| by Bruce Berkowsky, NMD., M.H., HMC
Traditional Naturopathy:
Living in Harmony with the Rhythms
of The Natural Universe
In this first article of a three-article series, health will be discussed in terms of harmonization with the rhythms of the
natural universe. The second article, “The Inner-Nature of Essential Oils: A Pathway To The Higher Soul,” will focus
be on harmonization with the spiritual world. The third article, “True Health: Merging The Rhythms of The Natural
And Spiritual Worlds,” will describe how harmonization with the interrelated natural and spiritual worlds is imperative
if the circle of true health is to be completed.
The Human Being Is A Rhythmic Organism
Built into the human organism’s design
is a rhythmic system: an internal organization
that coordinates all the rhythmic
functions of the body and mind. The
primary organs of the rhythmic system
are the heart, and secondarily, the lungs.
Heart and lung activities are characterized
by ceaseless rhythm. Also, whenever
a strong feeling is experienced, changes
occur in the subtle interplay of blood
and breath. The heart and respiratory
rates may increase or become erratic.
When people recount strong emotional
episodes, we often hear expressions
such as “My heart skipped a beat,” or
“It took my breath away.” Virtually every
function of the body exhibits rhythmicity.
The maintenance of specific rhythmicity
is dependent upon an undisturbed general
life-rhythm. In essence, health can
be defined as a state wherein one’s liferhythm
is synchronized with the workings
of the natural world. On the other
hand, disease can be viewed as a disturbance
of the synchronization between
one’s life-rhythm and the eternal cycles
and imperatives of Nature.
Traditional naturopathy is a health/
healing discipline that was established
in the 19th century. It views disease as
the body’s attempt at self-cleansing and
regeneration in order to self-heal. The
human organism is designed to strive
toward health, not disease. Disease
is often a defensive reaction brought
about by poor lifestyle habits. Therefore,
the power to cure disease resides only
within the patient’s body, but that innate
power cannot fully prevail until wrong
living habits stop and the fundamental
elements of life and health, in necessary
measure, have been set in place,
namely, proper diet; pure water; fresh
air; sunlight; adequate exercise, warmth,
rest, and sleep; emotional harmony; and
proper posture.
As human beings, we have an inherent
relationship with these fundamental elements—
disease is an outgrowth of a deficiency
or excess of one or more of them.
Restoration of health in the ill person is
accomplished through the same means
of sustaining life and preserving health
in the well person.
If a substance is not fundamental
to the health of the body, it’s also not
fundamental to disease treatment.
From this view comes the most important
therapeutic principle of traditional
naturopathy: Disease treatment must be
based upon the use of the fundamental
elements of life in accordance with the
needs and abilities of the patient. Accordingly,
Paracelsus, the renowned 15th- to
16th-century alchemist and professor of
physics, medicine and surgery, observed:
“The physician should pass Nature’s
examination.”
In 1904, noted traditional naturopath
Adolph Just wrote in Return To Nature:
“Those who no longer listen to the voice
of Nature become the victims of a thousand
different diseases and miseries...
Humankind can recover and again
become happy only via a true return to
Nature. . . [by choosing] the food that
Nature has laid before them from the
beginning and bringing themselves
again into relation with water, light and
air, earth, etc. which Nature originally
designed for them.”
Adolph Just is not suggesting that
human beings forsake the comforts of
modern existence, only that they reestablish
their primal relationship with the
life-sustaining elements of the natural
world. For instance, instead of viewing
diet as a form of entertainment, it should
be seen primarily as a means for optimal
survival. In this regard, Plato aptly stated:
“Through your stomach come all your ills.”
In the 19th and early-20th centuries,
naturopathic doctors developed many
creative, highly effective therapies using
Nature’s life- and health-giving elements.
Originally, many of these therapies
were applied within the setting of
the numerous naturopathic health spas
of those days which featured sunbathing,
hiking in the fresh air, hydrotherapies,
deep breathing, pure water, nourishing
food, massage, and lots of rest and
sleep. However, with the introduction of
“miracle drugs” came the misconception
that simple naturopathic therapies were
somehow quaint and outdated. And the
hectic lifestyle of our era popularized a
demand for the “quick-fix.”
The use of surgery and drugs (even
natural medicines such as herbs and
homeopathy) can only act upon the
superficial symptoms of the underlying
disharmony in an individual if the fundamental
elements of life are not restored.
And such disharmony may eventually
manifest in some other, and perhaps
more threatening, form.
Acute diseases such as influenza and
colds, especially in children, may recede
despite improper management if the
patient’s powers of recuperation are still
intact. However, chronic diseases such
as arthritis and cancer can never be fully
remedied by therapeutic fragments but
only through restoration of the proper
relationship of all the elements of life
in organic unity. In his 1892, book, How Nature Cures, Emmet Densmore, M.D.
writes: “...disease is but the expression
and result of a disturbance of the conditions
natural to life. The only useful
office of the physician is to restore those
conditions.”
Why Do We Get Sick?
Sickness is a state the body adopts
because the state of normality can no
longer be sustained. It is a valiant attempt
by the innate healing power of the body
to restore normality; the symptoms
produced are evidence of this healing
power's efforts toward restoration. However,
when treatment of the sickness does
not feature reintegration with the fundamental
elements of life, only reduction of
symptoms is attainable, rather than full
recovery of vigor and vitality.much like
dispersing smoke while allowing a fire to
continue burning out of control.
