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PRINCIPLES OF NATURE CURE
Nature cure based on the principle that the healing is from within. Nature is the only thing which heals and cures; the naturopathic physician lends intelligent assistance and interprets nature's laws for the patient. The fact is that; THE DOCTOR TREATS, NATURE HEALS. There are self-curative forces which are inherent in the human body working towards health and healing. Our body is self-curative.
Impurities/ Toxemia are the principal causes of diseases. Diseases are mainly the accumulation of impurities in the body. Impurities are constantly entering the body which in its natural process goes on removing them. Accumulation beyond a certain limit gives rise to diseases, which is one of the nature's ways of removing the impurities quickly. Thus, from the view point of nature cure disease is to be welcomed if it comes once in a while. Diseases take many forms. But the all of them have only one cause; accumulations of alien materials in the body which cannot absorb, remove or eliminate Impurities enter though air, water and food.
Cure cannot be obtained without cleansing. We cleanse the external parts of the body as they get dirty, but never try to cleanse the internal parts of the body especially the digestive organs. Internal cleansing is more important. Our body is a complicated machine, whose parts unfortunately cannot be removed, but cleansing it is surprisingly very easy unlike machinery. This is because the unique mechanism of our body is an auto cleaner. It is only requires very little effort on our part in the form of water and take rest. We have to give rest to our body by taking fasting. Fasting in the real sense means abstention from intake of food. Irrigation is the cleansing of the internal organs.
Body and mind should be treated as a whole.
The body-mind unit must be in harmony with the environment. No injurious influx can enter the body without the influence of the mind. Our emotions influence bodily functions. Mental attitudes of a person determine the type of influence a disease will have over the body. Most of the chronic diseases have an unmistakable connection with emotions. Even common cold, stomach pain and headaches are triggered by emotions.
Therapies include
Hip Bath
Spinal Bath
Mud Therapy
Salt Glow
Rational Hydrotherapy
Fasting
Massage
Chest Pack
Hot Water Bag
Steam Inhalation
Spinal Pack
Hip bath is a routine treatment for almost all diseases. The treatment is meant to relieve constipation, indigestion, obesity and to help the eliminative organs to function properly. This bath is also helpful in sub involution of the uterus, inflammation of the pelvic organs. Piles, hepatic and splenic congestion, urinary incontinence in young children, chronic uterine infections, chronic congestion of the prostate, seminal weakness, impotency, sterility, and dilation of the stomach and colon. Hip bath is given at cold, neutral, hot and alternate temperature.
The procedure: The hip bathtub should be filled with cold water, enough to cover the hips and reaching up to the navel of the patient, when he sits in it. Generally, four to six gallons of water are necessary. If the patient feels chill or when the climate is very cold or if the patient is very weak, a hot foot bath should be given along with the cold hip bath.
Spinal bath is given in tubs specially made for the purpose. It is given in cold, neutral and hot temperatures. The cold spinal bath relieves irritation of nerves, fatigue, high blood pressure and excitement. It is recommended in almost all nervous disorders, such as hysteria, fits, mental derangement sleeplessness, loss of memory, tension etc.
Procedure: The patient lies in the spinal bathtub after getting undressed and adjusts himself to the water columns of the tub such that they touch the entire length of the spine-from the nape of the neck to the lowest portion of the spine. Some footwear should be worn all along so that the circulation is not interfered with. Normally the patient should be at least 15 minutes in the tub for the spinal bath.
Mud is one of the five elements of nature having immense impact on the body in health, as well as sickness. It can be employed conveniently as a therapeutic agent in naturopathy treatment as its black color absorbs all the colors of the sun and conveys them to the body. As the mud retains moisture for a long time, it cools the body when applied over it. And its shape and consistency can be changed easily available.
Mud procured for treatment should be black, cotton soil with greasiness, but free from pollution and contamination. Before use, the mud should be dried, powdered and sieved to separate stones, grass particles and other impurities.
When the mud is applied to abdomen, it relieves all forms of indigestion. It is effective in decreasing intestinal heat and stimulates peristalsis. A thick mudpack applied to head, in congestive headache, relieves the pain immediately. The advantage of mudpack over cold compress is that it retains the coolness for a longer time. Hence, it is recommended whenever there is a necessity for a prolonged cold application.
