NATUROPATHY

Help Yourself to Better Health

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the
human frame, in proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”  Thomas A. Edison

You may be one of many people who have health problems and don’t know where to go for help.
Problems such as pain, tiredness, hormonal imbalance including menstrual difficulties, skin complaints and bowel problems are common.
You may not wish to take drugs, and would like to try natural methods, but don’t know where to start.
You may wish to obtain extra support for your efforts to heal yourself, even if you are currently following a conventional tretment programme.
You may be well and would like to know how to stay well or even improve your health or would like to know where to find information on how to live a healthy lifestyle.

This is a guide to Natural Health Care or Naturopathy. It is designed to give you a better understanding of how you can help yourself to better health.

Only Nature Heals
Back To Basics
Things You Should Know About Your Body
History Of Naturopathy
How Is Naturopathy Different From Orthodox Medicine?
What Can Naturopaths Help?
What Can You Expect When You Consult A Naturopath
Philosophy(further Information)
Education
How Are Naturopaths Trained?
The General Council & Register of Naturopaths (GCRN)
 

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Only Nature Heals

Each of us has the ability to heal ourselves
We all know that if we cut our finger the body instantly starts to get to work on the damage and within a few days healing has taken place. We take this for granted. But actually this is amazing, and the same process goes on inside the body. Throughout our whole lives this innate healing or self-correcting ability is striving to put things right. Why then do we get illness or disease? If we neglect to look after the needs of our body its ability to heal itself is impaired. Just as we need to look after our cars so that they don’t break down, the same is true for us. But how many of us take as much care about which fuel we put in ourselves as we do about which fuel we put in our cars!

What happens when something goes wrong?
Many of us suffer from complaints that are not regarded as serious but have a big impact on our lives. We have skin rashes, or bowel complaints, we get PMS, or we may feel tired a lot of the time, but isn’t this normal, doesn’t everyone? The answer is no. The human body is designed to work efficiently without these minor ailments. Actually these ailments are trying to tell you something, trying to tell you that something is out of balance.
How do you discover what the problem is?
There are only three places to look:
Your body chemistry
Your body structure
Your mental or emotional self
What you eat and how you eat affects your body’s make up or bio-chemistry. You may have heard the saying ‘you are what you eat”. And this is very true. A builder goes to a builders’ merchant for the raw materials to build a house; our bodies rely on you putting the right raw materials in at the top end in order to build a healthy body! Not only what we eat but how we eat is important. For example, if we eat when we are angry or stressed the food goes through our systems much more quickly, not giving us much time to absorb all the nutrients.
Our bodies struggle to function properly if we become out of balance structurally. For example, if we don’t use our upper backs and chest properly because we are slumped over a desk most of the day we can develop lung problems such as asthma.
Our thoughts and emotions also affect our health. For example, if we get up tight about an exam or a job interview we may feel our abdomen go into a knot, this tightness will affect how well we are able to digest our food. We may get diarrhoea. If you are constantly under stress you may be prone to diarrhoea or loose bowel motions more of the time.
These three areas, body chemistry, structure and mind/emotions are not separate. As you can see from the above examples they all affect each other. The amazing part is that when you bring these areas back into balance the symptoms simply disappear. Symptoms are only an outward expression of an inner imbalance.

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Back To Basics

The human body has taken millions of years to evolve to what it is today.  It has come to expect certain foods for its fuel, a certain amount of sunlight and fresh air, and a certain amount of exercise and relaxation. We are healthiest when we are living as close to these expectations as possible. Sometimes our modern life means that it is not possible to live as our bodies would like and we need extra help to support our lifestyle. However, there is no substitute for getting the basic things right.

Optimal Nutrition.
Just like a high performance car, we function at our best when we put the right fuel in our ‘engine’. During the time we were evolving there was only one fuel available, the natural kind. Our early ancestors ate what was around them. Of course these foods didn’t have any pesticides or other chemicals sprayed on them. Modern foods sprayed with synthetic chemicals seem totally foreign to the body. We can get close to eating the correct “fuel” by eating the types of foods our ancestors did. This would be organically produced fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains. Fish from clean waters and organically reared meat. Food that has been processed, however, and which may contain many artificial chemicals such as colourings and flavourings should be avoided.

Naturopaths have been helping people to better health for over 100 years.
You may feel that this all sounds too simple! I have some good news. Good health is, for the majority of people, quite simply achieved. Naturopaths can help you work out whether there are any problems with your diet and physical structure, and will help you find any emotional blocks to your gaining better health, or even what I like to call pHenomenal Health.

