Allopathic, conventional or 'modern' medicine regards chronic fatigue syndrome (C.F.S.), myalgic encephalomyelitis (M.E.), fibromyalgia, and the hundred or so autoimmune diseases as being multifactorial or 'mysterious' in origin. As a consequence, they have no real solutions to offer other than pharmaceutical management of all the different symptoms.
However, this view is entirely a function of the way conventional medicine regards disease - all disease - and the causes become clear when seen through the lens of the natural or holistic model of health and disease as outlined below.
Allopathic v naturopathic medicine
Conventional or allopathic medicine seeks to treat most illnesses using either surgery or pharmaceutical interventions. Most pharmaceuticals are targeted at symptom suppression and never address the cause of disease and usually bring unwanted side-effects.
The pre-eminence of this approach is surprisingly recent with the advent of antibiotics, for instance, during World War II and a huge explosion in the industry in the intervening decades. Many now believe that the powerful pharmaceutical industry indirectly controls the education of young medics, and, as a consequence, important subjects such as nutrition are given little or no time on the curriculum.
Ultimately, this approach does not seem to be yielding the increased life expectancy or improved health that it promised with nearly half of the population of developed countries suffering from at least one chronic ailment and average life expectancy only three years longer than it was a century ago.
The naturopathic model
The naturopathic or holistic model of illness can be likened to an iceberg - the symptoms are the visible part of the iceberg and the part that the doctors will have studied and named. In fact, most symptoms are the body’s attempts to detoxify.
However, beneath the surface lies the nine-tenths of the iceberg that contains environmental and occupational toxins such as lead from petrol, food preservatives and dry cleaning vapours; various infectious agents that may never have been fully dealt with such as viruses, bacteria and parasites; various structural issues and/or past physical traumas such as surgery or accidents – and underlying all of this are historic emotional traumas. As these causes are addressed, the iceberg gets smaller and the symptoms – the ‘disease’ melts away.
The principles of naturopathic medicine
The naturopathic or holistic approach is fundamentally different to allopathic (conventional) medicine. Its principles are:
The body is self-healing Therapy aims to aid detoxification and support the body’s own healing mechanisms.
Identify and treat the cause Symptoms are signs that the body is trying to heal and the underlying cause (which may be physical, mental, emotional or spiritual) should be identified and treated.
Do no harm That only natural methods that support the body’s efforts to heal are employed and symptom suppression is to be avoided wherever possible.
Heal the whole person That both health and disease are conditions of the whole and require treatment of the whole.
The physician as teacher That the client ultimately creates the conditions necessary for healing and that whilst the naturopath can encourage and inform the client must take responsibility for their own health.
Prevention Acquiring habits that promote good health and healing.
Healing
True healing often occurs in a series of ‘healing crises’ whereby as the body gains strength it expels toxins from the tissues. This is usually at least a mildly unpleasant process on occasions involving symptoms such as diarrhoea, rashes and flu-like symptoms. This process is often accompanied by the release of the feelings that drove the toxins into the tissues in the first place and these processes necessarily need to go hand in hand. The emotional aspects of healing can prove quite a trying and confusing process in their own right.
In this manner, whilst the principles of true natural healing are simple, none of it is easy and requires an unusual level of personal responsibility and commitment. However, the good news is that any ground gained in this way provides a lasting improvement and that the whole system recovers in this manner and not just the particular symptom being treated.
Often the process is so gradual that it goes unnoticed and unappreciated by the sufferer until it is brought home to them in some way and they realise the ground they have covered. For this reason this site provides a free access questionnaire to monitor symptoms.
The difference between naturopathic and allopathic approaches can be illustrated using the all-too-common example of arthritis. Modern medicine has no real answers to this debilitating condition other than painkillers, possibly steroids and ultimately replacing the affected joints with metal ones.
The complementary approach is to examine the reasons why someone has arthritis. Your body is always painting a picture for you of the issue that needs to be addressed and in this instance, arthritis often literally relates to being rigid in your attitudes in some way. Toxins are often stored in the joints which represent a relatively ‘safe’ storage place compared to the brain or heart for instance. So the aim of treatment would be to aid the body in detoxifying, whilst assisting the body to rebuild the joints using supplements and addressing where the affected individual may be emotionally inflexible.
Further resources
Please refer to Chapters 1 – 3 of Chronic Fatigue, M.E., and Fibromyalgia: The Natural Recovery Plan for an in-depth discussion of this topic.
“A very comprehensive and important guide for both sufferers and practitioners.”
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