Human health is one of the important factors that influence the development Human of a nation. The health of individuals is a resource for everyone. It emphasises upon social resources as well as personal capacities of an individual. For a healthy life, a person needs to have a balanced diet and regular exercise. Our body has the ability to naturally heal itself from the ailments and stresses that have been induced in it because of environment. Naturopathy provides the people with a new approach that allows persons to naturally heal themselves without any artificial medications and therapy. The health of all organisms depends on their surroundings. The social environment is also an important factor in keeping an individual healthy.
Environmental cleanliness is an important factor that ensures good human health. Healthy food is necessary to ensure a healthy lifestyle. Naturopathy takes a holistic view towards health and wellness. It supports a person to live a healthy life. The foundations of naturopathy are based upon the importance of a healthy diet, clean fresh water, sunlight, exercise and stress management.
What is Naturopathy?
Naturopathy is an alternative system of health and wellness in which man lives in a harmonious relation with nature. Naturopathy has disease preventive, curative, as well as restorative potentials. Naturopathy recognises the existence of a vital curative force within the body. It seeks to normalise all the bodily functions so that it is able to heal itself properly without any external help. Naturopathy employs an array of pseudoscientific practises that are non-invasive and promotes self-healing.
The term ‘naturopathy’ originated from ‘natura’ and ‘pathos’ to suggest natural healing. Naturopathy considers Hippocrates as the father of Naturopathy. Naturopathy had its roots in the 19th century Natural Cure movement of Europe. Naturopathy focuses upon a holistic approach, completely avoiding the use of medicines and surgeries . It aims the reduce stress by changing diets and lifestyles. Natural cures include a range of therapies based upon sunshine, fresh air, heat or cold as well as nutrition advice such as following a vegetarian and whole food diet, fasting or abstention from sugar and alcohol. There is focus upon dietary and lifestyle changes, stress reduction, homeopathy, manipulative therapies, exercise therapies, psychotherapy and counselling.
Benefits of Naturopathic Medicines
naturopathic medicine into lifestyle of people have immense benefits or human health and wellness. These benefits include
• Health Promotion
The focus of Naturopathic medicine is promotion of health and wellbeing, giving importance to the principle that the body has the ability to heal itself. By identifying various obstacles to natural cure, the body is able to cure itself on its own. The goal of Naturopathic medicine is to treat underlying disorders and to restore normal functions of the body by enhancing its healing abilities. Promotions of health aims to make individuals enjoy their daily lives with a good standard of living.
• Prevention of Disease
Prevention is better than cure. Preventing disease is a primary aim of Naturopathy. It prevents the progression of existing diseases. Naturopathy engages with the persons to identify the root cause of diseases and address all factors that are affecting the health of patients. All this is done by natural factors and does not involve any surgery or chemical medicines.
• Treating Existing
Conditions Naturopathy involves treatment of minor as well as major conditions from pediatriatic to geriatriatic and physical to psychological. Naturopathy works with all three types of people. Patients that are looking for disease prevention and health improvements. Patients with a wide range of health concerns and no clear diagnosis and patients suffering with chronic illness.
• Personalised Treatment
Naturopathic treatments are highly personalised. Each patient has to be cured according to their specific genetics, dietary habits, lifestyle and associated health concerns. A naturopathy practitioner will work to determine the underlying causes and create individualised treatment plans to stimulate a person’s innate healing ability. Patients are also able to make effective, self educated decisions that can help in prevention of occurence of any future healthcare problems.
• Safe and Effective
Treatment The goal of Naturopathy is to restore the normal functions of the body to its original state so that body can heal itself in a natural way. The doctors in naturopathy focuses upon each patient’s distinct abilities. Naturopathy provides safer treatment as it does not have any side effects.
• Cost Effective
Naturopathy is a cost effective treatment because it does not involve any surgeries, operations, medicines etc. The preventive value of Naturopathy also reduces the burden of diseases on a country’s healthcare system.
• Self Awareness
With healing, Naturopathy also involves improving awareness about the self. When a person knows more about his/her body, they are able to understand better the symptoms that the body is trying to communicate to the person
Principles of Naturopathic Practice
Naturopathic is based on the following principles
• Medicatric Nature Naturopathic medicine requires an inherent self healing process in people that is based on individualised traits. Naturopathy acts to identify and remove the obstacles to self healing and recovery. It facilitates the self healing ability.
• Tolle Causum It means identify and treat the cau ause. It involves treating the cause of the problem rather than symptoms. Thus, the cause of the disease is eliminated to reduce the effects of diseases.
• Primum Non-Ocure It means do no harm. Naturopathy avoids any harm to the patient. It utilises methods and medicinal substances that do not cause any harm to the patient. It does not involve any operations that have some side effects. It uses that least force to treat a patient. It acknowledges and respects a person’s self-healing abilities.
• Docere It means that doctor is the teacher. Naturopathic physicians do not make the patients dependent upon themselves. Rather, they make the patient self aware so that they take self responsibility for their health.
• Prevention Prevention emphasises upon the patient’s ability to resist the disease by assessing risk factors to his health and wellness, his susceptibility to diseases etc. It aims at preventing the disease so that person can remain healthier for longer periods of their life.
• Treat the Whole Person Naturopathy treats each patient by taking into account individual mental, physical, emotional, genetic, social and other factors. It also focuses upon spiritual development of patients. Thus, by taking into account all the individual factors, it completely treats an individual rather than treating only a particular condition.
Conclusion
All the diseases have environmental causes. Naturopathy aims to correct all these the environmental factors so that diseases do not occur in the body. It says that the treatment of all diseases is the elimination of morbid matter from the body. Various bacterias and viruses are only able to survive in the body only because o the morbid matter. Diseases occur when the body’s ability to self heal and resist diseases is weakened. The resistance and ability of the body to self-heal can be enhanced by the nature which is a self healer. Nature does not only cure the disease but the entire body of the patient.
Naturopathy has huge potential to cure a person suffering from chronic ailments. It also treats all aspects such as physical, mental, spiritual and social at the same time. It cures the body with only the natural elements such as sun, wind, water, yoga exercise, vegetarian and wholesome food etc. To realise the demographic potential of the country, it needs to make the population healthy by adopting a lifestyle that is disease free. Naturopathy has the ability to cure and make India healthy.
Thank you very much for reading this article“What is Naturopathy, Meaning, Definition, Benefits, Principal”
