Naturopathy by Leon Chaitow N.D., D.O., M.R.O.

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Naturopathy

 

 

© Leon Chaitow N.D., D.O., M.R.O.

 

 

 

 

Natural medicine, nature cure, naturopathy...are these all the same thing, and

whether or not they are what do they have to offer for you in this era of

'scientific' medicine?

These are treatment systems which also offer a basic philosophy for living,

which if followed is claimed to prevent much of the illhealth which afflicts

modern humans.

Quite simply naturopathy is a system which is concerned with the whole person,

rather than just the problems afflicting his/her various organs and systems.

Naturopathy recognizes and uses the fact that the body is a self-healing

organism, working with the knowledge that if the right environment and

opportunity for self-healing can be created repair, recovery and good health

will result, spontaneously and illhealth will be prevented.

Homoeostasis

Most forms of illness are self-limiting.

Cuts heal, breaks mend, infections are controlled, digestive upsets settle and

emotional upsets resolve themselves ... as a general rule.

The mechanisms which achieve these resolutions are together known as

homoeostasis.

This is the self-balancing, self repairing process achieved by efficient working

of the immune system and other defence mechanisms in action.

Naturally enough when these self-repair systems become overwhelmed or deficient

they may require assistance, and this is where treatment comes into the picture.

What is essential from a naturopathic (and logical) point of view is that

whatever treatment is used it should not make matters worse. Ideally treatment

should encourage the self-healing mechanisms rather than dictating to them or

forcing them into particular actions.

Top Symptom Treatments and Alternatives

A recent survey of UK medical prescribing trends showed that far and away the

most costly and common conditions treated by drugs are those related to ulcers

and high blood pressure (each of these problems cost the NHS many hundreds of

millions of pounds annually!).

The causes of peptic ulcers and high blood pressure have much in common, and

these can be summarised as a combination of nutritional imbalances, poor stress

coping abilities and (often) undesirable habits such as smoking (all interacting

with certain predisposing, inborn, characteristics in many cases).

To take medication to control these conditions, except when the condition

threatens life itself, does not address the real needs of the sick person, it

just controls and masks the problem.

Naturopathic methods to both conditions would include:

 

reform of the person's diet as well, where indicated, as the use of specific

supplementation

 

 

the possible use of periods of detoxification (including short fasts if

necessary, during which time remarkable degrees of self-repair occur)

 

 

the use of structural normalisation (using osteopathy and various soft tissue

techniques for example) to help the general function of the body as a whole and

to reduce mechanical stress factors

 

 

the introduction of appropriate forms of stress reducing methods including

breathing and relaxation techniques

 

 

help (perhaps using supplements and/or acupuncture) in breaking old habits

such as smoking

 

 

the use of homoeopathic and/or herbal substances to assist in the healing

process but not to suppress the symptoms.

 

Here then naturopathy would offer a fully comprehensive approach to the patient

with the problem (whether it be peptic ulcer,hypertension or anything else) and

not an attack on the symptoms alone.

Which approach, drugs or these holistic methods, seem to you to be addressing

the real needs of the sick person?

Fever: Leave it Alone or Treat it?

Naturopathy believes that not only should symptoms not be the main focus of

treatment, they should often be recognised as being the very expression of

self-healing in action, and allowed to run their course.

When you have a fever for example this is evidence of your body's defence

systems dealing with something out of the ordinary, perhaps an infection by a

bacteria or virus.

In 9 cases out of 10 this will resolve itself without any treatment at all

(especially if you are well nourished and cope well with stress) and only needs

to be helped by adequate rest and suitable nourishment (liquids only for the

first 24 hours of a fever has been shown to enhance immune function

dramatically).

When however a fever is met by an instant attempt to suppress it (`the child has

a temperature, we must get this down!` syndrome) what is being done is in direct

conflict with the real needs of the person, unless the fever is actually

life-threatening, which is rare indeed, and in which case appropriate medical

care is essential.

