Naturopathic Medicine Health Article

Definition

Naturopathic medicine is a branch of medicine in which a variety of natural medicines and treatments are used to heal illness. It uses a system of medical diagnosis and therapeutics based on the patterns of chaos and organization in nature. Naturopathy is founded on the premise that people are naturally healthy, and that healing can occur through removing obstacles to a cure and by stimulating the body's natural healing abilities. The foundations of health in natural medicine are diet, nutrition, homeopathy, physical manipulation, stress management, and exercise.

Naturopaths are general practitioners who treat a wide variety of illnesses. They believe in treating the "whole person"—the spirit as well as the physical body—and emphasize preventive care. They often recommend changes in diet and lifestyle to enhance the health of their patients.

Origins

People have always seen connections between diet and disease; many therapies are built around special diets. Naturopathy began in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the industrial revolution forced many people into unhealthy lifestyles, and the European custom of "taking the cure" at natural spas became popular. Benedict Lust, who believed deeply in natural medicine, organized naturopathy as a formal system of healthcare in the 1890s. By the early 1900s, it was flourishing.

The first naturopaths in the United States emphasized the healing properties of a nutritious diet, as did a number of their contemporaries. In the early twentieth century, for instance, John Kellogg, a physician and vegetarian, opened a sanitarium that used such healing methods as hydrotherapy, often prescribed by today's naturopaths. His brother Will produced such health foods as corn flakes and shredded wheat. The Post brothers helped make naturopathic ideas popular and emphasized the value of whole grains over highly refined ones. Together with one of their employees, C. W. Post, they eventually went on to start the cereal companies that bear their names.

In the early 1900s, most states licensed naturopaths as physicians. There were 20 medical schools of naturopathic medicine. From early on, naturopathic physicians were considered "eclectic," since they drew on a variety of natural therapies and traditions for treating their patients.

In the 1930s, naturopathy dramatically declined for several reasons. Allopathic medicine finally stopped using such therapies as bloodletting and heavy metal poisons as curative compounds. New therapies were more effective and less toxic. Allopathic medical schools became increasingly well-funded by foundations with links to the emerging drug industry. In addition, allopathic physicians became much more organized and came to wield considerable political clout. Naturopathy has experienced a resurgence over the last 20 years, however. The lay public is aware of the connections between a healthful diet and lifestyle and avoiding chronic disease. In addition, conventional medicine is often unable to treat these chronic diseases. Patients are now health care consumers, and will seek their own resolution to health problems that cannot be resolved by conventional physicians. As a result, even medical groups that once considered naturopathy ineffective are now beginning to accept it.

Benefits

Naturopathic medicine is useful for treating chronic as well as acute diseases. It is sometimes used in conjunction with allopathic care to enhance wellness and relieve chronic symptoms, such as fatigue and pain. A naturopath treats a wide range of health problems, ranging from back pain to depression.

A naturopathic physician will spend extra time interviewing and examining the patient to find the underlying cause for a medical problem. Emotional and spiritual symptoms and patterns are included in the assessment. The naturopath often spends more time educating patients in preventive health, lifestyle, and nutrition than most M.D.s.