<P> In 17th and 18th - century America, traditional folk healers, frequently women, used herbal remedies, cupping and leeching . Native American traditional herbal medicine introduced cures for malaria, dysentery, scurvy, non-venereal syphilis, and goiter problems . Many of these herbal and folk remedies continued on through the 19th and into the 20th century, with some plant medicines forming the basis for modern pharmacology . </P> <P> The prevalence of folk medicine in certain areas of the world varies according to cultural norms . Some modern medicine is based on plant phytochemicals that had been used in folk medicine . Researchers state that many of the alternative treatments are "statistically indistinguishable from placebo treatments". </P> <P> Indigenous medicine is generally transmitted orally through a community, family and individuals until "collected". Within a given culture, elements of indigenous medicine knowledge may be diffusely known by many, or may be gathered and applied by those in a specific role of healer such as a shaman or midwife . Three factors legitimize the role of the healer--their own beliefs, the success of their actions and the beliefs of the community . When the claims of indigenous medicine become rejected by a culture, generally three types of adherents still use it--those born and socialized in it who become permanent believers, temporary believers who turn to it in crisis times, and those who only believe in specific aspects, not in all of it . </P> <P> Traditional medicine may sometimes be considered as distinct from folk medicine, and the considered to include formalized aspects of folk medicine . Under this definition folk medicine are longstanding remedies passed on and practised by lay people . Folk medicine consists of the healing practices and ideas of body physiology and health preservation known to some in a culture, transmitted informally as general knowledge, and practiced or applied by anyone in the culture having prior experience . </P>

Compare and contrast two types of traditional medicine used