Get your own Free Home PageNATURAL MEDICINE
By Andre Y. Popen © 1996
Many people understand Natural medicine as therapeutic techniques that are alternative to using chemical drugs or surgery. They think that herbs, nutrition, homeopathy, massage and many other techniques are natural because they belong to Nature. However, traditional (Allopathic) medicine uses some of them (especially in Europe) and it does not make this medicine Natural. One hundred years ago allopathic physicians did not have synthetic drugs, antibiotics, or hormones. They used herbs, minerals, hydrotherapy. On the other hand, homeopathy, which is true system of natural medicine, uses remedies made not only from natural sources, but also from toxic chemicals, synthetic drugs, hormones. There are many practitioners, calling themselves "Herbalist", "Homeopath", "Nutritionist", "Naturopath" and others, who use natural remedies allopathicly. That practice has nothing to do with Natural medicine. The difference between Allopathic medicine and Natural medicine is not in the source of products that they use, but in their approach.
The world allopathy is derived from the Greek roots "allo" - "other" and "pathos" - "suffering". Allopathic approach is merely palliative, rather than curative. It deals with suppressing patient's unpleasant symptoms.
Natural medicine understands that the symptoms of disease are not negative conditions, which should be combated and suppressed, but efforts of the body's self-defense mechanism to restore the impaired health. The approach of Natural medicine is supporting this effort of Nature to cure us.
Every medical system should have philosophy in the base, some theoretical understanding of health and disease. Without this base medical system is blind and dangerous.
As noted by George Vithoulkas "...the prevailing medical system has not explained the laws and principles governing health and disease. Such an explanation has not been forthcoming because it has in fact not been formulated, even within the medical profession itself. If we search back into medical history, we shall find volumes of empirical data and experimental results, but no general laws or principles to support them, or arising from them. It is not unfair to conclude that medicine is the only branch of science that has based its structure on opinions and suppositions rather than on laws and principles. Due to such a weakness in its conception, the prevailing medical system fails either to persuade the populace as to its efficacy or to provide satisfactory and continuous therapeutic results, especially in the face of one of the most frustrating and rapidly increasing crisises facing medicine today: chronic disease". (1)
Because of this blindness Allopathic medicine not only fails to cure people, it also violates one of the oldest medical laws: "Do not harm". As a result, today we have many new medicines induced health problems. For example, allergies and cancer are merely results of vaccination and other allopathic drug uses. (2) Cancer became epidemic because of tuberculosis suppression. (3) Use of hormones, especially estrogen (as a birth control pills and other forms) has a direct link to epidemic increase of cases of cervical dysplasia, miscarriage, various menstrual problems, undeveloped testicles, lower level of fertility, an again, cancer (they affect not only person who used hormones, but also children whose mother were on the Pill before they were conceived). (4)
In case of acute diseases, Allopathic medicines produce effects, that look like a cure. However, they only move the problem from the surface to deeper, more important levels of the organism. Even if the disease that has been treated with allopathic drug disappeared, the side effects from that drug is new, more serious disease.
Hahnemann and his colleagues observed in practice interactions between different disease states. In his "Oragon of medicine" Hahnemann described: "If two dissimilar diseases meeting together in the human being... and ...the new disease is stronger, the disease under which the patient originally labored will be kept back and suspended by the accession of the stronger one, until the latter will have run its course or being cured, and then the old one reappears uncured". (5)
Some fragments of Natural Law of Cure were formulated by different physicians since ancient times. However, only in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the complete laws and principles governing health and disease were formulated for the first time in the history of medicine. That work was done by German physician, Samuel Hahnemann (1755 - 1843). He became dissatisfied with the medical practices of his days and after many years of looking for alternative forms of treatment founded Homeopathy.
The world homeopathy is derived from the Greek roots "homeo" - "similar" and "pathos" - "suffering", a cure is selected which, in its crude form, would produce in a healthy body the same symptoms found in a sick person suffering from the specific disease. Homeopathy uses these crude substances highly diluted and purified, so they are absolutely harmless. Homeopathic medicines stimulate defense mechanism of the organism energetically, without producing any biochemical changes.
Hahnemann developed homeopathy as a complete system of medicine and was destined to replace conventional medicine entirely. He proved his ideas in actual clinical experience. Apparently his ideas were too advanced and only few followers could understand them and continued the work after Hahnemann's death.
