Natural Medicine, the Real Medicine 

I remember when I was doing my internship while in medical school; I was at the gym one evening and ran into Dr. Michaels, one of the physicians at the school clinic that specializes in Dermatology.  I thought about a patient that I had seen that day with eczema and proceeded to ask Dr. Michaels, “how do you treat eczema?”  Dr. Michaels looked at me, smiled, and answered, “I don’t treat eczema.”  He finished his set and moved onto the next machine. I sat there completely puzzled.  After about 5 minutes, I caught up with him again at the leg press machine.  I approached him again and asked, “You specialize in dermatology, how can you not treat eczema?”  Dr. Michaels responded, “I don’t treat eczema, I treat people with eczema”. 

Disease

I think many physicians get too caught up in diagnosing diseases and forget that they are dealing with people.  You, as the patient, become a series of symptoms and signs only to be diagnosed or labeled as some disease or disease state.  In the realm of western medicine, you are not an individual, you are a disease.  When you walk into your doctor’s office, the medical staff doesn’t typically see you as the person that you are, but instead as the disease that you have.  You are not Sarah, or Jacob, or Mrs. Smith, instead you are Diabetes type 2, or Primary Hypothyroidism, or Osteoporosis.  In western medicine, the focus is on the disease and subsequently on the medication or treatment protocol that matches that disease. 

It is important to understand that most of the treatments / medications used in western medicine were developed after years, even decades of research.  Billions of dollars are spent on testing treatments / medications on populations with specific and similar disease states.  Keep in mind, however, that research is conducted on populations with similar disease states, not on individuals.  And, if you are diagnosed with the same or similar disease as the rest of this population, you fall under the same treatment protocol.  That is, you are given the same medication as everyone else with a disease that looks similar to your own.  Sometimes the medication works to offer some relief and sometimes it doesn’t.  But, more often, it leaves the patient with a series of side effects and new symptoms that create an entirely new disease state that will again be treated with another medication.  This system of treatment too often begins a vicious cycle.  It is not uncommon for people in their 50s and 60s to be on as many as 10 to 20 different medications. Often, many of the medications are prescribed to deal with the symptoms created by the previous medication.  Unfortunately, this is the only way the system can work because the system is economically driven.  Pharmaceutical companies would find themselves quickly bankrupt if they had to invest billions of dollars into finding the correct treatment for one individual at a time.  It simply would not be plausible in the current dominant system of western medicine. 

Despite the fact that individualized treatment of patients is not economically plausible, it still remains necessary.  Our society is becoming more and more ridden with chronic diseases and people are taking more and more medications with each passing year.  Our current system of medicine in the US is failing.  Although infectious diseases have been on the decline for almost a century, chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer) are increasing, almost exponentially.  More money is poured into researching treatments for these diseases each year yet their incidences are continually increasing. 

The US spends more money on health care than any other nation yet it is ranked 37^th in health in the world.  Germany spends nearly half the amount of money per individual than the US on health care, yet they have a higher life expectancy and lower mortality rate from disease than the US.  In all fairness, this may be attributed to a variety of factors, like cultural and dietary differences.  Nonetheless, Germany is one of the world leaders in the development and use of alternative medicine.  Although the US is far behind the European countries, the use of alternative medicine is quickly gaining ground here.  People are demanding alternative therapies largely due to the ineffectiveness of prescription medications in managing disease.  The re-emergence of naturopathic medicine in the past decade has heightened the awareness of people toward an alternative to traditional western medicine. 

Naturopathic Medicine

Naturopathic doctors (N.D.s) typically use natural remedies first and by choice.  These natural remedies include Homeopathy, Herbal Medicine, Hydrotherapy, Nutritional counseling, Mind-body medicine and Environmental medicine.  Naturopathic medicine was all but abandoned in the early 1920’s do largely to the reform of medical schools by the Flexner Report.  The Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations funded the Flexner report in an effort to model all medical schools after Johns Hopkins; which was a medical school based on western therapies – prescription drugs and surgery.  Most of the alternative therapies were discredited due to their lack of scientific basis and their lack of ability to generate profit.  As a result, most of the schools teaching alternative therapies were closed – students would not attend them because of all the negative press.  Nonetheless, naturopathic doctors clung to their natural therapies, despite their lack of profit earning potential, because they worked.  They may not have consistently worked on populations with a specific disease, but they did and do work on individuals.  The goal of natural therapies is not to cure diseases, but to strengthen the body, allowing it to cure diseases.  This is why natural therapies lack scientific merit; because they work on individuals, not on populations.  Due to the variations among individuals, treatments must be varied as well.  In other words, two people presenting with the same disease would most likely require two different treatment protocols or two different natural remedies – each one tailored to that individual.  This is how disease is healed, as nature intended it.  It is important to keep in mind that the natural therapies or modalities used by physicians are only the tools.  The real medicine, however, lies in the philosophy and practice of these modalities.

