The Naturopathic Concept of Illness
Excerpt From: Christopher Vasey, N.D. “The Naturopathic Way.”
The Importance of the Body’s Internal Cellular Environment
It is rare for any person whose health has been compromised to ask himself, “Why am I sick? What is really happening in my body?” To the contrary, all of his attention—and that of those around him—is focused on his blatant, disagreeable, or painful symptoms, which are actually just surface manifestations of his deep-rooted illness.
It seems self-evident that the normal reaction would be to make a vigorous counterattack to the assault represented by the illness. As a general rule we behave as if disease were an outside entity independent of the patient, which, by entering the body, suddenly makes the patient sick. From this perspective, we consider the individual stricken by illness to be an innocent victim requiring our assistance because, through bad luck, he or she suffered an unhealthy assault.
The expressions used to speak of illness clearly support this premise. We say that we “fall” ill, that we have been “stricken,” or that we have “caught” a disease.
According to this hypothesis, taught by allopathic medicine, each “assailant” determines different characteristic disorders. There are, therefore, as many diseases as there are assailants; this is what is known as multiple causes, or the plurality of disease. Since there are no common elements among diseases in this framework, each must be treated with its own specific remedy.
What Is Allopathic Medicine?
Allopathic medicine is a therapeutic method that deals with disease by using methods that, generally speaking, oppose the curative effects of the body’s vital forces. By suppressing toxins into the depths of the body, anti-symptom remedies do banish the symptoms from the surface, but this is to the detriment of the biological terrain.
In naturopathy, however, all diseases are considered as different manifestations of a single, common disorder. This common denominator, this profound illness from which all others result, resides on the level of the biological terrain, or internal cellular environment. This terrain consists of all the fluids in the body, including those contained within cells and those in which the cells are bathed, as well as the blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal fluid.
What Is Allopathic Medicine?
Allopathic medicine is a therapeutic method that deals with disease by using methods that, generally speaking, oppose the curative effects of the body’s vital forces. By suppressing toxins into the depths of the body, anti-symptom remedies do banish the symptoms from the surface, but this is to the detriment of the biological terrain.
In naturopathy, however, all diseases are considered as different manifestations of a single, common disorder. This common denominator, this profound illness from which all others result, resides on the level of the biological terrain, or internal cellular environment. This terrain consists of all the fluids in the body, including those contained within cells and those in which the cells are bathed, as well as the blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal fluid.