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Things you should know about your body.

Symptoms are our friends

Symptoms are signposts; they are trying to tell us that something is wrong. Symptoms of acute illness are particularly important, for example, fever, sweating, mucus, swelling, diarrhoea and coughing. These are the result of your bodies healing efforts to try and correct whatever is wrong. For example, if you have an infection your body may produce a high temperature. This can be a good thing; it can help to kill the infection and speed up the ability of the body to deal with the foreign invaders.
When we take medicines and remedies that bring down this fever, our bodies may be less able to deal with the infection. So it may last much longer than it should do. Continually suppressing the bodies healing mechanism can lead eventually to other problems such as skin complaints or chest problems. So it is important to understand the body has a healing mechanism and what the symptoms are trying to tell us.

Everybody is different.

You may have heard the expression “one man’s food is another man’s poison”. This is true. Whilst there is a basic diet which all humans ideally need as fuel. Individuals may require slight changes to this basic guideline. For example, some people may aggravate an inflammatory problem by eating certain foods. Our genes are unique to us. This may mean that we are more likely to develop certain problems. Whatever your parents and grandparents suffered from is more likely to affect you. So some people may need to eat more of some types of food, or do more of certain types of exercise.

Getting rid of toxins.

It is vital that the body is able to successfully eliminate any toxins or pollutants that it takes in from the environment or those that are produced by the body’s own processes. There are five organs of elimination - the bowels and kidneys, the liver, lungs and skin. It is not good enough to simply put in the right nutrients at the top end if the system is already overloaded with toxins. There are simple measures that can get the body’s eliminative organs functioning better.

The final straw that breaks the camel’s back

By the time you get symptoms there have already been a number of factors contributing to the problem of which we have probably been totally unaware. When we are born it is as though we are an empty glass; slowly we add liquid here, another incident may add liquid there, until in the end one last measure of liquid and the glass spills over; this is when we see the symptoms appear. What we don’t see is all the dribs and drabs of liquid that have slowly filled the glass up in the first place.
By the same token, removing the symptoms, or the reduction of the liquid level in the glass, does not indicate a return to health. Illness is often caused when a combination of things is added together. For example, we may be born with a genetic tendency to develop asthma; we then may not be breast fed and may be given cows’ milk in formula milk; then we may undergo a period of stress if our parents divorce; finally we develop the symptoms of asthma when we move to a polluted part of the city. This is known as the Load Phenomenon and it means that no illness has one cause but is created by a multitude of events coming together until that ‘final straw that breaks the camel’s back”.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

If you took two legs, two arms, a body and a head and put them together you wouldn’t have a human being’ A human being is more than just a collection of pieces added together. We are whole. What this means is that a problem in one part of the body causes problems in another part of the body. For example, constipation can lead to headaches; irritation of the bowel can lead to allergies affecting the nose and lungs. There can often be a knock-on or domino effect, leading to more and more problems. So often a specialist in one area can miss the bigger picture of what is happening with the whole person

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The History Of Naturopathy

The Nature Cure Movement began in Europe, early in the nineteenth century. Vincent Priessnitz, born in 1799 in Grafenburg, Silesia, a farmer's son, noted for his intelligence and excellent powers of observation, became interested in the behaviour of sick animals. He found that in the main these animals did not eat during their sickness and tried to get to streams and rivers to bathe in the running water. Some time later, Priessnitz was injured in an accident, suffering a leg injury that proved unresponsive to medical treatment. Remembering how sick animals behaved in similar circumstances, he evolved a method of water treatment that in time returned his leg to normal use. He subsequently gained a reputation as a healer by water and he gradually built an establishment which could deal with one thousand patients at a time. This was the beginning of hydrotherapy, which later spread all over the world. A Bavarian monk, Father Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897) popularized hydrotherapy in the Austro-German area, and wrote one of the best known books on the subject, 'My Water-Cure'.

