PT: Taking complementary medicines – Consistency with beliefs and values
Listen to patients and health professionals speak about their experience with taking multiple medicines.
PT
Male
Age at interview: 49
Number of medicines: 7
Cultural background: Indian
PT comes from India, which has a strong tradition of complementary medicines. He believes that the cause of his heart condition is implicated in what he lost when he immigrated to Australia five years ago.
I'm no fan of medicines, absolutely. I've always tried to take the lowest possible quantity and potency of medicines and, while I was in India for a long time ... I mean, for all these 45 years ... 44, 45 years and I never take any ... particularly, we didn't like to take any allopathic medicines. I don't know what you call them here. These are the real medicines, the only medicines here. So what we depended on for most of our ailments or any things like fever and cough and things like that, even skin problems, was homeopathic medicine. It is very popular in India. You have many, many doctors practising that and lots of people and pharmacies doing homeopathic medicines … Of course,
I may not have had this [heart attack] if I was still in India maybe, because of the life here, I think. I think my heart is not built for this life, this sort of life. Indian hearts, in general, are not built for this life, so I think that's the reason why I'm in this problem now … But what I would like to say is that, what I miss here, which has a direct bearing to my heart condition, for example, is the lack of … I'll use a few words … love, relationship, emotion and … mmm … relaxation or something like that. I don't know. The combination of this, you just mix them together. So, heart … I'm talking only about my problem, it's nothing to do with anybody else. If you are missing that, that’s what severed the heart. So, in my case, the change at my age might be the reason why it is ... I don't think that you can sort it out, being here. I just have to live with it, that's all.
The Living with multiple medicines project was developed in collaboration with Healthtalk Australia.