History & Philosophy Flashcards
What is Naturopathy?
A system of healthcare that encourages and promotes the body’s own self-healing mechanisms.
What are the 5 principles of naturopathy
- The Healing Power of Nature
- Treat the Cause, not a Symptom
- Treat the Whole Person
- Prevention is Preferable to Cure
- Education
Briefly explain what is meant by ‘the healing power of nature’
- The body can heal itself given the right conditions and treatment
- The body has a ‘vital force’ which can be stimulated or suppressed
What is health?
Abundant vitality.
The best possible physical, mental, and emotional state.
What 4 things does a nutritional therapist focus on?
1) Using whole and organic food as medicine.
2) Detoxification and cleansing
3) Looking at the constitution of the patient
4) Understanding the cause of the symptoms.
What is a ‘nutrient’?
A substance that provides nourishment essential for the growth and maintenance of life
What is ‘nutrition’?
The process of providing or obtaining the food necessary for health and growth.
What is ‘nourishment’?
The food or other substances necessary for growth, health and good condition.
Define ‘food’
Any nutritious substance that people or animals eat or drink or that plants absorb in order to maintain life and growth
Define ‘whole food’
Food that has not been processed or refined and is free from additives or other artificial substances
Define ‘organic food’
Food free from fertilisers, pesticides, irradiation, GMOs, growth hormones and livestock feed additives
What are superfoods?
And give 2 examples
Highly nutritious foods containing all, or nearly all, the vitamins, minerals and trace elements the body needs.
Eg.
Algae
Sprouts
Bee pollen
Wheatgrass
What is junk food?
Substances that are not natural, have been altered, or are not suitable for maintaining health and growth
When was Ayurvedic medicine first established?
5000+ years ago in India
When was Traditional Chinese medicine first established?
Approx. 300 years ago
Who famously said:
“Let food be thy Medicine, and Medicine be thy food”
Hippocrates (468-377 BC)
The Father of Medicine
In what order of healing did Hippocates believe in?
Food as the primary source.
Then herbs.
Finally intervention
What was Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897) known for?
Father of hydrotherapy
Cured his own TB by bathing in the river Danube,
Explain hydrotherapy
The therapeutic use of water as a healing agent.
Cold water decreases circulation and numbs the area.
Hot water relaxes muscles and increases circulation.
Alternating hot/cold stimulates blood flow, increasing oxygen and nutritional supply to cells.
What was Dr Max Bircher-Benner (1868-1939) known for?
Famous for Bircher muesli
Advocated a 50/50 raw food diet with emphasis on fruit.
Before becoming commersialised, what was Dr John Harvey Kellogg’s breakfast cereal aimed at?
Improving bowel health and intestinal microflora.
Who used the term ‘nature-cure’?
Henry Lindlahr (1862-1924)
What is Gerson Therapy?
Max Gerson (1881-1959)
Alkalising the body through fresh organic vegetable juices and detoxification with coffee enemas.
Very high success rate for TB. Went on to use with cancer patients.
What’s the significance of James Thomson (1887-1960)?
Opened the first training college in Britain in 1919 - The Edinburgh School of Natural Therapeutics.
He advocated fibre.
What is Bernard Jensen (1908-2001) known for?
Advocated bowel-cleansing as the most important aspect in maintaining health.
Used bentonite clay to help bind waste materials to clear out the bowels.
Mapped out organs to different places in the bowels.
Briefly outline key suppressions in Natural Medicine in recent history
2004 - BBC closed its web pages for complementary medicine. National newspapers also stopped reporting on healing successes.
Several mainstream papers started printing overtly anti-alternative columns,
2010 - Advertising Standards Agency started censoring natural therapy websites and adverts in the UK
Who is a key founder in the multi-billion pharmaceutical industry?
John Rockefeller (1839-1937)
Compare 3 differences in how allopathy and homeopathy treat disease.
A - uses chemicals/drugs
H - uses natural ingredients
A - views symptoms as the disease
H- views symptoms as an expression of disease, not the disease.
A - treats the symptoms
H - treats the whole person
Briefly explains the Laws of Similars
Developed by Samuel Hahnermann
‘Like cures like’
Uses the thing that produces the symptoms to take away the symptoms.
Birthed homeopathy.
Give 3 examples of treating ‘like with like’
Bee Venom for a bee sting.
Snake venom for a snake bite
Warm water (hot) for a fever (hot)
Apply warmth to burns.
Does allopathy use the laws of similar?
No as it does not treat like with like.
Eg advice is to use cold for both frostbite and burns, which doesn’t make sense.
Define suppression
One gets the manifestation of an illness to disappear without having healed the illness
Give 3 examples of suppression
- Antidepressants suppress emotions
- Antiperspirants suppress body secretions and toxins can cause breast cancer
- Corticosteroids for skin complaints compromise the immune system and inhibit waste elimination from skin.
- Tonsillectomy for throat infections leaves them immune compromised
What are the 5 Laws of Cure
- From inside out
- The more serious organs to less serious ones.
- The mind gets better before the body
- Symptoms disappear in the reverse order to when they arrived
- From above to below
What is the theory behind the TCM Body Clock?
It believes that each organ functions at its optimum capacity at certain times of the day.
It’s a valuable tool when exploring the timing of symptoms and possible organs relations.
Eg.
1am - 3am = Liver
3am - 5am = Lungs
5am - 7am = Large Intestines
7am - 9am = Stomach
What’s the principles of Yin and Yang?
Yin and Yang are opposites but not in absolute. Nothing is entirely one or the other.
Generally:
Yin is cool, contracting
Yang is warm, expanding
Give 3 examples of properties of Yin foods
Cooling foods
Plant food - low in calories
Wet
Sweet
Refined
Raw
Give 3 examples of properties of Yang foods
Warming foods
High in calories
Fresh food
Give 5 examples of Yin Food
Fruit
Green vegetables
Seaweed
Salad
Fish
Sprouts
Coconut
Give 5 examples of Yang food
Red meat (meat in general)
Chocolate
Tea & Coffee
Alcohol
Black pepper
Ginger
Chilli
Onion
Root vegetables
Explain what is meant by relativity regarding Yin and Yang
Whether something is Yin or Yang can be relative to what it’s being compared with.
Eg Fish is generally considered Yin but it’s not Yin in relation to more Yin foods such as raw vegetables.
Give examples of Yin/Yang cooking methods
Yin = steaming or boiling, juicing, blending, grinding
Yang = fire, baking or roasting
What polarities are there of Yin and Yang?
Hot / Cold
Dry / Wet
Heavy / Light
