How to Get and Stay Healthy

The current dominant school of thought in medicine adheres to a mechanistic philosophy: it views the body as a machine, and each part is considered separate, like a cog in a wheel. In machines, sometimes things go wrong (for no apparent reason other than random error), and one must fix the parts that are broken. The opposite philosophy (and the one adhered to by Naturopathic Medical Doctors) is called vitalism. In this model, the body is viewed as a single organism which behaves rationally in response to its environment. If you change one aspect of the body, everything else has to adapt to that change, because the change did not occur in a vacuum.
So, if we begin with the assumption that the body is smart and knows what it’s doing, then we must conclude that any symptoms are an adaptation necessary for survival. For instance: you drink too much, and you vomit rather than die of toxicity. You eat contaminated food and get diarrhea to purge it. In this light, symptoms must be viewed as the body’s language, telling the physician what the body is trying to do in order to correct a problem.
In Latin, the word homeopathy (frequently used, although somewhat inaccurately, as a synonym for naturopathy) means “same as the disease”: that is, the homeopathic treatment for a disease mimics the symptoms that the patient is already experiencing. Thus, the homeopath responds by assisting the body in its efforts to rid itself of a morbid process. By contrast, the word allopathy (the conventional medical approach) means to works against the body’s symptoms, attempting to counteract them. From the naturopathic perspective, this is actively harmful. It prevents the body from expelling the pathogen or toxin, causing the problem to burrow deeper and reappear as something more serious later on. It’s like having a fire in your house, and instead of putting out the fire, you turn off the alarm.
Furthermore, in naturopathic philosophy, pathogens are considered secondary rather than primary causes of illness. Robert Vichrow, one of the scientists credited with discovering the existence of microorganisms, stated, “If I had my life to live over again, I would devote it to showing that microorganisms do not cause disease, but rather seek diseased tissue as mosquitoes seek stagnant water.” For instance, a high percentage of the population carries streptococcus bacteria in their throats at any given time. But the bacteria do not cause Strep Throat in all individuals; it is the weakened or diseased tissue that allows the bacteria to thrive. The solution, then, is to fix the tissue, not to kill the bug. This is not to say that killing the bug will have no effect, because of course we know that it does – but killing the bug using antibiotics may not only cause side effects in the individual and allow subsequent strains of bacteria to adapt and mutate, but it will also leave the patient with the same weak and susceptible tissue he started out with.
Anything brought to the body can act as either “food” or “poison”, as an agent for healing or damage, depending on how it is used. Pharmaceuticals can be used to suppress symptoms, or to restore balance, just as naturopathic remedies can be used allopathically (though at least they would presumably carry fewer side effects). It’s not what you do, but why you do it… and isn’t this true in every area of our lives?
By: Lauren Deville ( She completed her doctorate at Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, Arizona and is board-certified to practice Naturopathic Medicine in the state of Arizona. She holds a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Arizona, as well as minors in Spanish and Creative Writing.)