory documents exacerbate this,” explains Fedot Tumusov. Until the bill is submitted to the State Duma, according to Mr. Tumusov, the Ministry of Health “cannot agree on the wording.”

Director of the Department of Medical Care for Children, Obstetrics and Public Health Service of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Viktoria Sakharova noted that the lack of full-fledged research facilities does not allow the full inclusion of some methods of traditional medicine in clinical recommendations and standards for the provision of medical care. Among other problems in the sphere, Ms. Sakharova pointed out the lack of mechanisms for monitoring the safety of traditional complementary medical practice, the insufficient level of education and training of traditional medicine workers.

Natalia Kostarnova