The philosophy of naturopathic medicine can best be explained by the above illustration.  Looking at your state of health as a continuum from health to death.  The progression from health to death is not based on aging, but instead based on choices; Choices that are made every day about what you eat, your level of activity, how you choose to feel and how you choose to treat your illnesses, should they arise.  The body seeks to naturally maintain a healthy state.  However, due to the stressors of everyday life (like poor diet, pollution, stress, etc.) the body starts to experience acute symptoms and acute diseases, like the common cold. 

The key to understanding the philosophy of naturopathic medicine is to understand the purpose of disease.  Disease is not some arbitrary evil thing that attacks people at random.  Disease has purpose.  It is always corrective in it’s intent, attempting to restore balance to the body.  It is simply the body’s way of dealing with the buildup of toxins (from poor nutrition and pollutants) and morbid matter (like dead cells and the byproducts of metabolism).  The body eliminates these waste products primarily through the bowels and kidneys (that is, stool and urine).  However, when waste builds up to excess (due most likely to overindulgent living) the bowels and kidneys are unable to keep up.  Then, other organs of elimination are recruited, like the skin and linings of the upper respiratory tract.  These two systems of elimination rid the body of its wastes in the form of rashes (like acne or eczema) and excess mucous (causing a runny nose or itchy throat).  Most people, at the onset of an acute symptom, like a rash or runny nose, rush to their doctors or pharmacists in search of something to suppress these unwanted and uncomfortable symptoms.  Something like a cortisone cream for the rash and an anti-histamine for the runny nose is commonly prescribed.  When these medications are taken, the symptoms vanish and people can now return to business as usual.  Unknowingly, however, in the suppression of these processes of elimination (i.e. the use of drugs to suppress the rash and runny nose) the waste products remain in the body to build up even further.  Fortunately, the human body is a very resourceful organism and searches for other portals of elimination.  The body always seeks to use the easiest and quickest means to eliminate waste.  However, when these means are insufficient or suppressed (with the use of drugs) the body resorts to more drastic measures to rid it of these harmful wastes.  Since the mucous production of the upper respiratory tract was blocked or suppressed with the use of an anti-histamine, in the above example, the body now seeks to eliminate its wastes through another means.  Like, through the linings of the lungs, in the form of bronchitis or pneumonia.  Again, most people rush to visit their doctors in search of anti-tussives (cough suppressants) and anti-biotics (to destroy the microorganisms) to suppress these unwelcome symptoms of bronchitis and pneumonia.  Unfortunately, these medications, like the ones before, only serve to block another route of elimination of the wastes and push them further into the body.  Each time, forcing the body further away from health.

To reiterate, the body’s first response to the excess of waste products is the elimination through acute symptoms (like the runny nose and rash).  When these are insufficient or blocked, then acute diseases arise (like bronchitis and pneumonia).  Acute diseases are the sign of a healthy body attempting to rebalance itself - that is, the body attempting to eliminate excess wastes.  It is the sign of a person with a strong and resilient vital force (the life energy or yin and yang).  When these efforts to cleanse the body, by way of acute symptoms and acute diseases, are continually blocked or suppressed with drugs, the wastes build up and weaken the body – just as a buildup of trash around the house would create a dirty and unhealthy environment. 

Chronic Diseases

Imagine trying to rid your house of an excessive buildup of trash only to find all the doors and windows boarded up – you couldn’t get the trash out.  This is essentially the same effect that drugs like anti-histamines, anti-tussives, anti-diarrheals, etc. have on the body.  They prevent the elimination of wastes from the body thereby weakening it and transforming it from an acute disease state into a chronic disease state.  Chronic diseases (like asthma, chronic bronchitis, cancer and many autoimmune diseases) are an indicator that the body has lost its ability to effectively eliminate waste.  The body has been beaten down because every attempt to cleanse and rebalance itself is thwarted with a suppressive medication.  It basically means that the vital force has been weakened due to the excessive buildup of toxins and morbid matter.  Therefore, the body no longer has the strength or resilience to rebalance itself through acute symptoms and acute diseases.  Now, the body is chronically ill. 

Looking again at the scenario of the trash building up around the house; all of the doors and windows have been blocked making it impossible to get rid of all this unwanted trash.  The next logical step would be to find a place in the house or a room where you could pile all of this trash, away from the rest of the house.  The body takes on a similar action in chronic disease.  Because the natural attempts at waste elimination have been suppressed, the body selects an organ or system in which to stockpile its wastes, away from the rest of the body.  Unfortunately, these wastes have negative effects on that selected organ system, compromising its normal function and often resulting in abnormal tissue growth and even organ failure.  This is strongly indicated in chronic diseases like asthma, chronic bronchitis, endometriosis, breast cancer, polycystic ovaries, irritable bowel disease, and possibly type 2 diabetes and hypo/hyper-thyroidism. 

