Restoring health with naturopathy

The body's natural state - the 'vital force' - seeks to achieve a state of equilibrium (homeostasis) in which all systems function in harmony. It can be weakened by an unhealthy lifestyle - poor diet, stress, environmental pollution, lack of fresh air, sleep and exercise - that disturbs organ function, especially digestion and excretion, and allows waste products to build up and viruses, bacteria and allergens to take hold.

Holistic approach
Rather than knock out a disease with drugs, naturopathy practitioners try to identify the underlying cause of symptoms. They use a range of natural treatments, such as a wholefood diet, medicinal herbs, yoga, osteopathy, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, massage and acupuncture to stimulate self-healing processes, improve circulation and digestion, increase elimination of waste products and enhance immunity and emotional well-being.

Symptoms such as fever are signs that the body is calling on its self-healing powers. As long as the situation is not life threatening, naturopaths believe these should be left alone to get on with the job. Suppressing symptoms may allow disorders to go 'underground,' become chronic and degenerate further.

Naturopathy is the western version of other holistic nature-based medical systems that rely on herbal remedies and diet management, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda. Hippocrates, the 'father of medicine' laid the guidelines for naturopathy 2,500 years ago. Health, he said, can be maintained by the correct balance of rest, exercise and plain food, and cures should be as natural as possible.

Natural medicine
Naturopathy, also known as 'natural medicine,' grew out of the 'nature cure' practised in 19th century Austrian and German health spas that emphasised hydrotherapy, fresh air, sunlight and exercise. Benedict Lust, a German follower of Father Sebastian Kniepp, a Bavarian monk who introduced health farms as we know them, took these ideas to America in the 1890s where they quickly became popular. Dr John Scheel of New York coined the term 'naturopathy' in 1895 and John Kellogg of breakfast cereal fame used natural therapies in his Michigan sanatorium at the end of the 19th century.

Advances in medical science and pharmaceuticals overshadowed naturopathic ideas until the 1960s when interest revived. In some US states, naturopaths are recognised as family practitioners and Germany has several thousand licensed naturopaths, or Heilpraktiker (health practitioners).