Author: ashamadhu

Nature cure or naturopathy is one among the several alternative medical fields, such as naturopathy, homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic, Ayurveda, Siddha, energy therapies, etc. The modern allopathic medicine, its inventors, advocates and practitioners, normally do not accept naturopathy or other alternative medicines, stating that the healing effects of such alternative medicinal practices are not based on evidences collected through the use of accepted scientific methods and principles.

Hence, the practices of medical diagnosis and treatment methods of alternative medicines have been excluded from the educational courses or curriculum of a majority of the established medical schools, colleges and other higher education institutions in the field of conventional medicine. Very few practitioners of conventional medicines accept or recommend the principles and practices of alternative medicines. Still, the alternative medicines consist of a wide range of principles, practices, therapies and products in the field of health care. The most prominent among them is naturopathy, an alternative medicine that has been grossly misunderstood or even rejected as dangerous by people ignorant of its true meaning and value.

The truth is that nature cure or naturopathy is exactly what its name indicates, using nature to cure all types of bodily disorders, ailments and diseases. The history of naturopathy is as old as the origin of humanity. Nature cure is not a mere healing system, it is a also a way of healthy life and a constructive treatment method. The aim of nature cure is to remove the underlying or fundamental cause of any disease by using the various elements available freely in nature. This is achieved through a rational approach that is in perfect tuning with internal vital forces present in the human body or the other natural elements that comprise the human body. Nature cure is not even an alternative medicine, but a complete revolution in human life. It is both a science and an art that has been perfected over several millennia.

The term ‘naturopathy’ may be of recent origin, coined by John Scheel in 1895 and Benedict Lust, considered the father of naturopathy in the United States popularized it even further in the West. However, the philosophical basis of nature cure and the various treatment methods are very ancient. Historical and anthropological evidences clearly suggest that nature cure principles and treatment practices were practiced widely in Greece, Rome, and Egypt in their ancient periods of glory. Hippocrates (460-357 B.C.), accepted as the father of Western medicine, was a strong advocate of nature cure and he has emphatically stated that ‘Nature Cures, not the Physician’.

Historians and anthropologists also unanimously agree that the natural healing system was in a very advanced stage in India in the most ancient times, even before other countries of the world obtained any knowledge of medicine. The scriptures and other sacred books of India, especially the medical treatises, such as Charaka Samhita (a text on Indian medicine), Sushruta Samhita (a text on Indian surgery), Ashtanga Hridaya (a text on Indian medicine and surgery), Ashtanga Samgraha, Kashyapa Samhita (a text on gynecology, obstetrics and child health) and other innumerable ancient text books in Sanskrit and other regional languages are evidences of the level of advancement that India has achieved in the field of medicine even before several millennia. Several references are available in the four Vedas of Hindu philosophy, namely, Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda about natural cure medicinal practices, especially the methods of using the excellent healing agents of nature, such as earth, water, air and sun. In fact, Ayurveda is considered as the fifth Veda in Indian medical practice.

The exact nature of the principles and practices of nature cure or naturopathy will be explained in our subsequent articles, Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part II, Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part III and Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part IV. If you have any questions or doubts on this initial introduction on nature cure, please feel free to contact us. If you wish to know more about nature cure and its methods, kindly go through Part II, Part III and Part IV of this series of introductory articles. We will be taking up the actual diagnosis and treatment methods of nature cure or naturopathy in subsequent articles.

Consequent to our previous article, Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part I, we are presenting the major principles and practices in not only diagnosing and treating all types of diseases, ailments and bodily disorders but also in avoiding all of them even before they occur. It is true that we may be born with certain afflictions due to genetic or other health related reasons. It is easily possible either to eliminate even these prenatal, postnatal or inherited afflictions completely or minimize their effect to such an extent that they do not pose any health problem.

Two basic principles usually guide nature cure or naturopathy, though there are several other principles that are the foundations of nature cure. The first principle is that any affliction, disease, disorder or ailment in the human body is only an abnormal condition that has resulted from the violation of the laws of nature. Each violation of the laws of nature has serious repercussions on the human body system, usually leading to lowered vitality, accumulation of toxic and waste matters and irregularities in blood, lymph and other crucial body functions. For example, when we consume faulty, unnatural or unhealthy diets, the first system that gets affected adversely is the digestive system, which should be obvious even to lay persons.

