The strongest area of  naturopathic medicine is in the treatment of chronic and degenerative disease, although it can be applied in any health care situation.    Naturopaths are, for the most part, licensed primary care/general practice family physicians. For severe, acute traumas such as a serious automobile accident, emergencies of childbirth, or orthopedic problems requiring corrective surgery, naturopathic medicine is not recommended, although it can contribute to such cases, especially in the recovery phase.

  In such acute cases as ear infections and common illnesses with fever, the naturopathic physician addresses the associated pain, infection, and fever of the condition, as well as any related concerns of the patient. How this acute condition might relate to underlying causes, such as diet, life stresses, and occupational hazards, is also addressed. The physician will then usually prescribe a variety of means to deal with the immediate problem.

  In chronic cases, the procedure is different. Usually, a complete case investigation will detail the history and nature of the patient's symptoms and complaints, and his lifestyle. Finally, a physical examination and appropriate laboratory tests are performed. For naturopathic physicians, understanding the patient as an individual is essential when searching for causative factors, particularly in the areas of the physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual.

  After determining causative factors, the physician will discuss his discovery with the patient, and then will try to tie together and interpret the symptoms. Symptoms usually relate to a central problem that has many manifestations. As an example, many symptoms can be linked to the effects of toxemia on the different systems of the body such as the immune system, nervous system or circulatory system. Others may relate to emotional factors, such as a chronic urinary tract infection when there is a history of sexual abuse.

  Finally, dietary factors are determined and appropriate changes are recommended. Any other perceived causes are addressed with either counseling, exercise, or other methods of treatment.

 

  Naturopathic medicine does not focus on disease symptoms, but, rather, the underlying causes. For example, the body has four major organs that assist in elimination: the lungs, kidneys, bowels, and skin. Naturopathic physicians  determine most skin diseases as the result of excessive metabolic toxicity in the body, forcing the skin to be used as an extra route of elimination. The skin excretes both water-soluble and oil-soluble wastes through the sweat and oil glands. Because the elimination of toxins is irritating to the skin, the result is often various forms of skin-related disorders such as dermatitis and acne.

  Jared Zeff, N.D., L.Ac., of Portland, Oregon, was visited by a woman suffering from dermatitis, an itchy and often inflamed skin rash. She was also partially blind from an incurable condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive form of retinal degeneration which results in blindness. After assessing her condition, Dr. Zeff viewed the dermatitis as a result of the elimination of toxins through the skin generated by maldigestion. He prescribed a specific diet to help improve her digestion, and recommended a series of hydrotherapy treatments, also to improve digestion and to stimulate other mechanisms of elimination. Dr. Zeff also prescribed a botanical digestive tonic, and later a homeopathic remedy.

  After Dr. Zeff's treatment, not only the woman's dermatitis began to clear, but she also became able to see better, even to make out the specific features of poeple's faces. Her eyesight improved to the point where she could read large print books. Dr. Zeff had not specifically sought to improve her retinal degeneration, assuming it was not possible for her destroyed tissue to be regenerated. Her story is just one example of the body's amazing capacity to recover.

  Another patient of Dr. Zeff was an older gentleman afflicted with bladder cancer. Although this form of cancer has a high rate of success from conventional treatment, his had not responded to chemotherapy. When Dr. Zeff applied pressure to specific reflex points of the patient's body, he was told they did not hurt, even though he could see pain expressed in the man's face. When questioned more deeply, it was discovered that the patient's only child had committed suicide five years previously. The man had been unable to grieve, and had apparently shut off his feelings, which resulted in a physical manifestation of feeling cut-off from his body.

  Dr. Zeff prescribed a diet and a series of hydrotherapy treatments. He also instructed the patient's wife on how to treat her husband at home. She assisted with the hydrotherapy sessions and administered a therapeutic touch technique taught by Dr. Zeff that involved placing her hands over and under her husband's bladder and sacrum for ten minutes each session. Because she was also not well, suffering from chronic bronchitis, Dr. Zeff outlined for her a specific diet, as well as a dose of Ignatia, a homeopathic remedy to relieve the effects of suppressed grief. Dr. Zeff also instructed the couple to walk together for half an hour each day.

  In both husband and wife, the cause of their illnesses-the grief and the inability to release it-was the same, yet on the physical level the unexpressed grief manifested differently. Their illnesses were addressed by informal discussion, a referral to a counselor, and a homeopathic remedy, as well as mutual treatments between husband and wife. In ten weeks the patient was rechecked for cancer. It had disappeared, and his wife's chronic bronchitis had also cleared up.

 

  Naturopathic medicine originated in the alternative curing movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The European tradition of "taking the cure" at natural springs and spas had gained a support in America by the middle of the nineteenth century, and this atmosphere helped make the United States especially receptive to the principles of naturopathy.

  The early naturopaths attached great importance to a natural, healthy diet, as did many of their contemporaries. John Kellogg, a physician and vegetarian, ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, which used natural therapies such as hydrotherapy, while his brother Will built and ran a factory in Battle Creek to produce health foods like shredded wheat and granola biscuits. The Kellogg brothers, along with a former employee, C. W. Post, helped popularize naturopathic ideas about food, and at the same time founded the cereal companies which today bear their names.

  Naturopathic medicine prospered in the United States until the mid-1930s, at which point the medical profession started to conglomerate into the single-view, omnipotent establishment it is today. Naturopathic medicine, and nearly every other natural curing modality, was effectively abolished.

 In the last two decades naturopathic medicine has yet experienced a tremendous resurgence. This is largely due to increased public awareness of the role of diet and lifestyle in the cause of chronic disease, as well as the failure of modern medicine to deal effectively with these disorders.