Complementary and alternative medicine has become increasingly popular in the last decade.
From 1990 to 1997, the number of visits to alternative doctors went from far fewer than to those of MD's to more. Often a recognition that the system of the MD's is not totally working is what drives people to seek alternatives.
If it isn't working, then what system of healing does work?
What is healing, what is the nature of it, and where does it come from?
Naturopathic medicine is based on cooperating with the healing power of nature. Vis Medicatrix Naturae, as it says on my diploma.
The human organism is naturally designed to be auto-regulating, and symptoms are produced when the organism is attempting to regain its equilibrium. There is a template for optimal health and well being for everyone.
The reality is that we are not fully expressing that template, due to inherited distortions or as a result of experiences in life. When we cannot process what is incoming to our system, we tend to store it somewhere for later processing. This can be an injury, detrimental living habits, emotional insult, or simply life happening too much too fast.
Until it is processed, it may manifest as aches and pains, dysfunction of an organ system, or emotionally closing down in some area. Efficient medicines or healing techniques will allow us to process what has been stored more quickly than what normal life processes take us through.
In addition, real healing will bring us to the point of being able to more efficiently process what is incoming, so that there is no need to store any of it. Real healing brings us in alignment with our template for optimal function.
How to identify efficient medicines and healing techniques.
How can we identify efficient medicines and healing techniques? The variety of alternative medical practices, medicines, and supplements to choose from are truly overwhelming. Essential fatty acids, homeopathics, designer nutraceuticals, the latest discovered herb from a far away land, megavitamins, the ultimate delivery form of minerals . . . and the list goes on. Add to it an alphabet soup of techniques: AK, TCM, NAET, NST, JMT, TFT, EFT, . . . How do you know what works and what is capitalism exploiting a popular movement?
The first suggestion I have is to pay attention to what your body is telling you.
When you see promotional materials, is it the same as wallpaper? Or does it sustain your attention?
Are you simply unable to swallow those vitamin pills? Then don't!
Does that herb have an appealing taste, when it didn't six months ago?
Everywhere you look, do you see some particular thing mentioned?
These are examples of how you can tell what resonates with you. Either actually try it or try on in your mind taking the supplement or doing the technique. How does it feel?
The answer is what the healing power of nature is telling you, your inner doctor. It can take time and practice to learn to hear the messages clearly.
What will bring me back to that Optimal Template of Health?
The second suggestion is to look at how what you are considering in alternative medicine will bring you back to your template for optimal health and well being.
If you stop taking a medicine or supplement, will the symptoms come back? If so, what does that mean that the medicine or supplement has done? Remember that symptoms are simply the evidence that the body is working to auto-regulate or bring to your attention something that has not been processed yet. And symptoms have a funny way of popping up in another body system when they have been suppressed somewhere.
The body doesn't stop communicating, although it slows down when it is heavily drugged.
There is a difference between expressing that template for optimal health and well being and being well compensated for areas of disharmony with that template.
Picture yourself standing relaxed and tall, arms hanging comfortably at your sides, feeling grounded into the earth, with no one being able to push you over. Now picture yourself with one leg in the air, knee bent at an awkward angle, arms flailing to help keep from falling over. How much energy does it take to stay in the second position and how soon will you get tired standing that way? That is the dance of taking drugs, supplements, avoiding foods and allergenic triggers, and doing therapies that don't bring you back to alignment with gravity, with your template for optimal health.
Everything has to be understood in the context of the healing objective, and analyzed to see if it is contributing to that objective. This is where education plays a key role.
There are lots of products and techniques promoted in the popular media with reasoning that makes sense on the surface. But it is only through research and an understanding of the workings of the human organism that will put these in a larger context.
I want to emphsize here the difference between simply using natural medicines and working with the Healing Power of Nature. Nature operates on clearly defined principles, which must be understood. The Medical Art of Homeopathy has clearly defined these principles, and they have been adoped by Naturopathic Medicine. By substituting an herb for a drug, or using natural remedies to deal with the side effects of drugs shows a lack of understanding of the way healing works.
I encourage anyone that can to gain this understanding. That is the objective of this website and my medical practice. Taking responsibility for your health can mean consulting me or one of the doctors practicing true Natural Medicine for their wider knowledge and experience, to fully cooperate with the healing power of nature.
Please make full use of this website, and provide feedback on how it has helped you and what you would like to learn. Look for announcements of email subscription courses for health tips and understanding "what is healing."
Due to government and FDA regulations the following must be stated: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information provided is not a substitute for professional medical opinion. It is provided for informational and educational purposes only.
