What is naturopathy? Its principles, five basic elements and diet therapy:
Naturopathy is a drugless and without surgery treatment process which emphasizes on natural elements such as water, Mud, fire, air, space, herbs, yoga, and physical manipulation through exercises.
In consideration to any disease, the base principle of naturopathy is that accumulation of foreign matters inside the body is the main cause of any disease and if we clean and remove that from the body, we can treat diseases.
It focuses on treating the ill instead of illness. Our body is made of five constituents like water, earth, fire, air, and space. In naturopathic treatment, these five elements are being used to treat the ill.
While giving naturopathic treatment food is taken as a medicine. These five elements are used to detoxify and clean the body. To address the mental and spiritual part yoga practices and the holistic environment is to be given.
Naturopathy is based on following principles:
- All disease have a common cause that is ignorance of nature and due to that accumulation of foreign matters in the body.If natural laws are followed, most health disorders/complication can be avoided. All causes, diseases, and treatments are the same but the presentations are different.
- Nature itself is a cure for all diseases. We just need to follow the law of nature restore health.
- Naturopathy says to treat the ill, not the illness.
- Naturopathy treats the whole body and mind, not the symptoms. Therefore, it is a complete cure for health disorders.
- No disease develop overnight, all chronic diseases are the result of repeated ignorance of nature and its laws. Therefore to treat that disease it takes time, sometimes it can be half of the time disease took to develop.
- Modern allopathy manage only symptoms and suppress the disease, where nature cure treat the cause of the disease.
- Microorganism cause diseases only when we ignore the laws of nature. So we can’t say only that microbes are responsible for diseases.
For treatment and cure in nature cure five natural elements are very important, most of the therapies in nature cure based on these five elements. The properties of five elements and their therapeutic usage:
- Water: our body contains around 60% water of total body mass. Water has natural properties of dilution, motion, cooling, heating, and cleaning. Using these properties water is being used in various forms for naturopathic treatments and healing procedures. It includes:
- water intake in the morning on empty stomach
- Habit of daily water bath
- cold water therapy
- mineral water therapy
- Shower bath
- Spinal bath
- Sitz bath
- Eyewash
- Cold wet bandage
- Use of wet sheet packs
- Water enema
- Herbal water enema
- Earth: in Indian tradition, we call it mother earth, it has all motherly properties, it heals, detoxify, it has regenerative properties as well, it has the fantastic neutralizing ability as well. We use earth element for the treatment of various health disorders and as a preventive therapy also. Earth/ Mud therapy includes:
- Walking barefoot on the earth
- Lying or sitting on the earth
- dry or wet earth clay therapy
- Mud bath
- Hot earth mud pack
- Cold earth mud pack
- Eating sand
- Fire: fire element is very important, it work is an ignitor, regulator, destroyer, creator, heater and light, etc. for many physical functions such as digestion and metabolism it is the principal element. It includes:
- Color therapy
- Sun rays therapy
- Sun bath
- Steam bath
- Hot hip bath
- Hot fomentation
- Air: air has the mobilization property, it mobilizes all body fluids which helps in maintaining body temperature and is responsible for every movement of the body. It detoxifies the body and maintains the nutritional supply in the body. Air therapy includes:
- Morning walks
- pranayama
- Massage
- Exercises
- Hatha yoga
- Space/Ether: we can define it more as an internal environment of our body. It is very important to maintain and balance the space element for the regulation and functioning of the other four elements. It has a balancing and purification properties. It helps in maintaining our psychophysical health. Space/Ether therapy includes:
- Celibacy
- Self-control
- Healthy lifestyle
- Mental discipline
- will power to cure diseases
- Rest & relaxation
- Fasting
- Sound sleep
Diet Therapy:Along with five element therapy, diet therapy also has a great role in naturopathic treatment. We can call it treatment by food. Majorly it includes:
- balanced nutrition
- Use of more fibers in the meal
- Mono diet therapy
- Avoiding harmful combination of food i.e. curd with vegetables, citrus fruits with pulses etc.
- Yogic diet
- Buttermilk therapy
- Milk therapy
- Vegetarian foods
- Daily dietary plans
- Seasonal dietary plans
- Fruits therapy
- Fruit juices
- Vegetable Salad
- Use of honey
- Use of Sprouts
- Intake of raw food
Naturopathy is a complete health science which is based on the law of nature. It is a way of healthy living where someone can prevent, cure and enhance health. In modern-day naturopathy is more relevant as most of the diseases prevailing today are lifestyle related. There is no way out in concern to health if we ignore the basic rules of nature.