About
the author
Joseph Goodman is a naturopath, osteopath and acupuncturist
practising in London. He is Head of Dept of Theory and Practice of Osteopathy at the
College of Osteopaths (Middlesex University) where he is also senior lecturer in the
principles and philosophy of naturopathy. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the
Tyringham Naturopathic Clinic and is an Executive Council Member of the British
Naturopathic Association. He can be contacted on Tel: 0181-202 6242.
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Joseph Goodman's Tripod of Health and Disease
The purpose of this article is to show
that Naturopathy is a well-defined concept of health care, that Natural
Therapeutics is Naturopathy in action where patients are treated in a
variety of non-suppressive ways in order to remove as many obstructions
to self-healing as possible. It will stress the important role of Naturopathy
in health maintenance and the avoidance of ill health. A radical rethinking
by the patient of the meaning of health and disease and a radical change
of lifestyle may often be called for, which makes it implicit that the
practitioner is a re-educator as well as a therapist.1
Naturopathy is applied physiology
and common sense. Physiology is defined as the science of the functions
of the living organism and its components and the chemical and physical
processes involved.2 Common sense means normal understanding
and good practical sense in everyday affairs.3
Sound practical judgement, natural sagacity and social awareness are ideals
devoutly to be wished for but then so are the attainment and preservation
of individual health.
Health is consistent with observation and adherence
to the laws of nature. Disease is the result of flouting those laws. Barring
accidental or surgical injury to the human organism and surroundings hostile
to human life, the primary cause of disease according to Lindlahr is violation
of nature’s laws.4
The laws of nature are evident to those who acknowledge
them. A fundamental law is that only the living organism has the power
to act; when the power fails the person will be unable to respond to any
influence whether it is beneficial or not. The influence itself has no
power to act; it is acted upon, by the Body (a convenient abbreviation
for the complex of mind, body and inner spirit of existence). The Body
will make use of nourishing food whereas it will try to reject or dilute
or store away any hazardous substances. Stepping off a cliff will invoke
the law of gravity even if a parachute or a bungee rope is used. Corrosive
chemicals will overcome the Body’s power to defend itself and will
destroy tissue even if cigarette advertisements omit such detailed information
– suing a tobacco company after the event betrays retrospective ignorance
of a simple law of nature which is that living beings succumb to poisons.
Climatic elements are neither deliberately benevolent nor malign but fire
burns, water fills land space and wind fills air space; natural laws that
can result in damage and dis-ease from flood, forest fire or dust storm.
To go back to beginnings:
With some exceptions all organisms whether human,
animal or plant are born with a survival urge and, fortunately, most organisms
are equipped with the appropriate mechanisms that ensure survival until
they die naturally or through injury. Survival depends on a good inheritance,
nourishment appropriate to the individual, shelter from the elements,
a satisfying occupation with physical and mental endurance and, for the
species, the opportunity to reproduce. Comfortable and satisfying survival
equates with health. Ill-health is survival with little joy or comfort.
There are few short cuts to health preservation
or health restoration. Unfortunately, wonder therapies and gimmicks have
abounded through the centuries. A current fashion, for example, is the
elevation of the immune system to undue heights. A variety of therapies
and substances are offered and sometimes guaranteed to “enhance the
immune system”. What that phrase means is rarely explained but even
if it could be defined and demonstrated, the intent can be limiting and
therefore counterproductive. Taber’s Dictionary defines the immune
response as the reaction of the body to substances that are foreign or
are interpreted as being foreign. It involves antibodies and antigens,
the thymus gland and lymphocytes and other specialised cells. All have
vital specific tasks to perform but they are only a small proportion of
what is involved in dealing with a hazardous environment.
Numerous processes will, without conscious effort,
maintain minute to minute homeostasis. Homeostasis means a tendency to
stability in the normal body states (internal environment) of the organism.
It is achieved by a system of control mechanisms activated by negative
feedback; e.g., a high level of carbon dioxide in extracellular fluid
triggers increased pulmonary ventilation, which in turn causes a decrease
in carbon dioxide concentration. Other mechanisms include those that ensure
that the temperature of blood in the human body does not, except in extreme
limits, vary however cold or hot the weather. Similarly, there is a sequence
of actions that controls hormonal feed and feedback ready to meet any
change in circumstances.
If the danger is external to itself the Body
will either confront the danger or run away from it. If the danger is
within, the Body will sneeze or cough up the hazard from the respiratory
tract, vomit it from the stomach or bile system, excrete it from the bowels
or genitourinary system, erupt it through the skin, or burn it up in a
fever. At first such defensive activities are hardly noticed by the individual
concerned – a sneeze or a throat-clearing cough or the quick healing
of a skin cut are unlikely to upset anyone. It is only when the offensive
influence persists that there is noticeable discomfort. A medical name
is given to the symptoms that become more evident as the Body pursues
its survival activity: hay fever, for example for protracted sneezing
and eye-watering or catarrh when mucous membranes become involved. Any
number of –itises join the lists when constructive inflammation becomes
necessary. Bronchitis, for example, involves the bronchi, conjunctivitis
the eyes, arthritis the joints and rhinitis the nose. The collective signs
and symptoms do not suddenly become medical diseases just because they
have been given a diagnosed name. All acute processes are what they were
at the outset, attempts on the part of the Body to dispose of or reduce
threats to its survival. Only the degree of activity becomes more pronounced
and with it comes pain, incapacity and disharmony.
