Nature Cure or Naturopathy is a system of alternative medicine. Naturopathy emphasizes on the prevention, treatment and promotion of optimal health using therapeutic methods which encourage the body’s self-healing process.
Health
According to World Health Organization health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity.1
Determinants of Health
According to the World Health Organization, the main determinants of health include the social and economic environment, the physical environment, and the person’s individual characteristics and behaviour.2
Disease
A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury.3
Notions of health are highly- context dependent, as human diseases only exist in relation to people, and people live in varied cultural contexts.4
Unity of Disease and Unity of Cure
The concept of health as a balance between a person and the environment, the unity of soul and body, and the natural origin of disease, was the backbone of the perception of health in ancient Greece.5
1. Unity of Disease
Louis Kuhne discovered that there were many manifestations of disease but only one cause for all of them.
Unity of Disease means collection of causative agents of disease. Basically, there are two causes: primary cause and the secondary cause.
Primary cause of disease includes lowered vitality, abnormal composition of blood and lymph and accumulation of morbid matter, foreign matter.
Lowered vitality can be due to overwork, night work, bad habits, over-indulgence in some things, poisonous drugs, wrong thinking and feeling.
Abnormal composition of blood and lymph due to improper selection and combination of food.
Accumulation of waste material, morbid matter and poisons are caused by lowered vitality, faulty diet, over eating, use of drugs and by suppression of acute diseases.
Secondary cause of disease includes accidents, infections, nutrient deficiency, psychological and genetic disorders.
2. Unity of Cure
Kuhne also determined that, just as there was only one cause of disease, there was one cure for disease. Return to nature means people should follow the natural habits.
Violation of nature’s law should not be there. Proper sleep, proper diet, exercise, prayer should be inculcated in people’s lives.
Economy of vital force should be there means scientific relaxation, good mental attitude, right thinking and feeling should be practiced.
Proper elimination should be there. Elimination of toxins through fasting, enema, colon hydrotherapy and raw food.6
Naturopathy as a science
Naturopathy is very subjective in its own term. How modern medical system views disease and how naturopathic physician views is different.
Let us talk about Epidemiological Triad.
In epidemiological triad, there is a host, agent and the environment. The approach of most of the doctors to treat disease is only on two parameters, agent, and the host.
Naturopathy focusses on all the three parameters. As agent and host are given importance of environment should also be considered.
Gandhian Philosophy
Mahatma Gandhi was a strong proponent and staunch-believer of nature’s healing powers.
In his life he practiced the system of medicine called nature cure which promotes health through nature’s healing forces. Gandhi ji was influenced by Kuhne’s texts on nature cure and the book “Return to nature”.
Mahatma Gandhi naturopathy was rooted in indigenous philosophy and faith. Ramanama was “the number one” therapeutic for Gandhi ji.
Gandhian naturopathy along with being indigenous, it is also scientific, rational model capable of serving the needs of modern-day India.
Bapu ji believed that naturopathy would benefit the poor by enabling them to use elements of nature instead of spending money in hospitals, which he refers to as “Institutions for propagating sin”.
Religious
He believed that religious conduct conserved both the spirit and the body and people who practice spirituality means who pray to God, need never get ill.
Gandhi ji gave naturopathy a new theoretical framework. In Key to Health, he placed the therapeutics of nature-cure treatment into categories drawn from the system of pancha mahabhuta or the “five great elements” found in the Vedas.
Sprituality
Gandhi ji also placed emphasis on spiritual purity as a requirement of good health. He maintained that a body which contained a diseased mind would be perennially prone to disease.
It is crucial to note that Gandhi did not consider nature-cure a course of treatment, it was a way of life. The naturopath should teach a patient how to transform his life in a way that left no room for disease.
1946
In 1946, Gandhi wrote in Harijan that the naturopath’s interest would begin where the ordinary doctor’s ended, the eradication of the patient’s ailment under nature cure marked the beginning of a healthier life.7
Gandhi ji insisted on vegetarianism. He mentioned that man doesn’t have to kill to eat.
Vegetarian food is the healthiest, most economical, makes efficient use of land and fosters values of non-violence and humanitarianism.According to Gandhi, nature cure means a change for the better in one’s outlook on life itself.
“The man who accepts nature cure never begs. Self help enhances self – respect. He takes steps to cure himself by eliminating poisons from the system and takes precautions against falling ill in the future” {Harijan 2-6-1946 p-165}.
Final Thoughts
It is very crucial and essential for naturopaths to understand the Gandhian values in adopting Naturopathy as a viable and sustainable option to deal with health needs of the people.
Self – reliance {Swawalambana} is possible only when there is self – health reliance (Swasthawalambana) and nature cure provides self – health reliance by teaching ‘how to live healthy lives without medicines and doctors.8
References
- World Health Organization (2006), Constitution of the WHO- Basic Document, Forty- fifth edition, Supplement, October 2006.p ↩︎
- World Health Organization, The determinants of health, Geneva, Accessed 12 May 2011. ↩︎
- “Disease” at Dorland’s Medical Dictionary. ↩︎
- Book – Scientific Basis of Naturopathy ↩︎
- Book – Scientific Basis of Naturopathy ↩︎
- Book – Philosophy of Nature Cure ↩︎
- Gandhian Naturopathy: A Critical Appraisal – By Nivedita Tuli ↩︎
- Indian J Med Res 2019 Jan; 149(Suppl 1 ): S69- S71By Dr Komarraju Satyalakshmi ↩︎
Dr. Chitra Bhardwaj
BNYS
Medical Intern Doctor
Sant Hirdaram Nature Cure Hospital( Aarogya Kendra)
Bairagarh Bhopal
Related Reading | What is Nature cure?
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