A contemporary of Priessnitz's, Johann Schroth, was the first modern naturopath to employ clinical nutrition, or the use of diet as a therapy. His treatment, the Schrothkur, or dry diet, is still much used in central Europe. He has been followed ever since by a great many who prescribed nutrition, food rotation, wholefood diets, dietary support or restrictions as part of naturopathic treatment. A number of practitioners trained by Priessnitz, Kneipp and Schroth made their way to America, and were soon involved in the fledgling naturopathic movement there. Pioneers such as John Harvey Kellogg, who together with his brother had developed the well known corn flakes for his patients at Battle Creek Sanitarium during the 1880s, set up a laboratory there less than a decade later to study the clinical application of hydrotherapy. This was to lead in 1902 to the publication of his 'Rational Hydrotherapy', which became the first, very exhaustive, scientific treatise of hydrotherapy. Others such as Isaac Jennings (1788-1874) and Sylvester Graham (1794-1851), Adolph Just (1853-1939) and Louis Kuhne (1823-1907), were all placing very great emphasis on what is now accepted as healthy dietary modification.

Also worth mentioning was the famous American naturopath Bernarr McFadden who was the founder of the modern physical culture school of health and healing, which he nicknamed 'physcultopathy'. He compiled the superbly executed and well illustrated 'Encyclopaedia of Health' in eight volumes (3846 pages) which he published in New York in 1937. This naturopathic school of healing gave birth across the world to gymnasiums at which exercise programs, designed to allow the individual man or woman to achieve and maintain the most perfect state of health and peak physical and resultant mental condition. It was also the initial trigger for the proliferation of today's outdoor trim parks and routine exercises like hiking, jogging, swimming and cycling.

Perhaps the man who has made the largest contribution to putting Nature Cure on a modem comprehensive and scientific basis was Dr H Lindlahr, who propounded the theory that “every acute disease is a healing effort of Nature”. Lindlahr did great work in coordinating all the different aspects of naturopathic treatments into one exact and complete science. He founded the Lindlahr Sanitorium in Chicago and wrote extensively. Two of his works were ‘The Philosophy of Nature Cure’ and ‘The Practice of Nature Cure’.

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How Is Naturopathy Different From Orthodox Medicine?

The biggest difference between Naturopathy and modern medicine is that pharmaceutical drugs often suppress symptoms and therefore suppress the body’s own healing response. Naturopathic methods always seek to work with the body’s own healing efforts.
For example, a skin inflammation for which you might get steroids from your doctor to make the inflammation go away (suppression) would be treated by a Naturopath as an outer sign of inner imbalance. The treatment may even mean that initially the inflammation gets a little worse as the body is given all the necessary tools to finally resolve the problem.
Connections are made between different parts of the body, because the Naturopath treats the whole person. The Naturopath will recognize for example, that your bowel problem could be related to your sinus problem and they might both be related to the stress you are under at work. This is the holistic approach. Treating the whole person is what naturopaths are concerned with. 
Naturopathic treatment is always aimed at addressing the underlying causes of disease, so in a person with a recurrent infection the underlying causes may include, for example, lack of certain nutrients and/or being stressed about a relationship problem. These causes would be tackled. Obviously if the current infection was acute or painful then symptomatic treatment would also be administered but in a way that minimises the suppression of the body’s natural ability to heal itself.
Treatment must never cause harm or the appearance of side effects. Drugs may help certain symptoms, but because they don’t work with the body they often cause other side effects’ to occur. Naturopathic treatment sometimes causes the body to react such as increased catarrh, increased bowel motions and so on but these are desired effects of the treatment not unwanted ‘side-effects’. They do the body good because they assist in the cleaning process.
Naturopathy is preventative, whereas people normally only go to their doctor when they are unwell. Naturopathy promotes good health by eating well and by adopting a healthy lifestyle. Orthodox medicine is now beginning to understand more about diet and nutrition and lifestyle factors in preventing disease, but often doctors still, for the most part, don’t have enough time to go into the detail that the Naturopath can.
Above all, Naturopaths are teachers. They wish to educate people about how to take control of their own health. Most conventionally trained doctors again do not have time to teach, so other health care workers have to take on health education. Naturopaths regard themselves as being in partnership with their patients.

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What Can Naturopaths Help?

Any one can consult a Naturopath. The only thing you need when you consult a Naturopath is the belief that your body is trying to get you better and that with a little guidance you can help yourself to better health.
In particular chronic conditions (problems that have been around for weeks, months or years) respond well to Naturopathic therapies, these include digestive and bowel problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, skin complaints, hormonal problems, arthritis and stress problems. Often Naturopathy can help with acute conditions (problems that have only been there for a few hours or days) such as infections, swellings and pain.

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What can you expect when you consult a Naturopath.

