There has always been a population of naturopath practitioners who use natural products for healing and maintaining great health and stamina. Now the practice of natural health is becoming more mainstream, especially with the rise of integrative physicians who understand the mind/body component of healing and maintaining good health.
Allopathic physicians (medical physicians) have always pushed prescription medications to alleviate a health problem rather than focus on the underlying reason for the problem. Natural practitioners, on the other hand, focus on the illness rather than just focusing on masking the symptoms with a short-term medication solution.
An illness symptom is the body saying that something is out of balance. All illness has an underlying reason. Only treating the symptom of the illness suppresses the illness and never gets down to treating the real cause. Medical doctors merely palliate symptoms; which by definition means they ease symptoms without curing the reason for the symptom.
Naturopathic physicians treat causes of disease. That is the basics for natural cures.
Natural Health
Listen to any commercial on television about a particular pharmaceutical and hear all the side effects of the medication. Listing the side effects generally take more time than telling about the benefits of the medication. And more medications are recalled every day.
There are really no illnesses that cannot be cured in a natural way. The human body is designed to heal itself. Homeopathic medicine is based on the principle that the body will fight off illness when that illness is introduced.
Disease is an indication that the body cells are not properly functioning, either due to stress, something put into it, trauma, or toxicity. Diet, laziness, bad habits, lack of sleep, even emotional problems all may result in “illness” when really it is the body responding to a violation of the laws of nature. Even a headache is an indication of some dis-ease in the body. Rarely will a person’s head ache for no reason.
People often refer to the practice of natural medicine as “holistic” medicine. Holistic means whole. Natural medicine focuses on the connection between mind, body, and spirit; the whole person. If the body knows how the illness started, it will also know how to heal itself. The mind’s powerful responses can hurt or heal. If the belief is that only allopathic medicines can heal, then the body will not respond to its natural curative processes.
Healing without the damaging side effects of pharmaceutical medications can only result in better health, both physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Using Natural Cures
Natural cures make sense. Grandma’s wisdom was based on generations of healing before the advent of modern medicines. Aspirin is made of the chemical from tree bark, which is why people chewed on tree bark to cure pain back in the olden days. If a baby has a fever, put onions in their socks and the fever will drain from their little bodies. It works. People have used the Aloe plant for cures for burns, scrapes, cuts for generations.
If toxins cause illness in the body, a first step is to de-tox the body. Not by using popular fad-methods, but by eating a diet high in fiber, drinking natural juices (without all the added sugars), and plenty of water. As the toxins leave the body sluggishness can occur. That is a good thing, and will disappear after a couple of days leaving a more vibrant, healthy feeling.
One thing a person should never do is rely on what cured someone else. Each body is different and has different needs. The best way for an individual to understand the underlying reasons and causes for any personal illness is to visit a naturopathic physician. They will spend a couple hours during the first visit finding out everything about the patient, from sleeping and eating habits to past medical complaints. Only then can the naturopathic physician understand any reasons for disease of the individual patient.