Naturopathy-Whole Alternative Medical System

Naturopathy - Whole Alternative Medical System Naturopathy Known also as natural medicine, naturopathy uses natural remedies, such as herbs, nutrition and the body’s ability to heal itself through, exercise, and stress reduction. It grew out of the traditions of spas and water cures. It arose in a pre-scientific environment, and then lost popularity as scientific medicine developed effective treatments during the 20th century (Munn, 2007). The main principles of naturopathy are the body will always strive towards equilibrium, accumulation of toxins in the body disturbs the equilibrium, and the body is its own best healer (Munn, 2007). It has six basic tenets – Do no harm, treat the whole person, prevention, the healing power of nature, treat the cause of the ailment and the physician is a teacher (Hall, 2011).

Naturopathy uses herbs, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, and food regulation to treat diseases. Naturopathy treatment eliminates toxin from the body restoring the person to health. It is more philosophical than scientific, and uses natural products and believes in treating the whole body rather than the disease (Hall, 2011). Naturopathy is used to treat anxiety and depression and is based on a biopsychosocial model which views the cause of the depression (Sarris, 2011). This model suits CAM paradigm which treats people from a whole system approach and views disease causation as being influenced by many factors.

Sarris, J. (2011). Whole system research of naturopathy and medical herbalism for improving mood and reducing anxiety. Australian Journal of Medical Herbalism, 23(3), 116-117. Munn, Z. (2007, November). Complementary therapies, naturopathy, massage & acupuncture): Clinical Information. Evidence Summaries- Joanna Briggs Institute, (1). Retrieved from ProQuest Central