Syncretic Diabetes Management in Mexico: Towards Equitable Health Outcomes

Starting in 2000, Mexico’s healthcare system has undergone a huge redesign. This specifically increases access treatment for diabetes, which is one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in Mexico. Modernization of the health system has had unequal effects on diabetes treatment in the north versus the south of Mexico, as the more urbanized north has a larger access to treatment centers and hospitals. In the south, many patients don’t have access to biomedicine and rely on traditional medicines to treat diabetes. These traditional medicines do have efficacy in lowering blood glucose, along with addressing other symptoms of diabetes. Additionally, southern Mexican culture may prefer the use of traditional cures, as they address a wider swath of physical and spiritual symptoms than biomedicine. However, traditional plant-based cures also contain more inactive ingredients which can accumulate in the body and cause liver damage, whereas pharmaceuticals contain a purified form of the active anti-diabetic molecule. As Mexico expands its revamped medical system into the country’s south, a syncretic approach to medical treatment could improve health outcomes, incorporating traditional medical beliefs with more potent biomedicine in order to manage diabetes holistically