Naturopaths recognise that fever is usually an expression of self-healing, a

heightened degree of immune system activity. Naturopathic care would aim to help

the immune system to do its job efficiently, initially by dietary modification

and/or controlled fasting.

In addition it would use methods which would make life more comfortable while

these necessary internal processes are doing their job (massage and osteopathic

manipulative techniques can for example assist in the drainage of lymph, the

fluid which carries debris away from the site of infection).

Some naturopaths would assist the healing process further by judicious use of

herbs or homoeopathic medication, neither of which would be aimed at suppressing

the fever but which would support the body's efforts.

Similarly hydrotherapy or acupuncture might be used to reduce discomfort and

assist the self-healing work of the body.

Contrast the happy outcome of such a naturopathic effort with the result of the

use of drugs to bring down the temperature, leaving the underlying condition

unresolved and a frustrated immune system denied its opportunity to act on the

invader.

So important as a healing aid do naturopaths see elevated temperature to be that

in some conditions of on-going infection (as occurs in AIDS and in some

instances of chronic fatigue) an artificial temperature is created by careful

use of hydrotherapy (a method called hyperthermia, in which the person's body

temperature is slowly raised by immersion in hot water).

This has no long-term side effects (but needs to be expertly supervised) unlike

the long-term overuse of antibiotics which has resulted in a massive rise in the

number of resistant bacteria as well as doing untold damage to the health of

many people's digestive tracts where `friendly` bacteria (upon which our health

depends to a large extent) have been severely compromised.

Arthritis as Another Example

Arthritis too can be superbly treated by naturopathic means.

Contrast the difference between methods used in orthodox medicine which directs

attention towards reducing the inflammatory process involved in arthritis, with

little understanding of the ways in which the condition can be more safely

treated by attention to causes, unlike naturopathic medicine.

Opren, and the widespread use of other anti-inflammatory drugs, resulted in most

people who used them for any length of time actually having worse arthritis in

later years than did those people who had no treatment at all (not to mention

digestive systems which had been well and truly damaged). Why should this be?

Because as with a fever, inflammation is part of the self-repair mechanism on

which our health depends.

If the reasons for the inflammation can be dealt with the condition improves

spontaneously. Even if it can't fully resolve itself the inflammatory process

leads ultimately to a degree of self-healing which is superior to what happens

if inflammation is chronically suppressed.

Naturopathic approaches to both osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis have now been

vindicated by recent studies in Norway (published in the Lancet 12 October 1991)

which show that fasting and a vegetarian based diet have a major impact on the

levels of pain, stiffness and disability in people with arthritis.

This together with the 'new' medical findings that meat, citrus fruits and

certain other foods are harmful in arthritis has been known by naturopaths for

100 years or more and yet the medical studies which prove the value are only

just being recognised.

Modification of diet together with some basic naturopathic therapies (focusing

on both mind and physical structures) offers the safest and most effective

approach to arthritis, because causes are being dealt with and not just

symptoms.

Working With the Body

Naturopathy encourages the self-healing potential by a combination of the

removal of obstacles to its efficient working alongside active

involvement/treatment which assists it through one form of therapy or another.

Holistic Thinking Started with Naturopathy

The idea of looking at the person with a health problem, at the overall

condition of health or ill-health, in the context of the person's lifestyle,

dietary pattern, stress levels, attitudes and beliefs, habits, relationships,

environment and social background, is essentially naturopathic and is the

foundation thinking which has now been adopted by doctors who believe in

holistic principles.

Individuality

The study of emotional (psychological), structural and biochemical (diet,

toxicity, deficiency) factors as they interact with the unique individuality

(biochemical, structural, emotional and genetic) of each of us, to create a

formula for health or ill-health, is the naturopathic way of understanding the

complex influences affecting everyone, and has its roots in classical Greek

medicine as practised by Hippocrates.

