Naturopathy Is A Viable Alternative

By: Josh Blodgett

Posted: 9/26/07

In every human culture, there are medical beliefs that have been established in order to provide the basis for explaining and responding to illness. Throughout recorded history, illness has been attributed to sorcery, demonic possession and even the will of gods. In the past 200 years, scientific advances in medicine have served to alter or replace most outmoded health practices. However, not all advances have proven to be for the betterment of humankind.

The approach of conventional, or allopathic, medicine is to address symptoms. Symptoms are in turn treated with medications that have the potential for adverse side effects. In extreme cases, conventional medicine has even used invasive surgery where natural approaches could have avoided patients going under the knife. Furthermore, conventional medicine perceives patients as masses of cells and chemical reactions. Physicians have been taught to avoid becoming emotionally involved with their patients for doing so would detract from their ability to diagnose and treat properly. On the other hand, alternative or naturopathic medicine, which acknowledges patients as a combination of body, mind, and spirit, is founded in the belief that living things have an innate ability to heal themselves. To cure an illness physicians must target the cause rather than the symptoms.

Naturopathic medicine is an integrated system of primary health care consisting of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human disorders through the use of natural methods and resources including, but not limited to, herbal remedies or ancient practices such as acupuncture. Patients are treated holistically. This means taking into consideration the individual's biochemistry, biomechanics and emotional predispositions - an approach which empowers the individual to be accountable for the level of health they experience. Our body promotes self-cleansing and self-repair. By focusing on balancing the immune, hormonal, nervous and detoxification systems of the body, restored health can be achieved. The body's ability to heal itself can be better understood if one recognizes that homeostasis is necessary for any system to experience optimum health.

Not only does naturopathic medicine offer safe treatment, but it also offers cost effective treatment for many of today's illnesses. Naturopathic treatments originated as the use of herbs and foods for medicine, exposure to fresh air, sunlight and hydrotherapy. These techniques and methods have long been respected throughout the world. While modern allopathic medicine is less than 200 years old, natural medicine has been the primary medicine used by most of the human community even into the 21st century.

There is no definitive record of when human beings first discovered the healing properties of certain plant species, though it is suspected from depictions in radiocarbon dated cave paintings found in Lascaux, France that the use of plant extracts for medicinal purposes originated between an estimated 13,000 and 25,000 years ago. Following humanity's divergence from hunter-gatherer life to early agrarian societies, much of the modern world slowly abandoned herbal remedies and diverse healthy diets that had proved to be successful for thousands of years.

Most illnesses are the direct result of poor dietary and environmental conditions. In a 2004 study published in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, researchers found an estimated one-third of the American diet consisted of foods that were high in sugar and sodium such as soft drinks, sweets, alcoholic beverages and salty snacks. It is no wonder that obesity, heart disease and cancer are the top three causes of death in America today. It is disheartening when conditions such as these can be easily averted by simply changing what we choose to eat, exercising daily and being mindful of the environmental elements we allow ourselves to be exposed to yet so many people continue to eat poorly, avoid exercis and pollute their bodies with alcohol and tobacco.

Western culture has long been opposed to Eastern traditions, especially in the field of medicine. This is beginning to change. Despite opposition from proponents of conventional medicine, herbal and traditional medical arts remain the primary medical choice of over 65 percent of humanity. As the baby boomer generation continues to grow older, many of these people are seeking out new avenues to increase their vitality and protect their bodies that do not incorporate the use of heavy medication that has potentially harmful side effects. By and large, it is the younger generations who must reflect upon their lifestyles and make healthier decisions.

Staff Columnist Josh Blodgett is a 5th-semester English and business double major. He can be reached at Joshua.Blodgett@UConn.edu.