Connecting Modern Medicine to Traditional Healing: Dr. Cheo Torres at TEDxABQ

[gentle tinkling music]

[audience applause]

My passion is curanderismo.

I study, I research, I write about it,

and I teach a course every summer
on the topic.

How many of you have been
to the course?

I see some hands up.

So, you know what it is.

Curanderismo comes from the word "curar,"
which means "to heal."

A curandero is a male healer;
a curandera a female healer.

And think about this:

In earlier years,
there were few medical doctors.

There were few ministers, priests,
no counselors.

So, the curandero played all these roles

using a holistic approach
to healing the body, mind, and spirit.

Now, my mom was not a curandera,
but she should have been one.

She would tell us, all six of us,

"Children," she would say,
"don't you dare get sick."

[laughter]

"And if you do, I'll take care of
your illness."

And she did.

Using medicinal plants, using rituals,
she kept us healthy.

I'll give you an example.

She loved the aloe vera plant, "sabila."

And she would call it "la plantita
milagrosa," the miraculous plant.

And she would say,

"This plant heals everything
from pimples to wrinkles."

[light laughter]

Indeed, she used it on her wrinkles
and on our pimples.

But she also used it for burns
and sunburns.

And my dad had serious digestive problems,

so she gave him papaya.

Every day, she gave him
papaya for breakfast.

And she would ask us,

"Please take your papaya,
eat your papaya."

Of course, you know how kids are,
we didn't eat papaya.

Until recently.

I was diagnosed with diverticulitis,

and the physician said,
"You will need surgery."

So immediately, I got on the phone,
I called Rita,

my curandera friend from Mexico,
I said, "Rita, I'm having surgery."

She said, "No you're not."

She said, "Take papaya!"

[laughter]

"Three times a day if you have to."

I said, "that's what my mom
used to say to us."

And she said, "Did you listen to your mom?

Mother always knows best."

And then, there were
those wonderful rituals.

For example,
the ritual of the seven knots.

In Spanish, it's called
"el ritual de los siete nudos."

How many of you have problems?

Come on!

All of us have problems.

And this ritual--

and it's amazing how the curanderos

use simple things
to deal with serious illnesses.

All you need is a ribbon, a red ribbon,
about a foot and a half in length,

and you think of seven problems.

And if you think you don't have seven
problems, you do.

[laughter]

You take the ribbon, you take half
of the ribbon,

and you tie a knot for your first problem.

And you think about your problem,

and you can pray if you'd like.

Move a couple of inches to the right,

you tie your second knot
for your second problem.

And then you go to the left,
and then to the right,

and to the left and to the right

until you get to the seventh knot
for your seventh problem.

So, you've already tied the circle
with seven knots.

You take the ribbon with the seven knots,
and you find an empty jar,

like an empty peanut butter jar
or a mason jar,

you put your ribbon with your knots
in the jar, you close it,

go to the backyard,

be careful the neighbors aren't watching,
they'll think you're digging money.

So, you dig a hole,
you bury the jar with the ribbon,

and therefore, you get rid
of your seven problems.

Isn't that interesting?

Very simple.

Now, this reminds me of another ritual
a friend of mine told me.

He's a curandero.

He said, "When we were kids,
my dad was an alcoholic,

"and he would come home,
and he would insult us,

"and he would curse at my mom,
and we were miserable.

"But there were times
that our dad would come home,

"and he would go to the backyard.

"And we would sneak behind him,
and we would hide in the shrubs.

"And then he would lie on the ground,
lie on his stomach,

"and he would take out his pocketknife,
and he would dig a hole.

"And then he would curse at that hole,

"and he would yell obscenities
at that hole,

"and then he would cover it.

And then, he would come home,
and he would be sweet as ever."

What was he doing?

What was the dad-
he was getting rid of all that anger,

all that stress that's in a lot of us,

all that garbage that sometimes
we need to get rid of.

In a very simple way.

And then, there was the ritual of "susto,"
which means fright.

Sociologists refer to susto
as magical fright.

Whenever you have a traumatic experience,
an accident, maybe a fire,

or maybe you come back from a war,
you may be suffering from PTSD,

post-traumatic stress disorder.

And I remember my cousin came back
from Vietnam,

and I'm sure he had PTSD,

but I don't even think we had a label
for it back then.

