The Basics of Naturopathy

Naturopathic medicine sees a human being as made of five elements - Fire, Water, Earth, Space and Air. In modern world, it's easy to unbalance one or more of those elements, says Dr. S Mahadeshwara Swami, a Bengaluru-based Naturopathic physicion.

Here's the explanation of the five elements according to the good doctor:

1. Fire

The hottest thing around being the sun, we naturopaths worship the sun as the embodiment of the fire element. In the good old cave days, people had maximum exposure to the sun. They woke up early and benefitted from the early-morning infra-red sun rays. But now we sleep late and get up late and miss a large chunk of the vitamin D provided by the sun.Therefore, the body's immunity, the fighting power, diminishes. Lack of Vitamin D affects the bone density, resulting in arthritis. There is a decrease in the secretions, metabolic rates, and bio - mechanism of the body.

It follows that the life-style change required here is to get up early, go out for a walk, and sleep early.

2. Water

Our body is 70 per cent water. But it's not stationary, it's always moving. Being a universal solvent, water is always busy cleaning out the chemical residues from our cells, the urea, uric acid, et cetra. The only thing we have to understand here is that the intake should be equivalent to the output. We need to drink at least three to four liters of water every single day for the balance to be maintained.

In today's world, however, we don't have time to drink water. Before we brush our teeth in the morning, we should start our day with two full glasses of water. There are microbes in the mouth which help the water to wash out the entire tract from mouth to anus.

3. Earth

All our vitamins, minerals, the energy supply, is gotten from the soil. The market of today's world has driven the farmer to spray poisonous chemical fertilizers on all the crops produced. This not only affects the quality of the vegetables, it also ruins the soil by reducing the natural potentiality of the earth.

Organic farming, in which natural fertilizers are used, is the only solution to undo the damage and renew the nourishing soils.

4.Space

In Naturopathy, the space in the body is understood by the space in the intestines. Space is nothing but a vacuum. An emptiness. Just like every living being needs periodic rest to function well, our digestive tract also needs a break every now and then. In Naturopathy, fasting is simply a cleansing process. The purpose of washing is the removal of dirt. A therapeutic fast, under the guidance of a naturopath, won't necessarily be ‘mouth shut'. If the patient has arthritis, he will get carrot juice mixed with water; if obesity is the problem, then lemon juice with honey will be the sole diet of the day.

5. Air

Air is the most vital force. In Sanskrit, it is called prana. The quality of the air being so polluted in cities, our lungs have literally shrunk in size to avoid breathing fully. The solution is to strengthen the lungs by the practice pranayaam early every morning,when the ozone and oxygen content is high in the atmosphere. Pranayaam helps in curing all respiratory tract problems, like cold, cough, bronchitis, asthma, et cetra.

Dr. Swami is somewhat overly optimistic when he claims that "All chronic ailments like diabetes, high blood pressure, migraine headaches, all the respiratory disorders, orthopedic ailments, neurological conditions, et cetra. can be cured by Naturopathy."

However, we have seen that proper nutrition, right vitamin and mineral supplements, fresh air and plenty of clean water can go a long way in preventing migraines, tension and cluster headaches.

As a complementary and alternative medicine which emphasizes the body's intrinsic ability to heal and maintain itself, Naturopathy can and should be used by migraine patients; and not only those who are getting nowhere fast with traditional modern treatments.

link: In conversation with a practicing Naturopath