Folk medicine is a mixture of traditional healing practices and beliefs that involve herbal medicine, spirituality, and manual therapies or exercises to diagnose, treat, or prevent an ailment or illness. It is mostly practiced by indigenous or native populations, and as much as 80% of the population in certain countries within Asia and Africa rely on it for primary care. Folk medicine may also be referred to as alternative medicine, holistic medicine, and Eastern Medicine. It is different from modern medicine, as it lives among the people as a part of their culture. Folk medicine is usually handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.

Forms and lengths of treatment in folk and modern medicine are sometimes quite similar. For example, aspirin used as a painkiller appeared as a development of quinine and cocaine, which had been used by folk medicine for a long time. In general, modern and folk medicine interact with each other. While focusing on the causes of disease, modern medicine benefits from folk medicine in order to improve the range of treatments available. Also, folk medicine uses every opportunity to benefit from developments in modern medicine.

Folk medicine is practiced by a majority of the Mexican population while in Mexico, especially among the poor and uninsured. Medical Folklore of Black Americans contains elements from European and African beliefs, blended with religious elements associated with Christianity and African voodoo.