In the 1930s, famed Swedish health
teacher Are Waerland began his Sun
Viking movement. Many of his students
experienced greatly improved health and
even recovery from serious illnesses.
Waerland taught that disease was a
disturbance of a person's life-rhythm,
established through millions of years of
biological evolution. He told his students
to look outside the body to environmental
conditions as primary factors that create
health or disease. Waerland felt that
health could only be produced, and disease
eliminated, by restoring the original
human life-rhythm which depends upon
an unhindered relationship between the
human body and the external factors of
Nature.
Disease:
A Defensive Reaction of The Body
As a result of poor diet, lack of exercise
and other lifestyle errors, the cells of a
person's joints begin to starve for nutrients
and oxygen and cannot throw-off
wastes. Those cells will now begin to
deteriorate. In reaction, the body produces
inflammation, a normal part of
the immune response, to fight infection
and increase circulation. And perhaps the
body will deposit calcium in the joints to
help stabilize them. Is this a destructive
process? Certainly, but it's also a logical
defensive action by the body. Because the
normal joint-state is no longer possible,
the body does its best to protect itself
under the circumstances. Therefore, the
most fundamental response to arthritis is
not painkillers and inflammatory drugs,
but, rather, the introduction of proper
nutrition, exercise and the other basic elements
of life and health. They are the only
things that can once again make normal
joint function feasible.
The Two Primary Roots of Disease
Deficiency or imbalance of Nature's elements
gives rise to the two primary roots
of disease: autotoxemia, a level of bodily
toxicity sufficient to impair vital functions
and propel the body toward disease, and
enervationv a condition in which vital
energy is expended in excess of the body's
normal production and falls below requirements
for efficient operation.
Autotoxemia stems from poor diet,
impure air and water, synthetic cosmetics,
prescription drugs, cigarettes, and other
sources which can result in symptoms
such as constipation, weak kidneys,
unhealthy skin, and shallow breathing.
Enervation is primarily due to lack of rest
and sleep, continual emotional stress,
and the habitual use of stimulants such
as caffeine and alcohol. These two root
factors work in conjunction, resulting in
a vicious cycle. Autotoxemia causes congestion
and overload, making the body
work harder, thus, increases enervation
by using up the powers of life to excess.
Enervation, on the other hand, increases
autotoxemia by slowing down all vital
functions, thus leading to a back-up in
normal fluid circulation, and, in turn,
waste-removal.
Clearly, good health and the cure of
disease depend upon effective bodily
cleansing as well as the rebuilding of vital
reserves, which invariably requires a complete
relationship with the fundamental
elements of life.
Ancient physicians understood that
human beings were inseparable from the
natural universe. Disease was considered
a result of people being alienated from
Nature. They used fundamental elements
such as fresh air, pure water, sunlight,
natural diet, and exercise not only to quell
symptoms in the short-term, but to reintegrate
the patient with Nature in order
to sustain long-term health.
Hippocrates maintained that disease
must be treated in accordance with
natural laws. Also, when the great 17thcentury
physician Thomas Syndenham
(renowned as the “English Hippocrates”)
lay dying, he told his weeping pupils that
he was content to die because he was
leaving behind three physicians greater
than he ever was. One of the pupils
eagerly inquired, “Three great masters?
Who are they?” Syndenham replied:
“Water, air and exercise.”
A Health Lesson From The Rosebush
Let us say that during a summer's walk,
while taking in the fresh country air,
you come upon an abandoned farm's
overgrown garden. You spot a rosebush
choked by tall weeds and note its thin
stems, pallid leaves and frail-looking
flowers. Your first thought would not be:
This plant looks like it can use some antibiotics
and steroids. Rather, you would
instinctively know that the first action
necessary is to clear the tall weeds so that
the rosebush receives adequate fresh air,
sunshine and room to grow. You would
also conclude that it needs to be properly
watered and nourished, and perhaps that
its trellis should be repaired to lend it a
healthy posture. In other words, the most
important step in bringing this plant back
to health is the restoration of the required
fundamental elements of life.
The above compelling logic supports
the practice of artfully employing
the fundamental elements of life as the
primary tools for restoring and maintaining
health. My own long-time clinical
experience has proven to me that while
treatment methods such as homeopathy,
acupuncture, aromatherapy, and herbal
medicine are highly valuable, they are
of secondary importance, because their
full effectiveness is dependent upon the
extent to which the fundamental elements
of life are provided or denied.
Dr. Bruce Berkowsky, President of Joseph Ben Hil-Meyer Research, Inc., and recipient of the 1994 Hahnemann Award, is the founder/teacher of the Natural Health Science System. (a powerful integration of traditional naturopathy and a diverse array of natural healing techniques)and of Spiritual PhytoEssencing. (constitutional psycho-spiritual work using custom essential oil blends and derived homeopathic potencies). For more information about his work, books, seminars/workshops, etc., or to sign up for his free monthly e-mail newsletter, “Nature's Therapies On-Line Journal,” visit:
www.NaturalHealthScience.com.
To contact Dr. Berkowsky via e-mail:
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