I’m a Naturopathic medicine specialist and here is what you need to know!

Naturopathy or Naturopathic medicine is according to Wikipedia; “a form of alternative medicine that employs an array of pseudoscientific practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", and as promoting "self-healing". The ideology and methods of Naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine, rather than evidence-based medicine. Naturopathic practitioners generally recommend against following modern medical practices, including and not limited to, medical testing, drugs, vaccinations, and surgery. Instead, Naturopathic study and practice rely on unscientific notions, often leading Naturopathic doctors to diagnoses and treatments that have no factual merit.”

Naturopathic medicine specialist is not a protected profession, so basically anyone can call (him or) herself like that. Like probably read on this blog, my journey since changing my food habits has been all about living more in sync with myself and nature. I never had the plan on studying Naturopathic medicine, now at some point in the past when not having any lecture anymore at home, I came across an e-learning book ‘Centre de Formation à Distance - Naturopathie - Carol Panne’ my soul mate had here, in order to become a Naturopathic medicine. I started reading it and read the complete 799 pages.

I did not do the test in order to get a certificate, since I’ve no plans of becoming a Naturopathic medicine specialist and just want to share what I learned.

Here are the different topics that caught my attention;

• As a human, as a basis, I have to take care of 3 main things; Air, Water and Food.

• There are 10 basic techniques of Naturopathic medicine;
• Food
• Physical activity
• Relaxation
• Herbal medicine
• Hydrotherapy
• Breathing
• Manual technics
• Reflexology
• Energy technics
• Vibration technics

• Food is constituted of glucides, proteins and lipids. It (food) doesn’t cure, it helps the autoimmune system of the body to restore health.

• 4 main food categories are used in naturopathy;
• Diuretics (they make me urinate) -> examples of plants: watermelon, tomatoes, celery, dandelions, asparagus...
• Laxative (they make me defecate) -> examples of plants: water, strawberries, almonds, broccoli, black Beans, prunes...
• Sudoxic (they make me sweat) -> examples of plants: chamomile, carrot, elm...
• Expectorant (they make me spit) -> examples of plants: thyme, fennel, marjoram...

• There is also quite some importance provided to the 7 chakras, here below a little explanation about them (source: https://navutudreams.com/2017/01/11/chakras-explained-the-7-chakras-you-need-to-know-about/)

The word Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning “wheel” or “circle”, and it refers to the individual circular spinning wheels of energy located throughout the body.

The Chakra System is a complex network of energy channels connecting these wheels and is mapped throughout the whole body, much like a spiritual nervous system.

There are 7 main and biggest Chakras which are found running alongside the spine (not actually in the spine).

Each chakra is said to vibrate at a different frequency and is associated with a particular color, very handy for chakra meditations where you can visualize the colors.

They are also each associated with certain emotions and organs and their function. Here is a very simple run down of the Chakras.

• #1 Root Chakra (Muladhara) - Located at the base or root, the perineum, this chakra represents grounding, and survival needs like shelter and security, often a good one to focus on if you travel a lot and don’t always have a fixed home or sense of security. Associated with the color red and the spinal column, the kidneys, legs and colon.

• #2 Sacral Chakra (Svadisthana) - Located by the Sacrum, a large piece of bone at the base of the spine, but above the coccyx. This chakra represents pleasure, emotional balance and sexuality. Associated with the color orange and the reproductive organs, prostate and bladder.

• #3 Navel Chakra (Manipura) - Located by the belly button, this chakra represents our willpower and assertion, it is yellow in colour and associated with the pancreas, liver and stomach.

• #4 Heart Chakra (Anahata) - Located centrally near the heart, this chakra represents of course, love, unconditional love, acceptance, compassion and intuitiveness. The color is green and the associated organs are the heart, the circulatory system, the arms and hands.

• #5 Throat Chakra (Vishudha) - Located at the throat (what a surprise!), this chakra is all about communication, creativity, truth and reliability. The color is blue and the organs associated are the thyroid, hypothalamus, throat and mouth.

• #6 Third Eye Chakra (Ajna) - Located in the center of the brain, at a cross section found between the eyes and just above the ears. This chakra represents wisdom, imagination, intuition and an ability to analyse and perceive truth in the world. The color is a deep purple and the associated organs are the pituitary gland, the nose, the ears and the pineal gland.

• #7 Crown Chakra (Sahasrara) - The only chakra to be found outside of the physical body, this is located just above the crown of the head in what is considered our “spiritual body”. There are less words about this chakra as it is the chakra associated with higher consciousness, pure unconditional love and a state of pure being (beyond words!). There are no physical organs associated, but it is associated with vitalizing the upper brain, and the color is a light purple or indigo, or white.

• Everything is about duality, yin and yang, like I’ve personally already written about this as well over here.

• The meridians are typically listed in Yin/Yang pairs:
• Large Intestine (arm-yang) and Lung (arm-yin) = Metal Element
• Stomach (leg-yang) and Spleen (leg-yin) = Earth Element
• Small Intestine (arm-yang) and Heart (arm-yin) = Fire Element
• Bladder (leg-yang) and Kidney (leg-yin) = Water Element
• Triple-Warmer (arm-yang) and Pericardium (arm-yin) = Fire Element
• Gallbladder (leg-yang) and Liver (leg-yin) = Wood Element

• For the Belgian people, as a reference for good food, they mentioned to take a look at Pol Grégoire. I found it very close to my raw whole food lifestyle today.