And he would have flashbacks.

He'd have migraines.

He'd have suicidal thoughts.

And my mother and my aunt said,
"He's got susto, susto pasado.

It's a serious susto."

So, what they did is,
they took plants,

just not any plants,

they took basil, they took rue,
and rosemary,

and they swept his body from head to toe
three times in prayer.

And I remember they would whisper,

"May the spirit of Juan
return to its body."

Three times.

Three times a week,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

for a month.

And they asked us to be
part of the rituals.

The neighbors would come and support.

At the end of the month,
my cousin was normal.

Isn't it amazing how these wonderful
things can cure a person?

Now, my belief is that we can create
a new health care model

that will bring both traditional medicine
and modern allopathic medicine together.

[cheers and applause]

In fact, I've seen this model
work very effectively in Mexico

at a place called CEDEHC,

Centro de Desarrollo hacia
la Communidad,

or a human development center.

It's really a school for curanderos.

And hundreds, if not thousands
of curanderos go through that school.

And usually, it's a certificate program
that lasts about three years.

I was there about three years ago,
and I had a terrible pain.

I had sciatica.

I could hardly walk.

And one of the curanderos who's also
a professor there said,

"Cheo, what's wrong with you?"

I said, "Well, I have sciatica,
and I've had it for years."

She said, "Can I work on you?"

I said, "Of course!"

So she said, "first we're going
to a temazcal,"

which is a Mexican sweat lodge.

And we did for about an hour.

And then she gave me an herbal tea.

And then she said, "Take a nap."

She wrapped me in a blanket,

and I napped for about thirty,
forty minutes.

Afterwards, she worked on my leg.

She massaged, she pulled, she stretched.

And after about an hour, hour and a half,
she said, "Go to sleep."

I slept like a baby.

The next morning, not only was I walking,
I was running!

And I have been pain-free
for three years, folks.

It's just incredible.

[applause]

At this- at this school, CEDEHC,
they teach curanderos,

that are actually
the doctors of their villages,

things like healthy lifestyles,
diets, juice therapy,

accupressure, acupuncture.

They make their own medicine with herbs.

They make tinctures in alcohol base.

They make microdoses with a water base.

And they teach laugh therapy,
"risoterapia."

Did you hear me?

Laugh therapy.

Now, Nino Fidencio,
a famous curandero in the 1920s,

was already doing laugh therapy.

And now Rita, my friend Rita,
does laugh therapy.

She teaches laugh therapy even here
at the University of New Mexico

during the summers.

Now, I think Rita has already realized
that laugh activates endorphins,

the natural body painkillers,
and it suppresses epinephrines,

the stress hormone.

It also helps the immune system.

It circulates the blood.

It relieves anxiety.

And I'd like to try an exercise with you
that she taught me.

Could you please stand,
all of you, for a second?

Now, I want you to go along
with what I say, okay?

Start by saying:
Hee hee hee hee hee hee...

[more intensely]
Hee hee hee hee hee hee...

[even more intensely]
HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE!

[audience laughing]

Now, okay,
hey hey hey hey...

[audience follows]

HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!

[audience laughing]

Now, ha ha ha ha ha ha...

[audience follows]

HA HA HA HA HA HA!

[audience laughing]

Now, ho ho...
HO HO HO HO HO HO!

[audience follows and laughs]

Please sit down.

[audience laughing]

Now, if any of you were experiencing pain,

you will be pain-free
for the next thirty to forty minutes.

[audience laughs]

I'm serious.

Going back to the model...

let's dream big, and let's bring
both forms of medicine.

Now, we're beginning to do this

at our own University of New Mexico
Health Sciences Center,

thanks to Dr. Arti Prasad,
who has the Center for Life here.

[applause]

Yes.

[applause continues]

But this has to exist
all over the country,

in fact, all over the world.

And I'll tell you what,

this is what we need to meet the needs
of those that are uninsured,

especially those 11 million immigrants
that live here.

The only time they go to the hospital
is when they're really sick,

and they go to an emergency room,
which is overcrowded and understaffed.

So, let's come up with a new model,
and stay healthy.

Eat papaya and laugh a lot.

[cheers and applause]

Thank you.

[cheers and applause]