Naturopathic Medicine is the field of study which focuses on the
body's own healing mechanisms. Western medicine has its place - miracles are
performed on a daily basis, saving lives and healing people with surgery and
drugs. Traditional western medicine concentrates on eliminating symptoms. When
the symptom is life threatening, western medicine is to be seriously considered.
Emergency room medicine is a fine example. There is also a place for the
naturopathic method.
Benefits
- Naturopathy focuses on the root cause of the illness rather than on
symptoms.
- Removal of the root cause does eliminate the symptoms and removing the
root cause generally prevents reoccurrence of the illness.
- The side effects of supporting the natural healing mechanisms are
generally better health, as opposed to the side effects of medications,
which generally are designed to interfere with some process in the body and
usually have undesirable side effects.
- It makes sense. Have you ever known anyone who smokes and uses an inhaler
for respiratory illness, such as asthma? Does that make sense? We can
support a gradual migration toward healthier choices and live healthier
lives!
Some Difficulties
- Naturopathy often requires a lifestyle change. Root causes, for
example, of excessive stress, too little exercise and poor diet can not be
effectively and permanently eliminated by eating herbs or pills.
- Prevention is difficult to prove. It is not impossible but is certainly
more difficult to show effectiveness in controlled studies.
- Natural methods of healing generally take time. Your body replaces all of
its cells in about five years. The stomach lining is replaced every three
days while some bone and cartilage structures take years to rebuild.
Sometimes symptomatic treatment is also required.
- When the body is trying to rid itself of a poison through diarrhea, for
example, it can be very uncomfortable. Suppression of the diarrhea can trap
the toxicity in the body. It is desirable to allow the body to rid itself of
the poison. One must support healing with hydration and electrolytes rather
than medication to stop diarrhea. One must also know when the symptoms
become dangerous and have traditional western methods at hand for cases such
as dehydration from diarrhea or fevers that are too high or that last too
long.
The fourth leading cause of death in America is from the well intentioned
efforts to recover health through the use of prescription drugs (the first three
are cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes). According to the American Medical
Association, over 200,000 people in America die from "adverse
reactions" to "properly prescribed" drugs. Another 80,000 die
from medical errors (malpractice). [Two and a half times more people die from
the adverse reactions than from medical errors!] To put this into perspective, 41,000 die in
automobile accidents. This is according to a pharmacy industry magazine: Drug
Topics, October 23, 1995 pages 14-16.
|