Naturopaths insist that such acute episodes should
not be suppressed. At best, suppression will only delay the inevitable
repetition of acute cleansing, at worst it can be dangerous: try putting
a lid on a pressure cooker that is belching out its steam. Apart from
life threatening episodes such as meningococcal meningitis or rupturable
appendicitis the processes of disposal and renewal should be encouraged
by intelligent but controlled leaving alone or by simple intervention
where it would be kind to reduce discomfort.
There will come a time, however, if the original
undue influence has not been disposed of or escaped from, when ideal survival
gives way to adapted survival. Rubbed skin will harden, lung tissue will
thicken with mucus, irritants will be encysted, a healthy organ will take
over the work of a diseased one. There will indeed be survival but at
the cost of a loss of function. Hard skin will have lost some sensitivity,
lungs thick with mucus will make stair climbing a strain, one kidney is
never as productive as two.
Naturopaths are at their most confident in helping
if the patient still has inner vitality to mount an acute healing crisis
or if adaptation is only in its early stages before chronic breakdown
of tissue has occurred. Fasting, restricted diets, rest, relaxation, hydrotherapy,
understanding of the processes involved and positive attitudes can all
play a part in enabling the patient to re-establish inner harmony, The
whole person is involved. The whole person is the real “immune system”.
No boosting was needed, only permission and opportunity to do what comes
naturally, to heal, that is, to become whole. Optimum recovery will depend
on the degree to which obstructions to healing have been reduced or disposed
of and on the freedom of the eliminative organs to play their part, whether
liver, lungs, kidneys, bowels, skin or mucous membranes.
If only life were so idyllic. If people did not
smoke or inject, drink to excess, overeat, pollute their internal or external
environments, resent their neighbours, hate the strangers within their
gate – if only – there would probably be no need for practitioners
of any kind.
There is a need, however. To continue, therefore,
with the relationship between health and lack of health: once self-defence
and attempted compensation have been thwarted, either by the use of drugs
or by eating when the body is least able to make use of further food,
health goes gradually down hill. There will be attendant pathologies and
irreversible loss of structural and functional capabilities. Chronic arthritic
joints lock, emphysematous lungs consolidate, arteries occlude. Only surgery
can make any difference in the worst stages.
The role of the naturopath in possibly irreversible
chronic conditions becomes one of management. Although the urge to survive
is still present, chronic disease is no longer a self-healing process.
It is never too late, however, to make changes in life style so as to
avoid further deterioration. The naturopath looks for ways to improve
quality of life in spite of disabilities. Specific exercises alternating
with self-imposed rest, foods and drinks that nourish instead of aggravate,
structural adjustments of soft tissue and movable joints, exploration
of the psyche with its social, family or occupational connotations: all
play a part in the re-integration of the individual with hopeful reduction
of distress.
The tripod, as illustrated, provides a model
for considering the complexities of health and disease. Health is evident
when there is a harmonious interaction within the components of the tripod
and with other units in its sphere of existence. Restoration of health
whether in total or in part depends upon restoration of harmony.
There are four broad components of the tripod:
1. The biochemical or
nutritional, whatever is taken in whether swallowed, absorbed through the skin, injected
or breathed in,
2. The physical structure
which will have to transform all nutritional intake into material for the enhancement of
the individual’s existence, and to excrete the products of waste and excess,
3. All the non-physical
aspects of life such as thinking, feeling, expressing, desiring, striving, loving and
sharing.
4. All three limbs
are modified by inherited tendencies, qualities and characteristics some of which are
handicaps, some are blessings.
No one aspect is more important than another. What is eaten, for
example, is dependent on how it is eaten and when, in what company, in what frame of mind
and in what physical condition of the eater. Starting from another leg of the tripod,
inability to pay the mortgage or to enjoy a relationship can produce physical strains,
abdominal pains, headaches or indigestion. In the early 1900s one Monsieur Emile Coue,
famous for his mantra: “Every day in every way I am getting better and better”
helped many people back to health. Unfortunately he died comparatively early in life
because, it seems, he paid little attention to what he consumed or how he treated his
physical body. A New York cartoon in the 1920s put it this way: “Every day in every
way I am getting better and better, but the nights are terrible”.
Each limb of the tripod is dependent upon the other two, as in wood so in life.
To summarise:
Diseases are not “cured”, symptoms are not treated.
Patients are treated, not their named diseases.
Nothing is introduced into or onto the body that can suppress
symptoms, produce harmful side effects or act contrary to the laws and principles of
natural healing.
Constructive therapies that are employed should be stepping
stones along the way of re-education in health. Doctor is from the Latin, docere, to
teach.
The processes of health maintenance and health restoration are
not placid: they demand attention and will at times demonstrate the mighty power of the
processes of healing.
Further Information
For a list of Naturopaths in the UK contact: The Secretary, The
General Council and Register of Naturopaths, Goswell House, 2 Goswell Rd., Street,
Somerset BA16 0JG.
Colleges that include naturopathy in their degree training
courses are: The British College of Naturopathy and Osteopathy
(Westminster University), The Registrar, 6 Netherhall Gardens London NW3. The
College of Osteopaths (Middlesex University), The Administrator, 13 Furzehill Rd
Borehamwood Herts WD5 2DG
References
1.
J. Goodman, Conference lecture abstract, GCP Newsletter, 1998.
2. Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary,
FA Davis Company, 1985.
3. Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English.
4. Henry Lindlahr MD, Philosophy of Natural Therapeutics,
Maidstone Osteopathic Clinic, 1975.
Dorland’s Electronic Medical Dictionary WB Saunders Company
1998.
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