Regardless of which tools a naturopath chooses to employ – herbs, enzymes, homeopathics, nutrition, reflexology, hydrotherapy, healing touch, dry or live blood cell analysis, or exercise – naturopaths will adhere to five basic tenants of naturopathy.
1- The body is designed to be healthy. Human bodies have an amazing capacity to maintain health. We bombard our bodies daily with a could-be deadly combination of chemicals, poor nutrition, stressful lifestyles and infectious substances (think: bacteria, parasites and viruses). The miracle of biology then, is that we actually spend the majority of our lives healthy! Biologists talk about this drive to maintain health in terms of homeostasis. That is, the body will maintain vital statistics in an optimal range… and it is extremely adept at doing so. To name just a few of the items that the body tightly regulates: temperature, pH, electrolyte and mineral concentrations, blood volume, blood sugar concentration, cell division and death, hormone levels, and neurotransmitter release. It is safe to say that the body spends a good portion of its energy just trying to keep everything normal and healthy, in spite of what we’re offering or neglecting to offer to the cause.
2- Healing comes from within. Naturopaths place their faith in the awesome healing power of the human body. They have humbled themselves to the fact that people cannot heal, and substances do not heal. Rather, the body heals itself. Biologists understand this innate ability to heal and prevent disease and are actively studying the immune system, lymphatic system, tissue and wound repair, and DNA repair. The take-home message is that the body has many specialized systems in place to ward off illness, and to heal and repair. People and substances offer the resources to either promote or undermine these natural healing efforts.
3- Health or Disease depends on the terrain. Naturopaths believe that the difference between who gets ill and who doesn’t during flu season is a “soil and seed” issue. If we consider our bodies the soil and the disease a seed, then there are two possible factors determining health versus illness: whether the seed is strong enough to thrive, and whether the soil provides an adequate environment for the seed to survive. So according to this analogy, an extremely strong seed (a particularly potent bacteria, virus, etc) will thrive in almost any environment - even the healthiest person can expect to get ill. But more commonly, seeds are not extremely virulent, and only those bodies that are weak provide an adequate environment for the disease to thrive. A healthy person can expect their natural defense systems to handle the incoming threat before it can take hold. Therefore, exposure to a disease is not the only, or even the most important criteria. The health of the body and the strength of its immune system are more likely to determine whether an individual will suffer with an illness after exposure.
4- Treat the cause, not the symptoms. Naturopaths believe that we feel the way we do on the outside because of what is going on inside. Furthermore, symptoms are seen as the body’s natural defense mechanisms to promote healing. So stifling symptoms is equivalent to thwarting the body’s best efforts to heal itself. Let’s consider a runny nose. The body’s white blood cells attack invading bacteria, and create a wasteland of cellular debris. The trapped and degraded bacteria and battered immune cells are swept up into mucous and expelled through the nose in an attempt to clean house. Therefore, taking an over-the-counter medication intended to stop a runny nose forces the body to find a new way to clear out the system, potentially prolonging the illness. By treating the root cause of an illness, we assist the body in its attack instead of merely covering up the unsightly carnage. For example, rest, and increased vitamin and mineral availability are two easy ways that a naturopath may assist the body during a cold. One may even surmise that lack of rest and/or vitamin and mineral availability were the root causes of the cold – the conditions that created fertile soil for the viral seed.
5- Look to Nature. Many naturopaths take an almost spiritual approach to health and healing. There is an overwhelming belief that the Great Creator gave us everything we need to be healthy and prosper. This belief is seen in the intention of the name “naturopath” (although it is a terrible misnomer that literally means something like the disease of nature). Historically, and currently, naturopaths believe that nature heals. It follows then that many also believe urbanized lifestyles are contradictory to health. Regardless of their view of urban life, naturopaths will agree that the best resources to promote healing are found in nature – whether that be hydrotherapy, herbology, homeopathy, healing touch and massage, or nutrition. Naturopaths do not confine themselves to one health-promoting modality, rather they freely take from any modality that uses nature to bolster health or undermine disease.
For further reading on the philosophy and the basic principles of naturopathy:
Stewart Mitchell. A practical guide to naturopathy. London: Random House. 2001.
Henry Lindlahr, Jocelyn Proby,ed. Philosophy of natural therapeutics. London: Random House. 1975.
