Naturopathy is not new; it has been practised from the earliest times. To be precise the first man to rest and miss a meal when he felt off-colour was practising naturopathy; the first people to relax their stiffened muscles by bathing in hot springs, or relieve pain and inflammation with cold water sprays, were applying naturopathic methods; the individuals who first developed meditation were acting naturopathically. Naturopathy is the creation of conditions which enable the body to heal itself as far as it is capable of doing.
The earliest physicians used their observations of the body in health and disease to evolve an art of healing, the principles of which hold good to this day. Man was seen as an integral part of nature and the universe, and they recognised that his health depended on maintaining harmony with them. The means of achieving this were present in the basic essentials of life itself – air, light, water, food, movement and rest. The science of medicine was born when man discovered how these could be used to aid the body in its recover from illness. These pioneer doctors were, therefore, naturopathic.
This global view of mankind as part of the continuum of nature gathered dust while medicine became preoccupied with the finer analysis of disease into recognisable categories and the development of specific means with which to confront it. Only in the philosophies of some eastern system of medicine did the whole view of man prevail, and it was left to the pioneer naturopaths of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, together with the homeopaths and herbalists, to re-establish the principles of natural therapy. Naturopathy has, in some ways, rediscovered the lost art of medicine.
Roger Newman Turner B.Ac., N.D., D.o., M.R.M., F.B,Ac.C. (excerpt from Naturopathic Medicine – Treating the whole person).