What is Naturopathy?

Naturopathy is an art and science of healthy living through drugless system of healing based on well-founded philosophy. It has its own concept of health & disease and also its own principle of treatment. Naturopathy is a very old science. We can find a number of references in our Vedas and other ancient texts which talk about Naturopathy. The morbid matter theory, concept of vital force and other concepts upon which Naturopathy is based are already available in Ayurveda as well. The revival of Naturopathy started in India by translation of Germany’s Louis Kuhne’s book “New Science of Healing”. Shri D. Venkat Chelapati Sharma translated this book in Telgu language in 1894 and then Shri Shroti Kishan Swaroop of Bijnor translated this book into Hindi and Urdu languages in 1904. All this gave a wide propagation to this Naturopathy.

The fundamental difference of Naturopathy with other systems is that its theory and practice are based on holistic living; naturopathy is a lifestyle whereas the later’s approach is specific. Naturopathy does not believe in that a specific disease has a specific treatment but takes into account the totality of factors responsible for disease such as one’s unnatural habits in living, thinking, working, sleeping, relaxing, sexual indulgence etc. and also considers the environmental factors involved which on the whole disturb the normal functioning of the body and lead it to a morbid, weak and toxic state. For treatment, it primarily focus is to correct all the factors involved and allows the body to recover itself. The Naturopath helps in Nature’s effort to overcome disease by applying correct natural modalities and controlling the natural forces to work within safe limits. Naturopathy believes that body fight for itself.

In India Naturopathy movement started mainly in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Here, it may also be mentioned that modern Naturopathy movement was started in Germany and other western countries with Water Cure (Hydrotherapy) therapy. Water Cure was synonymous with Nature Cure in those early days. The credit of making Water Cure world famous goes to Vincent Priessnitz (1799-1851), who was a farmer. Later on, other also made their contribution in this work.

Gandhiji was influenced by the book “Return to Nature” written by Adolf Just and become a firm believer and practitioner  of Naturopathy. He not only wrote several articles in favor of Naturopathy in his own newspaper “Harijan” and also did several experiments on himself and on his family members and members of his Ashram. It may be noted here that Gandhiji used to stay at the “Nature Cure Clinic” of Dr. Dinshaw Mehta situated in Pune during 1934 to 1944. In his memory, the Government of India established ‘National Institute of Naturopathy’ in 1986 at that place. Gandhiji included Naturopathy in his constructive programmers. Due to influence of Gandhiji, several National leaders joined this minority health movement.

Definition of Naturopathy

Naturopathy is a system of man building in harmony with the constructive principles of Nature on physical, mental, moral and spiritual planes of living. It has great health promotive, disease preventive and curative as well as restorative potential. Naturopathy believes that body heals itself.

According to the manifesto of British Naturopathic Association, “Naturopathy is a system of treatment which recognizes the existence of the vital curative force within the body.” It therefore, advocates aiding human system to remove the cause of disease i.e. toxins by expelling the unwanted and unused matters from human body for curing diseases.