What many of us do not realize is that such food items lead to accumulation of several toxic as well as waste materials in our body. When this occurs, not only the digestive system, but other crucial organs of the body, such as liver, spleen, kidneys, bowels, skin, lungs and even the heart are forced to overwork to remove these toxins and waste materials or at least neutralize their ill effect on the entire body system. Since it is not possible to get rid of these dangerous materials as fast as they accumulate in our bodies, various types of diseases and afflictions are the natural result.

Another cause for diseases is the mental and/or emotional disturbances that all of us undergo regularly in our lives. All these disturbances lead to serious imbalances in the vital electric fields that control the cell metabolisms in our body. These electrical field imbalances produce toxins in the cell metabolisms. In normal conditions, the electric fields remain undisturbed and germs, bacteria and viruses that live in our cells continue to remain inactive without getting multiplied or producing toxins. When the electric fields get disturbed or when the blood circulating in our bodies gets polluted with toxic wastes, these germs, bacteria and viruses become active, start to multiply and become very harmful to our bodies. This is a second major cause of diseases and other physical afflictions.

Even though the food that we eat and our mental and emotional states are the major reasons for many of the afflictions from which we suffer, the technological advancements and mass industrialization have also been a major reason for several physical disorders and diseases. The high pollution levels due to serious degradation of the environment, the greenhouse gases and other toxic materials in the air that we breathe, the chemically contaminated water that we drink, the additional physical and mental stresses and strains that we encounter in our daily life due to changed modern lifestyles and the lazy and languid way in which we spend our days without any physical exercises or other activities that stimulate the body system are all major contributors to different types of afflictions and diseases.

The second most important, but abominably ignored principle is that the human body is not only a highly complex system, but is also a very powerful system that still remains a mystery even to the most intelligent scientists of the past several centuries until today. Our bodies have the capacity and vitality to cure themselves in a natural manner in most cases of diseases and disorders without the use of any drugs or other medications. This second principle and other principles that guide nature cure or naturopathy will be discussed in our next articles in this series, Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part III and Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part IV.

In continuation of our two previous articles, Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part II and Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part II, we present here more detailed explanations of the principles and practices of nature cure or naturopathy. Practitioners of nature cure or naturopathy strongly believe in body vitalism, a principle which maintains that the guidance of all body processes like human metabolism, growth, adaptation and reproduction is by a special energy, which they term as vitalism, vital force or vital energy. The approach of nature cure is a holistic one with non-invasive treatments and therapies for most physical disorders and afflictions, with very minimal usage of drugs, medications and/or surgical procedures.

It is very easy for the human body to recover from any physical affliction by using natural elements, resources and methods, such as fresh air, clean water, sunshine, properly planned and prepared nutritious diets, exercises, constructive or positive thinking, correct mental attitudes, scientific relaxation of body and mind, prayer and meditation, which have the power to help humans maintain a sound body and a sound mind. As mentioned earlier, all forms of diseases and disorders occur due to one major cause, namely, the accumulation of toxins, bodily refuse and waste materials in the body. The body of a healthy human has the ability to remove these hazardous toxins and waste materials from the human body system through the various organs of elimination, such as liver, spleen, kidneys, bowels and skin.

In fact, most, if not all acute and common diseases like colds, fevers, digestive disturbances, inflammations, skin eruptions, etc. are always self-initiated efforts by the body to throw away the accumulated toxins and waste materials. When these acute diseases are kept in a state of continued suppression through seemingly harmless, but deadly methods like drugs, narcotics, vaccines, antibiotics, gland extracts, unnecessary or undesirable surgical methods, etc., these acute diseases become even more hazardous. They lead to other chronic diseases like diabetes, heart diseases, kidney disorders, asthma, rheumatism, etc. Hence, the only logical option to cure acute and chronic diseases and keep the body in a healthy condition is to employ only those methods that can allow the body system itself to throw away these accumulated toxins and waste materials on its own, with minimal non-invasive intervention. Nature cure offers these methods in the most effective manner. This remains a natural and regular process in healthy persons.

