In our previous articles we showed you how naturopathy works, its principles and some real life examples to show you how it is beneficial. Another factor is that Naturopathy claims to cure without medicine, wondering how? Let’s take a look at some examples.

The nature cure practitioner says that it is best explained with the help of the example of an automobile he says that if there is a scratch, it needs a coat of paint, yes. But a car is only an inanimate object; it doesn’t have the self-corrective mechanism of living beings. Our body is a living organism. We have all seen wounds heal by themselves; even broken bones get rejoined given time. Outside measures – whether of nature cure or ayurveda or allopathy – can aid in creating the right conditions where this healing can take place, of which the body is capable by itself, and self-corrective, homeostasis process can go on unhindered.

Nature cure practitioners rightly try to impress upon patients the need to take responsibility for one’s health. Blaming others (the family cook, McDonalds or cola companies) is not going to get you anywhere. Sadly, however, everywhere else, the tendency is to absolve the patient of all responsibility. Blame it on air pollution, contaminants in the food chain, on the sexual partner who gave you AIDS, and so on. If I don’t even accept my mistake, how am I going to take steps to mend my ways? Surely, if there is dust in your neighborhood, you need to sweep clean the area, but you should also develop enough immunity to keep asthma at bay?

Nature cure practitioners could seem to be obsessed with internal body hygiene but that is not without a reason. Take morning walks, which your friendly neighborhood doctor will promptly recommend these days. It is a good substitute for exercise but if you haven’t been to the toilet before your walk, it may be counterproductive. Did you know that yoga teachers have declared the shirshasana (the king of asanas) persona non-grata and why? Because, with the amount of toxins present in the average person’s body, gravity will push them in the head region, and shirshasana can then do more harm than good.
Patients and allopaths alike ask us: “You are treating for knee pain, why are you concerned with the condition of the bowels?” This is again a result of the Newtonian, mechanistic thinking wrongly applied to affairs of the human system. In the case of a car, yes, if the tyre is punctured, you need to fix that and not tinker with the gear-box. But the living body is one whole continuum, every part and organ is connected with all the others. The same patients and doctors who question our methods don’t think twice before swallowing a tablet for headache, which goes into the stomach and the blood-stream, and not injecting the medicine into the head or the brain for better precision.

Taking the car tyre analogy further, if you don’t fix it soon enough and keep driving the car, the entire tube inside can tear and the tyre itself will be damaged. Similarly, not adequately attending to an acute disease like cold and fever (or suppressing it by drugs) can lead to chronic diseases. Moreover, in the army the maintenance/service regimen for vehicles is followed so strictly that the possibility of a tyre burst is almost eliminated. Saying that somebody suddenly died of a stroke or some such thing shows ignorance. No disease, certainly not a fatal one, develops overnight. So if your lifestyle is not perfectly healthy, I recommend people to visit a nature cure clinic for a few days every few months, or still better, once a month for routine cleansing for servicing and maintenance.
The naturopaths’ refrain is: “The body is one, the cause of disease is one, and the cure is also one.”
In healing, self-belief is very important. So, modern medicine is doing a disservice by declaring many diseases as non-curable, be it diabetes, nephritis, high blood pressure, cancer or AIDS. Naturopaths are usually ready to treat any disease at any stage-the least one can aim for in the last stages of the terminal disease is to alleviate pain.
Nature cure is not immune from the winds of change in the medical world-the slow but sure movement towards integrated medicine. The influence of ayurveda is discernible in naturopathy practice, with many of us appropriating some of the better known herbs like neem, brahmi, ashvagandha, kashni, etc, which are easily available with the grocer. For instant relief from pain, naturopaths also employ acupressure, magnet therapy, even reiki and pranic healing. Yoga, another non-drug system, of course, is part and parcel of nature cure.