In the recent times, only after completing the research in quantum physics with nuclear magnetic resonance (which studies homeopathic remedies) the ideas of Hahnemann became understandable. (6)
What are the principles of Natural medicine? As noted earlier, the first difference between Allopathic and Natural medicines is in the understanding of causes and symptoms of disease.
The conventional medicine accepts Pasteur's concept, that bacteria, virus and other germs are primary cause of disease. Towards the end of Louis Pasteur's life, he confessed that his concept was not right. However, modern physicians close their eyes to this fact. They continue to hunt down new germs, and then develop toxic drugs to kill them.
Natural medicine understands that the cause of diseases is not simply germs but also the factors that comprise the person's immune and defense systems, including the person's hereditary endowment, his nutritional state, the stress in his life and his psychological state. Germs are a result of disease and curing the result can only change this result, but not the cause of disease.
An important principle of Natural medicine is to treat the whole person, not the symptom. Allopathic practitioners prescribe the drugs for illnesses such as cold, flu, heart disease, ulcers, depression, delirium, etc. Homeopaths assume that each person can have a wide variety of possible responses to external stress. And the disturbances do not manifest themselves only on the one level of existence of the organism. Homeopathy works with totality of the person's disturbances.
Another principle of Natural medicine is a rule about the direction of healing progress, formulated by Constantine Hering, student of Hahnemann. Hering's Laws of Cure stated: "Cure proceeds from above downward, from within outward, from the most important organs to least important organs, and in the reverse order of appearance of symptoms". (7) In other words, if cure is in progress, symptoms will appear at levels which are progressively of less crucial importance to the existence of the person.
Natural medicine determines hierarchy of importance in the construction of the human being. The four most basic levels are:
These levels are not separated from each other, but rather there is complete interaction between them. Hierarchy of importance exists also within each of these basic planes.
For example on the Physical plane, the least important level is the skin, then the muscular system, the skeletal system and so forth up to the most important level - the nervous system. We can live without legs, but not without brain.
Within the basic four levels, a person who lives continually with anxiety, sadness, or fear (Emotional plane) will eventually have degeneration on the physical level. A consciousness (Mental plane) is more important than emotional disturbance. Disturbances on the Causal plane affect the person's future incarnations and are more crucial than mental disturbances of the present life.
Let us see, as an example, how the Hering's law of cure works. A patient came to the physician with chronic bronchitis as the chief complaint. After taking a careful history at all levels, the physician found that the patient is also very irritable, has a fear of being alone, and fear of death. The physician prescribes a course of therapy, and on the second visit discovers that bronchitis has been ameliorated satisfactory. However, the patient now complains of the difficulty to concentrate on his work and increasing his symptoms of irritability and fear. The allopathic physician would state that treatment was successful since bronchitis has improved. The "new" psychological problems are not from his area of expertise and he would refer the patient to a psychiatrist.
A natural medicine physician would see that "cure" done in the wrong direction. The center of gravity of disturbance has moved to a more important plane - Emotional, and even the Mental plane now affected. During a real cure, emotional symptoms should disappear first, and while physical symptoms in the beginning of treatment may remain unchanged or even slightly worse, they should disappear next.
Another example is with a patient who came to a massage therapist with complaints of poor blood circulation in the lower extremities (cold legs). Definitely, massage of the legs can help to increase the blood circulation. However, what is the cause of this problem? Maybe the patient has weakness in some other more important organ - kidneys. His body's defense mechanism has to provide more blood for the kidneys. To accomplish this, the defense mechanism decreases blood flow out of the less important organ - legs. Massage returns the blood back to legs and now our patient will have problems with the kidneys.
A natural medicine practitioner should always be oriented on a cure of the totality of the patient, and not on the "quick fix".
Just like in the times of Hahnemann, most of medical professionals today do not recognize principles of natural medicine. The education of medical doctors is very limited. The pharmaceutical and fast food companies control education, research and publishing in a sphere of medicine and they do everything to protect their profits. (8) However, they can not keep the public in the dark about Natural medicine. During the past several years interest in Natural medicine has been increasing exponentially among medical studies. More and more open-minded medical physicians have begun to understand and use principles of Natural Law of Cure. In 1994 there were approximately 3,000 medical doctors and other health care providers that practice homeopathy in the United States, and the number continues to rise. (6)
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