The diagnosis you may have been given already is taken into account, but is often only a label. The first visit is aimed at developing a thorough understanding of your problem. You will be asked detailed questions about your general health and past medical history. This will follow a detailed Health Appraisal Questionairre which you will have been sent prior to your appointment. Further tests such as VegaCheck and Saliva and Urine analysis will be explained to you on this first visit  All this information helps the me piece together what may be contributing to the imbalance.

What Naturopathic Treatment may involve.

ASSESSMENT
Principles
The Naturopath aims to identify the causative factors which are creating functional disturbance. This would include evidence of both sub-clinical disease and any gross pathology. In order to make an assessment it is necessary to recognise that

• Underlying causes of dysfunction should be identified where possible.
• Structural, biochemical and mental/emotional factors may all contribute to the patient’s condition.
• The individual genetic make-up of the patient, the inherited miasmata and the environment are predisposing factors in the expression of disease and will contribute to the individual’s experience of that disease.
• There is often multifarious causation. A diverse range of factors may play a role in disease processes There is usually a cumulative effect of predisposing factors and a final excitatory or trigger factor.

Practice
Naturopathic assessment may include the following elements;

• Case history taking
• Analysis of lifestyle and environment
• Clinical examination
• Clinical tests
• Laboratory testing and subtle energy diagnostic methods (e.g. VegaCheck)

My aim is to understand what your symptoms are trying to express about the underlying imbalance of the body. Naturopaths always work to the principle of ‘first do no harm’, so that they only give advice and use treatments which are not harmful. They only use methods that support the body’s own innate healing power or self-correcting mechanisms. Naturopaths always involve the patient in their own health and recovery and give them as much information and guidance as they can, to help the patient understand how they came to be unwell and how to get better again.

My first step is to guide you on how you can adapt your lifestyle and diet to be more conducive to health. But I also employ certain treatment modalities. Unlike other healthcare practitioners Naturopaths do not employ one specific modality. Doctors for example use medications, Homeopaths use homeopathy, Herbal medicine practitioners use herbs and Osteopaths use manipulation.
Naturopaths use many different modalities with the one proviso, that they are used in a way which works with the body’s own healing efforts.
Whilst the principles of Naturopathy are really common sense applied to health, the Naturopath is qualified to use sophisticated treatments to encourage the body to return to health if it is appropriate.

The treatments which may be used include:

• Natural nutrition and diet advice
• Nutritional supplementation
• Packs and wraps, such as a cold pack for a sore throat.
• Osteopathy or other manipulative techniques
• Massage
• Natural remedies such as herbal & complex homeopathy remedies and flower essences.

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Philosophy (further information)

What Is A Naturopath?
A Naturopath is a person who applies treatment modalities based on the principles of Naturopathic
Medicine.

What is Naturopathic Medicine?
Naturopathic Medicine is the system of primary health care which works with the individual’s efforts towards the optimal expression of physiological, physical, and psychological (mental/emotional) health.
Naturopathy is an approach to health care which aims to promote, restore and maintain health. The following principles underpin the practise of Naturopathy:

• The Healing Power of Nature or Vis Medicatrix Naturae: There is a ‘vital force’ or ‘life force’ which drives the self-healing or self-correcting mechanisms of the body.
• The Triad of Health, which describes the connection and interaction between the structural, biochemical and mental/emotional components of all living beings. Dysfunction in one area invariably leads to disruption elsewhere.
• The Uniqueness of the Individual: People are genetically, biochemically, structurally and emotionally different from one another. Each person responds in a unique way to influences whether they are mental/emotional, structural, nutritional, social or cultural.
  
  Naturopaths also recognise that:
• Health is more than the absence of disease. It is dependent upon a multitude of factors and is a reflection of a harmonious interaction with our environment.
• Acute disease processes are different from chronic processes. The acute response is the body’s attempt to restore health often through enhanced processes of elimination. Suppression of such healing processes contributes to the potential for chronic breakdown.
• Disease processes involve activation of the body’s homeostatic mechanisms. Health is homeostasis - a dynamic equilibrium.
• The individual requires suitable foods for nourishment, clean water, fresh air and sunlight, as well as appropriate exercise, rest and relaxation.
• Prevention is preferable to cure.
  
  The defining elements of Naturopathic practise are that Naturopaths:
• Work with the body’s own self-correcting mechanisms or efforts to maintain homeostasis.
• Endeavour to address all aspects of the Triad of Health.
• Regard education and co-operation of the patient as highly as treatment of the patient.
• Address lifestyle factors which are contributing to the problem and re-educate the patient into a lifestyle more conducive to health.
• Aim to establish health on a cellular level by improving circulation and innervation, nutrition, detoxification and elimination.
   

