Latin American medical practices, an ethnomedical system representing many healing practices throughout Latin America. In Mexico it is known as curanderismo. The etiology of illness is framed in terms of imbalance, which can be between hot and cold in the body, between parts of the body, between patients and the social environment, or between patients and the spiritual realm. These illnesses can be treated by curanderismo and biomedicine, but only the curandero can treat supernatural ailments. This system has been used to treat susto (fear), believed to cause the soul to become dislodged from the body, resulting in illness; empacho, a gastrointestinal disorder believed to be caused by blockage in the stomach or intestine; and mal de ojo (evil eye), characterized by fever, irritability, headache, and weeping, generally affecting children.