Procedure: Mud is applied by keeping water-soaked mud in a thin, wet muslin cloth and making it into a thin flat brick, depending on the size of the patient's abdomen. The size of mudpacks is generally six inches by one inch for adults. The duration of the mudpack application is twenty to thirty minutes. When applied on cold weather, place a blanket over the mudpack and cover the body as well.
Naturopathy has rapid strides in recent years. More and more people are now turning to their system of medicine to treat ailments. They are gradually realizing the limitation of modern medical system and adverse side effects of allopathic drugs. Nature cure is not just a therapy, although its main application so far has been in the field of curing ailments. It is actually a way of life, a way of living in accordance with what nature offers us. The philosophy of nature cure is based on the fact that is man is a product of nature.
In this procedure salt of medium fineness and slightly moistened is applied to the surface of the body with friction movements, the amount of pressure being adjusted to the patient's sensation. With very thin – skinned persons, abrasion and irritation of the skin may be very easily produced. Persons of dark complexion, whose skins are usually thick, bear more vigorous applications than blonds.
The patient prepares for the treatment by lying down upon a slab or bed covered with a sheet, having previously been divested of his clothing. The sheet is drawn over the patient to prevent chilling. One part after another is then exposed and rubbed with the moistened salt, two or there pounds of which should be conveniently at hand in a basin. When this treatment is given in an institution, the patient may sit upon a stool, lie upon a slab, or stand upon a low stool, while receiving the application, in a room especially arranged for the purpose, and a temperature sufficiently high to prevent chilling.
After the application, the salt which adheres to the surface is removed by the cold effusion, shower, or spray. The patient is quickly dried and rubbed in the usual manner. It will be noticed that the skin is hard and almost as smooth as marble after this application. In cases of feeble patients, a dash of hot water or a warm shower should be given just before the final cold application.
The salt glow is an admirable means of producing circulatory reaction, without thermal reaction if the temperature employed is not very much below that of the surface of the body. The salt acts as a chemical irritant to the skin, in addition to the mechanical stimulus produced by the rubbing of the sharp crystals in contact with the surface of the body.
The salt glow produces to an intense degree the circulatory stimulation of the brine bath, the sea-water bath, the effervescing bath, and the saline sponge, and with little thermal effect, provide the temperature of the salt when employed is not much blow that of the body. By moistening the salt with ice-could water, it is thermal effects in addition to the circulatory reaction produced by the chemical effect of the salt and the friction.
Therapeutic Applications.- The salt glow is a tonic measure of high value, and also produces valuable derivative effects; it is especially valuable in feeble patients whose heat-making powers are small, and in whom thermal reaction dose not readily occur, or if it dose, the cold bath still has the effect to exhaust the patient and produce loss of heat. The salt glow is valuable in cases in which the skin is very inactive, a condition commonly found present in chronic indigestion. It may be usefully employed in cases of Brigit's disease, and in diabetics, conditions demanding increase of skin disease, and must not in any case be used so frequently as to produce coetaneous irritation. This measure is rarely of use in any form of acute disease
In fasting there is an abundant rest-for recuperation and radical cure of diseases-and hence we shall discuss how and when to fast, so as to get the best results and avoid the dangers that beset this measure of our hygienic practice. In fasting, the vital power being released from its usual heavy labor of digestion, become available for lightening the encumbrances of toxic filth deposited. There is also the fact, observed by many, that animals-even domesticated ones take to fasting whenever they are sick. By this practice they obtain perfect recovery from their disease in a much shorter time then otherwise.
The statement that faster life upon his own flesh during fasting is not true. What happens is that during the fast, Life itself gets rid of the flesh tainted with toxic filth, because it is a hindrance. When by such vital effort this tainted flesh is eliminated, no more flesh is lost, even if the fast be continued for some time longer. We ask, where the harm is if sickly flash is 'lost'. When the body is purified by fasting, then healthy flesh is formed, which will be serviceable to life
In the case of a person who took no food for three months, the vital organs do not lose much of their substance. About one third-30 percent-of the muscles are lost. There is no loss of brain tissue; cent percent of it remains. So wrote Dr.Dewey, citing Yeo, author of a textbook on physiology. Our fasts do not exceed three days.
