Naturopathy

¤ A Vital Curative Force Within The Body

Naturopathy is a century old healing disciple that fell from favour about 40 years ago, when drugs and technology became the norm. But recent years have seen the revival of naturopath’s popularity, as more people have become disillusioned with conventional medicine. The appeal of naturopathic physicians is that while they have an educational background similar to that of conventional MD's, they also take extensive course work in various alternative remedies.

This practice is based on recognition that the body possesses an inherent ability to heal thyself. Naturopathy or the healing power of nature ( vis medicatrix naturae), underpins nearly all the therapeutic techniques in alternative medicine.


¤ Acupuncture, Manipulation and Homeopathy

They all depend on body’s ability to heal itself if pushed, needled or coaxed in the right direction. Although naturopathy is a relatively recent word, its therapeutic approach and principles represent the essence of a broad holistic attitude to health and disease. It challenges reductionism, which represents the essential philosophical basis and attitude of modern scientific medicine.


¤ Naturopaths

Naturopaths believe that illness is caused by bad living habits like eating the wrong foods, too much stress and not having enough exercise. As a result of all these, waste materials and bodily refuse build up and poison the system. The therapy is to throw off these toxic accumulations by adapting to a healthier regime including a wholesome diet, hydro therapy, manipulation and psychological counseling.

The physician takes an extensive case history, including not only family disease history but also your own habits, such as what you eat and how much exercise and sleep you get, as well as your feelings and attitudes towards your health.


¤ Naturopathic Physicians

Naturopathic physicians vary in their approach, style and choices of therapies -- one practitioner might rely heavily on herbal medicine while another may emphasize homeopathy - but they all base their practices on the same underlying principles of healing.
These include a belief in the healing power of nature, the importance of treating the whole person, the goal of treating the cause of an illness rather than merely the symptoms, the idea that the prevention of illness is the ultimate cure and the priority of doing no harm to the patient (such as avoiding treatments that cause side effects).

This means using only agents upon which life depends, and more or less as they are found in nature, such as air, water, sunlight, relaxation, exercise and dietic adjustment. Many naturopaths use other techniques, such as acupuncture, but these may properly be considered auxiliary. Naturopaths believe that orthodox treatment only drives the symptoms underground ready to return another time, because it does not remove their cause.


¤ The Practice of Fasting

Many "health farms" began with the therapy in mind, especially with the fasting regimes designed to purify the system, and the complete ban on smoking and alcohol. Most doctors believe naturopathic techniques are suited to prevention rather than cure. This is despite the growing evidence that high fiber diets, low fat diets and additive free diets can effectively control heart disease, bowel conditions and allergies. A naturopath merely finds the most appropriate way to help the body to stimulate itself into using its inherent powers to heal itself.


¤ Meditation and Relaxation

Naturopathy in one way can be said to have been practiced from earliest times. We can say that the first man to rest and miss a meal when he felt off colour was practicing naturopathy; the first people to relax their stiffened muscles by bathing in hot springs, or relieve pain and inflammation with cold water sprays, were applying naturopathic methods. The individuals who first developed meditation and relaxation as a means of calming the turmoil of their spirits were acting naturopathically.


¤ Naturopathy- A Self Healing System

Naturopathy is the creation of conditions which enable the body to heal itself as far as it is capable of so doing. The earliest physicians used their observations of the body in health and disease to evolve an art of healing whose principles hold good to this day. Man was seen as integral part of nature and the universe, and they recognised that his health depended on maintaining harmony with them. The means of achieving this were present in the basic essential of life.

Rather than prescribing a standard treatment for common health complaints, a naturopathic physician provides an individualised approach based on natural therapies. If your complaint is a sore throat, the doctor might prescribe immune boosting vitamins and herbs, show you how to use a throat compress to bring blood to the area to speed the healing, or help you understand how you dietary habits trigger recurring infection.

In the year 1829, Vincenz Priessnitz cured himself by nature’s methods after being given up by the medical profession, founded a sanatorium on his father’s homestead in Germany. His pharmacopoeia consisted neither in pills of doctor, nor any suppressive methods of treatment but in pre unadulterated food, bathing in the sparkling brooks, fresh air and exercise, massage fasting and the like. Since then nature cure has spread rapidly.