Naturopathic Treatment

Principles
The Naturopath always seeks to:

• Do no harm.
• Employ methods which work with the body’s healing power and self-correcting mechanisms and avoid treatments which may work against these mechanisms and which suppress acute diseases.
• Deal with underlying causes of dysfunction where possible.
• Reduce the burden of load. It may not always be possible to identify the underlying causes of the problem, but often a number of contributory factors can be identified. It is preferable to reduce the overall burden on the body using established naturopathic means.
• Sometimes it may be necessary to use short term measures which assist in the removal of symptoms for the comfort or safety of the individual, however it is important to also employ long-term health restoration measures.
• Attempt to address all aspects of the Naturopathic Triad of Health.
• Employ simple treatments before more complex, where possible.
• Support patients’ efforts in gaining and maintaining control of their own health.

Practice
Because Naturopathy is above all an approach to health care, there are many treatment modalities which can be employed. However, they are always applied in a way which works with the body's own healing efforts and are used in accordance with the principles of treatment previously specified. Treatments may primarily be concerned with the biochemical, structural or mental/emotional depending upon the nature of the problem.

The core naturopathic modalities are:

• Clinical dietetics and applied nutrition.
• Detoxification techniques.
• Hydrotherapy.
• Physical Therapy. Examples include osteopathy/chiropractic (by an appropriately registered practitioner), naturopathic physical manipulation, manual lymphatic drainage, massage and other soft tissue techniques e.g. neuromuscular technique.
• Psychotherapeutic techniques.
• Electrotherapy.
• Offering advice regarding a healthy lifestyle.
• Many other therapies may be employed as part of naturopathic practice (where the practitioner has gained a suitable additional qualification), such as Medical Herbalism.

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Education

An integral part of naturopathic treatment includes being able to educate the patient in all elements of healthy living.

PRINCIPLES
The Naturopath should:
Recognise the level of knowledge and acceptance of an individual and assist them in gaining insight into their health.
Lead by example. Naturopaths must make efforts to follow a lifestyle which is complementary to these guidelines.
Recognise that the individual plays an essential part in their own health restoration.
Guide their patients into accepting more responsibility for their own health.
Stimulate a healthy independence from, rather than dependence on, the practitioner.

PRACTICE
The Naturopath should be able to offer well informed advice in the following areas;
The Naturopathic principles of health and disease, how the patient became unwell, what is keeping them unwell, how they can get well and how they can stay well.
Diet and nutrition, including nutritional supplementation.
Detoxification including fasting and elimination.
Physical exercise.
Management of acute diseases/healing crises.
Hydrotherapy and phytotherapy for home use.
Breathing and breathing exercises.
Relaxation and stress management.
Natural fertility awareness.
Preconceptual care, pregnancy and natural childbirth. (It is acknowledged that delivery of the infant is restricted to those who are registered to practice as midwives or medical doctors. Referral should therefore be made to a suitable midwife).

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How Are Naturopaths Trained?

Naturopaths undergo an intensive training. They study the same basic medical sciences as doctors including anatomy, physiology, pathology and pharmacology. In addition they study, nutrition, clinical dietetics, detoxification techniques and hydrotherapy (the therapeutic effects of water). They study the physical structure of the body and the influence of the emotions on health and disease. They of course study the principles of Naturopathic Medicine. Many Naturopaths have also undertaken post-graduate courses in other treatment areas such as Herbal medicine or Acupuncture.

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The General Council & Register of Naturopaths (GCRN)

What is the GCRN?

The GCRN was officially incorporated in 1965 as an independent registering body, but can trace its roots back to 1925 and the formation of the Nature Cure Society of Great Britain

Aims

• to establish and maintain standards of education for practitioners and to provide for the inspection of colleges and courses of naturopathy for the protection and benefit of the public;
• to keep a register of persons qualified to practise naturopathy in conformity with the standards of the Register;
• to supervise the ethical behaviour and professional conduct of the practitioners registered by us;
• to encourage the development of naturopathy on the lines of sound knowledge and practice and to improve the educational standards of our members by encouraging continuing post-graduate education; and
• to provide for and promote education, investigation and research into the science and art of naturopathy and to disseminate the results of such research.

• Use the website at www.naturopathy.org.uk
  The General Council and Register of Naturopaths (GCRN)
  Goswell House,
  2 Goswell Road,
  Street,
  BA16 OJG

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