The necessity for fasting is this. A man who treats his stomach unfairly by eating without hunger, by overeating, etc. becomes sick. If he goes on eating contrary to hygienic laws, how can he get back his lost health? One who falls sick due to not giving timely rest to them but by fasting and by eating abstemiously so as to maintain the highest possible level of Vital Economy? Thus fasting must be looked upon as an expiatory activity called “prayaschitta”, for having eaten contrary to the Divine Laws. Sometimes the stomach tries to get rid of its load of unwanted food by vomiting it. If a man eats even after such protest by the stomach, what sort of man is he? Unmistakably, in acute conditions of ill-health, Nature says, 'Don't eat'. Those that disregard this Nature's Voice are inferior even to animals. Keen hunger dose not come to patients of chronic disease. Hence, for such persons, short fasts at intervals are necessary for recovery of natural hunger. It is said by some that men who are obese, with much fat deposited in many parts of their bodies, can fast, but not lean ones. This is not true, because in these persons there are heavier encumbrances, needing to be lightened. In acute cases one must fast until the disease abates and there is a sense of lightness. Thereafter one must break the fast in the proper way, so as not to prevent the re-establishment of health.
As a rule in chronic cases long fasts are unnecessary. But very shorts fasts are proper and should be gone through, many times at intervals, during which positive food, which will not form deposits of foreign matter in the body, should be eaten, for providing a sufficiency of the positive food factors, organic alkaline salts and the mysterious entities called ‘Vitamins'. In breaking a fast the faster should take diluted fruit juice, tender coconut water, soup of vegetables, or thin buttermilk, which is curd mixed with water and well-churned. So long as there is no increase, of digestive power, the same food should be taken. If the power increases, then there should be a change over to some slightly heavier food. At this time, either fruit or conservatively cooked vegetable should be eaten sparingly. In this non-violent and safe procedure the fast should be finished.
Massage is the natural adjunct of hydrotherapy. It produces both mechanical and reflex which result in the development of powerful circulatory reaction. The circulatory reaction produced by massage is very prompt, no delay being occasioned by contraction of the blood-vessels due to chilling of the patient, as when cold water is applied. Of the various procedures of massage, nearly all are efficient promoters of circulatory reaction; but aside from friction, the effects of which have already been described, percussion is the only form of manual manipulation which is systematically associated with ordinary hydric applications. In the massage douche, deep kneading in its various forms is also advantageously utilized, as elsewhere mentioned (1066)
Method.- This procedure consists of blows administrated by the hand in various ways and with varying degrees of force, the two hands being used in alternation. The movement is always from the wrist joint, which gives to the blow the quality of elasticity. The inexperienced operator holds the wrist rigid, and pummels the patient, much as a pugilist would do, thus producing disagreeable and painful effects; while a dexterous and experienced operator maintains a flexibility of the wrists which adds greatly to the good effects of the treatment.
"A stiff blow bruises the surface tissues without producing any beneficial effect upon the deeper structures, the force of the blow being expended upon the surface. An elastic blow executed in the manner described, penetrates deeply without injuring the superficial structures. A skilled masseur gives springy blows, the movement being chiefly at the wrist joint. As a rule, the hand should strike the body transversely with relation to the muscles of the various forms of percussion; spitting and clapping are the only ones which are especially valuable in connection with hydrotherapy. Spitting consists of percussion with the palmer surface the extended fingers held rigid. This is the form in which percussion is most frequently employed. It is applicable to most parts of the body.
In clapping, the whole hand is employed, the palmer surface being so shaped as to entrap the air as it comes in contact with the skin producing a sort of explosive effect and a loud sound. Clapping is used on fleshy parts where strong surface stimulation is desired.
Physiological Effects.-The physiological effects of percussion are practically identical with the mechanical and reflex effects produced by friction. This procedure is a powerful excitant, acting not only upon the skin, but upon the tissues beneath. A short, light application produces spasm of the superficial vessels. It may be said that light percussion produces much the same effect as light friction; moderate percussion, the effect of moderate friction; and very vigorous and prolonged percussion, the effects of vigorous and prolonged percussion, and the effects of vigorous and prolonged friction. Friction differs from percussion chiefly in the fact that by the movements made in friction, the blood is forced along the venous channels, thus mechanically aiding the circulation; while in percussion the mechanical effect is less, but the sensory impression is much stronger, and hence the reflex effects are more marked. Percussion and friction may be combined, as in the percussion friction stroke employed in the cold wet-towel rub and the wet-sheet rub.