This way of looking at health and disease is essential to unravelling the causes

and therefore the solutions to health problem according to naturopaths, since it

relates all those attributes which we inherit from our parents to all that has

happened (and is happening) to us in life, up to this point in time, to our

current health status.

However naturopathy is far more than this logical, rounded, way of understanding

the human condition as it relates to health and disease, it is also a

revolutionary way of approaching the treatment and indeed the prevention of

illhealth.

Disease is seen as an imbalance in the harmony of body/mind function which, by

attention to predisposing features, most ill-health can be prevented and much

removed once it exists.

Definitions

Definitions are slippery things, and attempts to nail down just what the word

naturopathy means have resulted in the term having different meanings in

different countries, and even having various meanings within the same country,

to different groups.

In Germany, where naturopathy is practised within the national health service,

practitioners using it are known as `heilpraktikers` - health practitioners.

They use the main methods of naturopaths everywhere : nutrition, controlled

fasting, stress reduction methods and counselling, hydrotherapy (often including

colonic irrigation methods), exercise and lifestyle changes as basic ways of

influencing their patient's conditions. However they go further and incorporate

into their methods of treatment the use of herbal and homoeopathic medicines,

physical methods such as massage and manipulation as well, in many instances, as

the use of acupuncture and other Oriental methods of treatment.

This eclectic approach to healing is the same as that used by naturopaths in the

US, Australia, India, South Africa and Israel.

In America and Israel there are major naturopathic colleges which provide no

less than four years of full time education in naturopathic medicine (the

Israeli course runs to just under 5500 hours) and include all of the methods and

systems mentioned above as well as training in mid-wifery.

Sadly in the UK naturopathy is far less comprehensive, and is in fact divided

into two forms. A relatively narrow one which insists that alteration of diet

and lifestyle and modification of habits plus a degree of psychological

counselling can achieve all that is desired in terms of healing, with little or

no treatment advocated; and another form which lies somewhere between that

narrow formula (often called 'straight nature-cure' or natural hygiene) and the

German/US version of naturopathy.

The main UK college of naturopathy (British College of Naturopathy and

Osteopathy) has in recent years focused its attention more on the osteopathic

content of its four year course, with the naturopathic training offered being

largely related to nutrition and lifestyle influences on health.

The naturopathic component of the six year part-time osteopathic course offered

by the College of Osteopaths is at least as comprehensive as that taught by the

BCNO, which also now hosts a short (under 100 hours) post graduate course

produced by the British Naturopathic Association for suitably qualified

practitioners (chiropractors, doctors etc).

The abbreviated content (as evidenced by the time involved) of this BNOA course

highlights the enormous philosophical differences between the US, Germany,

Israel and the UK as to just what naturopathy is and is not, and many question

just how much naturopathy can be learned in this short time-scale.

Fortunately many British naturopaths have adopted an eclectic approach to

healing and incorporate methods such as homoeopathy, herbal medication and

acupuncture which they have learned separately from their naturopathic training.

If you want to consult a naturopath in the UK you should contact a member of one

of the following organisations, but before booking an appointment check whether

the practitioner uses eclectic (many modalities) or 'straight' naturopathy, and

select according to your feelings on this subject.

The British Naturopathic and Osteopathic Association,

6 Netherhall Gardens, London NW3 5RR

The College of Osteopaths Practitioners Association,

110 Thornhill Road, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 OUW

Incorporated Society of Naturopaths

1 Albermale Road, The Mount, York YO2 1EN

 

The Natural Hygiene Society

College Contacts : BCNO as BNOA address above College of Osteopaths : as per

address above

The Israeli College of Natural Health Sciences 16 Beit Hillel Street, Tel Aviv

67017

Bastyr University 144 N.E.54th, Seattle, Washington 98105 USA

National College of Naturopathic Medicine 11231 S.E. Market Street, Portland,

Oregon 97216 USA

Further Reading:

Naturopathic Medicine by Roger Newman Turner (Thorsons)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Natural medicine, nature cure, naturopathy...are these all the same thing, and

whether or not they are what do they have to offer for you in this era of

'scientific' medicine?