However, in the case of a person afflicted with a disease before these materials have been removed from the system, they start piling up in the body. The effects may be visible within a very short period in some persons but it may take several years to manifest openly in many others. The rate of accumulation of the toxins, waste materials and bodily refuse to depend on the level of faulty living or undesirable lifestyles. The individual amounts of wrong food habits, improper body care, various habits like smoking, drinking and drug abuse, wrong and negative attitudes, thoughts and behaviors like anger, depression, stress, anxiety, fear, overwork and worry, other types of excesses, lack of adequate physical exercises or physical activities, etc. that contributes to enervation or nervous exhaustion in an individual, determining how fast or how slow the effects of these hazardous materials cause serious damage to the afflicted person.

The above prime cause of body disorders make it very clear that the only effective solution for such afflictions is to ensure the quick and regular removal of these wastes from the body before they cause irreparable damage to the entire body system by activating the germs, bacteria and viruses that live in a dormant state in the body. Modern science and conventional medicine may refuse to accept the basic fact that the human body contains an elaborate but highly complex healing mechanism of its own and this healing mechanism has the power to restore normal health condition in the human body system. This aspect and other issues related to naturopathy will be discussed in detail in our next article, Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part IV.

This article is the fourth in the series of Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part I, Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part II and Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part IIII. As we mentioned at the end of Part III, conventional medicine and modern science do not accept the basic self-healing mechanism of the human body and its power in healing all physical afflictions to restore normal health. What is required is the employment of the right methods to allow the body to use its powerful healing mechanism to return to normalcy on its own, with complete avoidance of unnecessary or highly harmful external interventions, especially strong medications or use them very sparingly and with great care.

The major problem with the modern system of medicine lies in its basic approach of diagnosing symptoms of diseases and treating the symptoms without ascertaining the real causes of the diseases, which invariably suppresses the underlying causes of the diseases temporarily. Most modern drugs, antibiotics and medications only result in hindering, slowing down or totally negating the self-healing mechanism of the human body. This not only makes recovery from the diseases much more difficult, but many of the drugs are themselves toxic to the human body, resulting in harmful side effects. To solve this problem, even more potent drugs are administered by modern medicine, thus building a huge pyramid of wrong treatment. The body slowly deteriorates and withers away under the effect of these drugs.

Further, it has been already proven beyond any doubt that most germs, bacteria and viruses have become completely immune to several generations of medications and their power of immunity keeps growing with the invention and administration of new and even more powerful generations of medications that cause still greater harm instead of solving the basic problems. In fact, a renowned physician and surgeon, Sir William Osler, commented that a patient is forced to recover twice when administered with modern drugs. According to him, the patient has to recover first from the disease itself and again from the effects of the drugs prescribed as a cure for the disease.

Drugs and physicians do not cure diseases as Hippocrates emphatically pointed out. They only change the patterns of the diseases. Further, modern drugs also lead to dietary deficiencies due to their power to destroy essential nutrients, use them up quickly and prevent their slow but steady absorption into the body system. Additionally, they produce toxicity inside the body when the body is in a least condition of coping with such toxicity. Restoration of health to normalcy is possible only by nature and natural methods and not by drugs. Another major distinction exists between modern medicine and nature cure. The former treats each type of disease as an individual or a separate entity, immediately assuming that specific drugs will cure that disease.

On the other hand, nature cure considers the body as a complete and comprehensive system and strives to restore harmony in each and every part of the human body system, dealing with the body of the patient as a whole, instead of treating the body in separate parts. This approach is logical because it should be apparent by now that each part of the body is closely interlinked with every other part. Naturally, diseases cannot be treated and cured completely if only one or two parts are tackled with, having no consideration or thought for the other interlinked or interrelated parts of the body.

Further, nature cure not only treats ailments or disorders after they set in but lays very high emphasis on prevention of the diseases before they set in. Naturopathy offers measures that all human beings can adapt easily by changing their lifestyles and habits by tuning them to nature. Can there be any other easier way or method to attain a good health, maintain it and avoid diseases? Thus, this Nature Cure or Naturopathy – An Introduction to Principles and Practices – Part IV and the three previous parts in this series of articles should make it clear that nature cure or naturopathy is far superior to any other medical system. If you have any doubts, questions, clarifications or even suggestions on these four parts of nature cure presented by us, you are most welcome to contact us and we will respond immediately. Our subsequent articles will focus the various methods that nature cure adopts and explain each one in as much detail as possible.