The chest pack may be conveniently applied by means of a sort of jacket fitted to the patient, or better still, by means of a bandage made of one or two thicknesses of linen, or four to six thicknesses of cheese-cloth. The bandage should be eight to ten inches in width, six to eight feet in length, and should be loosely rolled up, dipped into water at the proper temperature, and wrung out without unrolling. The bandage has to be supplied as follows. The nurse taking the roll of bandage in her right hand, and seizing the end of the bandage with her left, stations herself in front of the patient, who is sitting or standing with the clothing removed to the waist. The end of the bandage is placed against the right side of the chest, and held in place by the patient hand; or, the application may begin under the patient's right arm, which is pressed against the bandage to hold it in position. The bandage is then carried obliquely across the chest and over the left shoulder; then passing obliquely downward across the back, it is carried forward under the right arm and them horizontally across the chest in front, under the left arm obliquely upward to the right shoulder, over which the end of the bandage is drawn and tucked under the transverse fold crossing the chest. The transverse portion of the bandage is then pulled up toward each shoulder, and fastened as snugly as possible by means of safety-pins. The wet bandage should be made to fit the patient tightly everywhere
Heat, either with or without accompanying moisture, may be applied by a variety of other methods, as by means of a rubber bag filled with hot water. The exact effect of the fomentation may be secured by wrapping a hot bag with moist flannel cloth. Hot bricks bottles filled with hot water, and other heated objects may be used in a similar manner when it is desirable to employ heat for a considerable time.
The hot water bag stimulates the sympathetic nerve centers, and thus diminishes the size of the small vessels throughout the body. The temperature of the application to the spine should not be higher than 120º. The application of the hot water bag has to be used not to the spine, but to the back, and hence cover a sufficiently broad area to bring under the influence of heat a considerable portion of the coetaneous branches of the posterior spinal nerves. The result to be obtained is due, not to the action of heat upon the nerve centers, but to reflex and fluxion effects.
The inhalation of air saturated with moisture and warmed by mixture with steam in properly called steam inhalation, is a very old –fashioned but an extremely valuable remedy for both acute and chronic inflammations of the air –passages. The so-cold": croup-kettle," though a crude affair, has been the means of savings many lives, and alleviating the sufferings of hundreds of little ones. When it is desirable the patients should breathe the vapor continually, very effective means may be conveniently arranged by aid of the portable oil-stoves and gas-stoves now in use. The stove should be placed by the besides of the patient with a teakettle, or in the absence of anything better a basin in which water may be continuously and vigorously boiled. By means of a yard of wire mosquito netting; rolled in to the proper shape, and covered, with oil cloth, rubber cloth, or newspapers, it is possible to construct a cone whereby the vapor may be brought to the face of the patient living close to the edge of the bed; or for a small sum a thinner may be employed to make a more convenient and durable arrangement for conducting the steam from the boiler to the patient. It is neither necessary nor desirable that all air should be excluded except that which comes through the apparatus. It is only important that the patient should breathe the air as moist and at as high a temperature as possible.
While less frequently employed than many other forms of the heating compress, the spinal pack is sufficiently useful as a hydria tic procedure to be worthy of brief description. The requisites for spinal pack are : an ordinary towel, a piece of woolen blanket sufficiently large to cover the entire back when folded for thicknesses; if special protection is required, a piece of mackintosh a little larger then the folded flannel, and a roller cheese cloth bandage on foot wide, three thickness, four yards long.
In this pack the towel is folded lengthwise and wrung dry from water at 60º, and applied the whole length of the spine from the cervical region to the coccyx, after first rubbing the skin surface with the hand dipped in water at 50º until reddened. The final is laid over the towel, over this the mackintosh, and cheese-cloth bandage is applied in such a manner as to hold the pack in snug contact with the skin.
The spinal pack produces, first, strong fluxion in the spinal vessels; later, hyperemia of the skin, whereby the spinal cord is drained. If impervious protestation is employed, the super heating of the spring finely produces accumulation of blood in the spinal vessels. The procedure may therefore be employed either combat anemia or hipper anemia of the cord, according as it is more or less protected. Partial protected spinal pack, by congesting the spinal vessels, antagonizes chronic degenerations of the cord. It is very useful in some cases of insomnia.
The natural pack, applied at 80º, covered with two thicknesses of flannel only, without mackintosh, is a calmative procedure of great value in spinal irritation with hyperesthesia of the spine, and in conditions in which irritability of the spinal centers exists, as in locomotors ataxia and other degenerations at certain stages