Even though one organ or system may appear to be taking the brunt of an unhealthy body, all diseases of any part of the body is a disease of the body as a whole.  The body is a synergistic organism.  Every system and every organ and every cell is connected, both on a physical level (by way of the circulation and nervous systems) and energetic level (as in vital force or Qi [in Chinese Medicine]).  Cancer, for example, is a disease of the entire body.  It is an indication that the body has accumulated too much waste and lacks the ability to efficiently eliminate that waste.  In other words, the body lacks the energy or vital force necessary to rebalance itself through acute disease.  In a chronic disease of a specific organ or system, the body has essentially accumulated waste in that organ and that waste has imposed toxic effects causing abnormal tissue function and/or growth.  Despite the fact that a disease like cancer may appear to manifest in one area or in one organ, it is not a disease of that affected organ alone.  Take, for example, breast cancer; the breasts are a common place for many toxins and wastes to accumulate like xanthines (in caffeine and chocolate) and hormones (including excess estrogens).  In some cases, unless these wastes are purged from the body they may affect tissue growth in that region resulting in uncontrollable or cancerous growths. 

There are two occasions when cells undergo rapid growth or division; in children, because they are growing so rapidly, and in injury, to replace damaged cells.  Waste accumulation has toxic and damaging effects on surrounding cells causing increased growth in that region in an effort to replace the dead or injured cells.  If the waste is not eliminated, damage to that area continues and possibly causes over-growth of cells and tissue resulting in cancer.

Simply removing cancerous growths by way of surgery does not eliminate the toxic load (or waste accumulation) of the body.  The use of radiation and chemotherapy has been shown in many cases to reduce and even destroy certain cancers.  However, even though that particular cancerous growth has been eliminated with these treatments, they may have actually predisposed that patient to another recurrence of cancer, possibly even more severe than the first.  Radiation and chemotherapy are highly toxic to cancer cells.  In fact, they are highly toxic to all cells.  These two methods of treating cancer actually increase the toxic load of the already toxic and chronically ill person, pushing them even further away from health.  This is why cancer recurrence is so high following conventional treatments.  If waste is allowed to continue to collect in the body, then another area or organ will be selected for waste accumulation and that area or organ will also be affected in the same or possibly more serious manner.

There may be times when removal of a cancerous growth is necessary; for example when that growth is obstructing an organ or blocking some body structure.  However, it is only delaying an inevitable potentially fatal condition unless measures are taken to improve the body’s ability to eliminate wastes.  That is, to strengthen the vital force and thereby enable the body to rebalance itself.  This is accomplished through the implementation and close monitoring of nutritional intake, exercise, sleep, sunshine, the use of hydrotherapy, physical manipulation, supplementation, stress management and homeopathy to stimulate the vital force and aid in detoxification.

Health

It is the natural tendency of the body to drive towards health.  The only job of the patient and physician is to remove the obstacles that may be interfering with this natural process.  There are three primary factors that serve as obstacles to health; low vitality (or vital force), poor composition of the circulating fluids, and inadequate eliminative capabilities of the body. 

Vitality or vital force is the most influential part of health.  It encompasses the mind, the body and especially the spirit.  It is the spirit-like life force as Samuel Hahnemann (the father of Homeopathy) stated.  It is this force that maintains harmony in the body.   The Chinese refer to this force as Qi.  In Hinduism, it is called the prana.  The vital force is what drives the human organism energetically.  It is strengthened through nurturing the body, mind, and soul and weakened though the violations of natures own laws (through poor nutrition, excess stress, inadequate exercise, loss of sleep, and lack of love).  Vital force is more accurately described by each individual’s own perception, within the context of their personal beliefs, because of it’s abstract and intangible nature.  It is referred to in every culture in some regard.  Despite the varying definitions between cultures, one thing remains constant in reference to vital force; without it, the body is without life and without purpose.

The circulating fluids (blood, lymph, cerebral spinal fluid, etc.) are responsible for the transport of substances throughout the body.  They carry nutrients, like food and oxygen, to the cells and waste products away from the cells.  The makeup of this fluid and the ease at which it travels through the body are a crucial part of good health.  Every organ, every tissue and every cell is influenced by the quality of these circulating fluids.  When they are tainted by the lack of essential nutrients and accumulation of wastes, the body suffers.  These taints impose negative repercussions on the vital organs (heart disease and cancer), the musculo-skeletal system (arthritis and myalgias) and the circulating system (athersclerosis and high blood pressure).  Disease impends in an effort to correct and rebalance.  On the flip side, however, when these circulating fluids are nourished (through healthy living; diet, exercise, etc.) and the organs of elimination (kidneys, skin, bowels, etc.) are in good working order, the body flourishes. 

The emunctories are the organs that serve to eliminate waste from the body.  They include the kidneys, bowels, liver, skin, lungs and respiratory lining.  Basically, every organ in the body serves as an organ of elimination in some manner.  This is because organs are made up of cells, and all cells produce and eliminate waste.  The detrimental effects of excessive waste buildup in the body were mentioned earlier (chronic diseases).  This is why it is imperative to maintain these organs in good working order and without the suppressive effects of certain medications.  Good health depends on these organs or emunctories remaining open to keep waste flowing out of the body.

A strong vital force, excellent composition of circulating fluids and the unhindered elimination of wastes can have no other effect than to drive the body in the direction of good health.  Chronic disease can no longer develop because the body is balanced and in harmony.