These are treatment systems which also offer a basic philosophy for living,

which if followed is claimed to prevent much of the illhealth which afflicts

modern humans.

Quite simply naturopathy is a system which is concerned with the whole person,

rather than just the problems afflicting his/her various organs and systems.

Naturopathy recognizes and uses the fact that the body is a self-healing

organism, working with the knowledge that if the right environment and

opportunity for self-healing can be created repair, recovery and good health

will result, spontaneously and illhealth will be prevented.

Homoeostasis

Most forms of illness are self-limiting.

Cuts heal, breaks mend, infections are controlled, digestive upsets settle and

emotional upsets resolve themselves ... as a general rule.

The mechanisms which achieve these resolutions are together known as

homoeostasis.

This is the self-balancing, self repairing process achieved by efficient working

of the immune system and other defence mechanisms in action.

Naturally enough when these self-repair systems become overwhelmed or deficient

they may require assistance, and this is where treatment comes into the picture.

What is essential from a naturopathic (and logical) point of view is that

whatever treatment is used it should not make matters worse. Ideally treatment

should encourage the self-healing mechanisms rather than dictating to them or

forcing them into particular actions.

Top Symptom Treatments and Alternatives

A recent survey of UK medical prescribing trends showed that far and away the

most costly and common conditions treated by drugs are those related to ulcers

and high blood pressure (each of these problems cost the NHS many hundreds of

millions of pounds annually!).

The causes of peptic ulcers and high blood pressure have much in common, and

these can be summarised as a combination of nutritional imbalances, poor stress

coping abilities and (often) undesirable habits such as smoking (all interacting

with certain predisposing, inborn, characteristics in many cases).

To take medication to control these conditions, except when the condition

threatens life itself, does not address the real needs of the sick person, it

just controls and masks the problem.

Naturopathic methods to both conditions would include:

 

reform of the person's diet as well, where indicated, as the use of specific

supplementation

 

 

the possible use of periods of detoxification (including short fasts if

necessary, during which time remarkable degrees of self-repair occur)

 

 

the use of structural normalisation (using osteopathy and various soft tissue

techniques for example) to help the general function of the body as a whole and

to reduce mechanical stress factors

 

 

the introduction of appropriate forms of stress reducing methods including

breathing and relaxation techniques

 

 

help (perhaps using supplements and/or acupuncture) in breaking old habits

such as smoking

 

 

the use of homoeopathic and/or herbal substances to assist in the healing

process but not to suppress the symptoms.

 

Here then naturopathy would offer a fully comprehensive approach to the patient

with the problem (whether it be peptic ulcer,hypertension or anything else) and

not an attack on the symptoms alone.

Which approach, drugs or these holistic methods, seem to you to be addressing

the real needs of the sick person?

Fever: Leave it Alone or Treat it?

Naturopathy believes that not only should symptoms not be the main focus of

treatment, they should often be recognised as being the very expression of

self-healing in action, and allowed to run their course.

When you have a fever for example this is evidence of your body's defence

systems dealing with something out of the ordinary, perhaps an infection by a

bacteria or virus.

In 9 cases out of 10 this will resolve itself without any treatment at all

(especially if you are well nourished and cope well with stress) and only needs

to be helped by adequate rest and suitable nourishment (liquids only for the

first 24 hours of a fever has been shown to enhance immune function

dramatically).

When however a fever is met by an instant attempt to suppress it (`the child has

a temperature, we must get this down!` syndrome) what is being done is in direct

conflict with the real needs of the person, unless the fever is actually

life-threatening, which is rare indeed, and in which case appropriate medical

care is essential.

