Benchmark Nontraditional Health Care Practices - Essay Example

"Benchmark Nontraditional Health Care Practices" is a wonderful example of a paper on complementary and alternative therapies.
Many people have accepted modernization and westernization principles that characterize the world today. This means that many people have changed their behaviors and abandoned certain cultural practices that are outdated. Nontraditional health care practices are becoming more popular today because of the said changes (Kittler & Sucher, 1999). This paper discusses some of these practices among the cultures listed below.

White Americans

White Americans are among the groups that took up several nontraditional health care practices. First, this cultural group identifies themselves with westernization and modernity meaning that they consider traditions an aspect of the past. In terms of nontraditional health care practices, people in this group like fast foods rather than cooking, believe that eating French fries and quick fixes are the modern ways of being time conscious and engage in alcohol drinking (AlRawi, Fetters, Killawi, Hammad & Padela, 2012).

Haitian Americans

Generally, Haitians are traditional. However, they also engage in nontraditional health care practices. Despite the fact that exercise was not part of their traditions, Haitians engaged in physical work helping them to exercise their bodies. However, today, most Haitians do not engage in physical work because they think this is a modern world where people should do things with the current technology. They also do not exercise making them a risk to healthcare issues. They also consume fast foods and participate in practices full of alcohol, which is harmful to their health (Hajat, Lucus & Kington, 2000).

Mexican Americans

Mexican Americans are also cultural and traditional. However, westernization has made them abandon certain traditional healthcare practices. Mexican Americans had certain herbs that they used to treat diseases in the past. However, today, they do not use those herbs and still do not go to the hospital when injured unless it is serious because they believe in strength. They also engage in drug abuse and alcohol consumption; characters that increase their risk of diseases. Mexican Americans believe that exercising helps in keeping diseases away and sometimes to treat diseases or injuries which are not serious. This is dangerous to their health.

African Americans

African Americans are also part of the group that is affected by westernization and success attitude. As such, they abandon their healthcare traditions and engage in drug abuse especially bhang and also alcoholism. They prefer home treatment, yet most of them do not have traditional herbs or treatment methods that were used in the past. They also prefer family together with barbecues that increase their caloric intake (Ezzati, Lopez, Rodgers, Vander Hoorn & Murray, 2002).

Asian Americans

Asian Americans have also been affected by westernization and adopted nontraditional healthcare practices. Today, just like people from other cultures, Asian Americans prefer buying medicine and treating themselves at home rather than seeking medical attention from qualified healthcare professionals. They also eat fast foods that are high in calories and sugars (Marmot & Bell, 2011).

Immigrant populations

America has many people who come from different cultures. However, being in America most of them abandon their cultures and eat fast foods, do not exercise, spend their time in the office or online, and fail to seek proper medical attention when they need it. As such, these expose them to health risks

American Indians

American Indians are known for their traditional practices. However, they also have certain nontraditional healthcare practices. For example, American Indians consume foods high in calories such as French fries, burgers, and chocolates. They also do not engage in constant exercises. They also do not go for healthcare screening that may help to discover healthcare defects in their bodies.

Arab Americans

Arab Indians engage in alcohol consumption, eat fast foods, and also foods that are high in sugars. They do not eat fruits as much as required. Arab Americans also engage in certain religious practices that are harmful to their health. For example, Catholic Arabs are against the use of condoms and other forms of contraception in birth control practices. This exposes them to the risk of contracting pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections such as HIV/ AIDS (Grant, 1998).

German Americans

German Americans are not very cultural. However, some of their nontraditional health care practices include excessive consumption of alcohol not at one go but taking it several times a day. They also consume fast foods that are high in calories and sugars just like people from other cultures. They engage in little exercise thereby increasing the risk of high blood pressure and obesity (Cultural Competency and Haitian Immigrants: High-Risk Health Behaviors, 2003).

Puerto Rican Culture

Puerto Ricans, they are known for their traditional lifestyle. However, just like other cultures, they consume fast foods that are high in calories and sugar. They do not engage in enough exercise. Some of them smoke cigarettes and consume alcohol.

Conclusion

As discussed, all the above cultures have nontraditional healthcare practices. Most of them engage in the consumption of fast foods and other foods that are high in calories and sugar. They do not engage in adequate exercises, thereby putting their lives in danger. The main reason for these is that many people have accepted modernization and westernization principles that characterize the world today. As such, they do not engage in traditional or cultural healthcare practices, which they consider to be outdated. As such, the lives of many people in the ten cultures discussed are exposed to health risks.