Naturopaths recognise that fever is usually an expression of self-healing, a

heightened degree of immune system activity. Naturopathic care would aim to help

the immune system to do its job efficiently, initially by dietary modification

and/or controlled fasting.

In addition it would use methods which would make life more comfortable while

these necessary internal processes are doing their job (massage and osteopathic

manipulative techniques can for example assist in the drainage of lymph, the

fluid which carries debris away from the site of infection).

Some naturopaths would assist the healing process further by judicious use of

herbs or homoeopathic medication, neither of which would be aimed at suppressing

the fever but which would support the body's efforts.

Similarly hydrotherapy or acupuncture might be used to reduce discomfort and

assist the self-healing work of the body.

Contrast the happy outcome of such a naturopathic effort with the result of the

use of drugs to bring down the temperature, leaving the underlying condition

unresolved and a frustrated immune system denied its opportunity to act on the

invader.

So important as a healing aid do naturopaths see elevated temperature to be that

in some conditions of on-going infection (as occurs in AIDS and in some

instances of chronic fatigue) an artificial temperature is created by careful

use of hydrotherapy (a method called hyperthermia, in which the person's body

temperature is slowly raised by immersion in hot water).

This has no long-term side effects (but needs to be expertly supervised) unlike

the long-term overuse of antibiotics which has resulted in a massive rise in the

number of resistant bacteria as well as doing untold damage to the health of

many people's digestive tracts where `friendly` bacteria (upon which our health

depends to a large extent) have been severely compromised.

Arthritis as Another Example

Arthritis too can be superbly treated by naturopathic means.

Contrast the difference between methods used in orthodox medicine which directs

attention towards reducing the inflammatory process involved in arthritis, with

little understanding of the ways in which the condition can be more safely

treated by attention to causes, unlike naturopathic medicine.

Opren, and the widespread use of other anti-inflammatory drugs, resulted in most

people who used them for any length of time actually having worse arthritis in

later years than did those people who had no treatment at all (not to mention

digestive systems which had been well and truly damaged). Why should this be?

Because as with a fever, inflammation is part of the self-repair mechanism on

which our health depends.

If the reasons for the inflammation can be dealt with the condition improves

spontaneously. Even if it can't fully resolve itself the inflammatory process

leads ultimately to a degree of self-healing which is superior to what happens

if inflammation is chronically suppressed.

Naturopathic approaches to both osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis have now been

vindicated by recent studies in Norway (published in the Lancet 12 October 1991)

which show that fasting and a vegetarian based diet have a major impact on the

levels of pain, stiffness and disability in people with arthritis.

This together with the 'new' medical findings that meat, citrus fruits and

certain other foods are harmful in arthritis has been known by naturopaths for

100 years or more and yet the medical studies which prove the value are only

just being recognised.

Modification of diet together with some basic naturopathic therapies (focusing

on both mind and physical structures) offers the safest and most effective

approach to arthritis, because causes are being dealt with and not just

symptoms.

Working With the Body

Naturopathy encourages the self-healing potential by a combination of the

removal of obstacles to its efficient working alongside active

involvement/treatment which assists it through one form of therapy or another.

Holistic Thinking Started with Naturopathy

The idea of looking at the person with a health problem, at the overall

condition of health or ill-health, in the context of the person's lifestyle,

dietary pattern, stress levels, attitudes and beliefs, habits, relationships,

environment and social background, is essentially naturopathic and is the

foundation thinking which has now been adopted by doctors who believe in

holistic principles.

Individuality

The study of emotional (psychological), structural and biochemical (diet,

toxicity, deficiency) factors as they interact with the unique individuality

(biochemical, structural, emotional and genetic) of each of us, to create a

formula for health or ill-health, is the naturopathic way of understanding the

complex influences affecting everyone, and has its roots in classical Greek

medicine as practised by Hippocrates.

This way of looking at health and disease is essential to unravelling the causes

and therefore the solutions to health problem according to naturopaths, since it

relates all those attributes which we inherit from our parents to all that has

happened (and is happening) to us in life, up to this point in time, to our

current health status.

However naturopathy is far more than this logical, rounded, way of understanding

the human condition as it relates to health and disease, it is also a

revolutionary way of approaching the treatment and indeed the prevention of

illhealth.

Disease is seen as an imbalance in the harmony of body/mind function which, by

attention to predisposing features, most ill-health can be prevented and much

removed once it exists.

Definitions

Definitions are slippery things, and attempts to nail down just what the word

naturopathy means have resulted in the term having different meanings in

different countries, and even having various meanings within the same country,

to different groups.

In Germany, where naturopathy is practised within the national health service,

practitioners using it are known as `heilpraktikers` - health practitioners.

They use the main methods of naturopaths everywhere : nutrition, controlled

fasting, stress reduction methods and counselling, hydrotherapy (often including

colonic irrigation methods), exercise and lifestyle changes as basic ways of

influencing their patient's conditions. However they go further and incorporate

into their methods of treatment the use of herbal and homoeopathic medicines,

physical methods such as massage and manipulation as well, in many instances, as

the use of acupuncture and other Oriental methods of treatment.

This eclectic approach to healing is the same as that used by naturopaths in the

US, Australia, India, South Africa and Israel.

In America and Israel there are major naturopathic colleges which provide no

less than four years of full time education in naturopathic medicine (the

Israeli course runs to just under 5500 hours) and include all of the methods and

systems mentioned above as well as training in mid-wifery.

Sadly in the UK naturopathy is far less comprehensive, and is in fact divided

into two forms. A relatively narrow one which insists that alteration of diet

and lifestyle and modification of habits plus a degree of psychological

counselling can achieve all that is desired in terms of healing, with little or

no treatment advocated; and another form which lies somewhere between that

narrow formula (often called 'straight nature-cure' or natural hygiene) and the

German/US version of naturopathy.

The main UK college of naturopathy (British College of Naturopathy and

Osteopathy) has in recent years focused its attention more on the osteopathic

content of its four year course, with the naturopathic training offered being

largely related to nutrition and lifestyle influences on health.

The naturopathic component of the six year part-time osteopathic course offered

by the College of Osteopaths is at least as comprehensive as that taught by the

BCNO, which also now hosts a short (under 100 hours) post graduate course

produced by the British Naturopathic Association for suitably qualified

practitioners (chiropractors, doctors etc).

The abbreviated content (as evidenced by the time involved) of this BNOA course

highlights the enormous philosophical differences between the US, Germany,

Israel and the UK as to just what naturopathy is and is not, and many question

just how much naturopathy can be learned in this short time-scale.

Fortunately many British naturopaths have adopted an eclectic approach to

healing and incorporate methods such as homoeopathy, herbal medication and

acupuncture which they have learned separately from their naturopathic training.

If you want to consult a naturopath in the UK you should contact a member of one

of the following organisations, but before booking an appointment check whether

the practitioner uses eclectic (many modalities) or 'straight' naturopathy, and

select according to your feelings on this subject.

The British Naturopathic and Osteopathic Association,

6 Netherhall Gardens, London NW3 5RR

The College of Osteopaths Practitioners Association,

110 Thornhill Road, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 OUW

Incorporated Society of Naturopaths

1 Albermale Road, The Mount, York YO2 1EN

 

The Natural Hygiene Society

College Contacts : BCNO as BNOA address above College of Osteopaths : as per

address above

The Israeli College of Natural Health Sciences 16 Beit Hillel Street, Tel Aviv

67017

Bastyr University 144 N.E.54th, Seattle, Washington 98105 USA

National College of Naturopathic Medicine 11231 S.E. Market Street, Portland,

Oregon 97216 USA

Further Reading:

Naturopathic Medicine by Roger Newman Turner (Thorsons)