• About the raw whole food lifestyle, or also called Raw Foodism they mentioned that is not a whim of the 20th century. Revealed Essenes used this lifestyle more than 2000 years ago. Some of their members even lived 120 years. In the 20th century, it’s basically Ann Wigmore and Viktoras Kulvinkas that get again the attention to the benefits of this lifestyle by creating the Hippocrates Health Institute.

• There is also a reference to a study done by Paul Kouchakoff, MD, on the fact that the organism considers cooked foods to be harmful invaders.

• A little summary of it = A classic and profound study on the direct effect of cooking food on the human immune system. Presented by Dr. Paul Kouchakoff at the First International Congress of Microbiology in 1930 and later translated and published by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, the research focuses on the phenomenon of “digestive leukocytosis,” or the increase and mobilization of white blood cells in response to eating food. Dr. Kouchakoff observed that this immune response occurs only when the food eaten is cooked and, moreover, that processed food (which are often exposed to high temperatures in their preparation) incites an even graver response than cooked whole foods. Raw foods, on the other hand, not only fail to cause digestive leukocytosis but can prevent cooked foods from causing it if eaten at the same meal. Dr. Kouchakoff spent many years studying the effects of cooked food versus raw food on the human immune system, and it remains a great mystery and tragedy that no one has followed up on his startling findings. From Proceedings: First International Congress of Microbiology, 1930. Translated and reprinted by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research.

• Drinking regularly (ideally daily) a fresh veggie juice will improve your autoimmune system.

• Today in our lifestyle, we quite often take a fruit by the end of our meal, which is really a very bad idea. At the end of our meal the digestive tube is very heavily solicited by the meal we just eat. At that moment the simple sugar from fruits are stagnating and amplifying the fermentation effect. If fruits are eaten way before or way after the meal, then this process does not happen.

• Omega-3 is in my current way of eating really not enough present and a supplement will have to be taken for that. More information on this, see over here.

• A word on Calcium - The best calcium intake is a plant based intake. Contrary to a well-established belief, it is not dairy products that provide the most calcium. Dairy products are very acidic and tend to deplete bone calcium.

• There was quite some attention on essential oils, which can be very helpful, now they require quite some precaution and specialized advice. Nowhere else did I see so much red and warnings in the book than in the essential oils section. I personally prefer to leave them aside seen the possible consequences.

• What about medicines?

Well the medicines and pharmaceutics like we know them today only exists since 1950, so right after world war 2. Before that time, healing was only done with products provided by nature.

• Industrialization and capitalism made us forget all the healing force that nature provides. This is the basis of Naturopathic medicine to return that those roots, now this is of course much against the pharmaceutical business, who is trying to avoid a return of natural health in any circumstances.

• In general, Naturopathic medicine improvements will happen from high to low, so first headache, for example, will disappear before pain in the hips.

• To note also that the human body is a system of different sub-systems such as;

• Circulatory system (red blood cells have the function of transporting oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide, the white blood cells participate in phagocytosis providing protection against infections and eliminating by digestion of microbial elements. There is a complete separation between the oxygen blood coming from the lungs and the blood loaded with metabolic waste and depleted oxygen coming back from the different organs. Arteries bring oxygenated red blood from the heart to the organs and they bring black blood, vitiated, depleted from the heart to the lungs).
• Nervous system (The inflammatory reaction is also part of the defense mechanism. Inflammation is characterized by 4 signs; redness, heat, pain and edema. Heat and redness are due to vasodilation of capillaries and slowing down of the blood circulation. The pain is due to the pressure of the nerve fibers and the edema is due to the exudation of the plasma).
• Respiratory system (the breathing fulfills 3 functions: it brings oxygen to the organism, it evacuates the wastes, in occurrence the carbon dioxide and it participates in the regulation of the blood pH).
• Digestive system (the main function of digestive organs, is to transform food so that it can be assimilated and nourish all our cells. With the liver fulfilling the role of great factory of the body)
• Skeletal system (the human skeleton includes 360 joints, united by ligaments and tendons. Some are made mobile by muscles, fascias and slide thanks to articulations that facilitate movements).
• Muscular system (to ensure the movement of the body, to maintain the posture, to produce heat and to protect fragile noble organs in collaboration with the bones).

• A virus is unable to defend itself, so very easy to eliminate if the immune system is healthy and effective. 

• The development of autoimmune diseases is probably the result of the accumulation of several causes, such as genetic predisposition, pollution, vaccines, drug intake or diet.

• It is of course of no surprise that these systems are interconnected that I have to look for the complete picture.

What I discovered during this course, is that we know the majority of things within us, we just don’t take the time anymore to look there.

As a little exercise, take a normal day, write down what you breathe as air, drink as water, do to move and eat as energy.

Then look to what you have written down and set after it what feels to you like good, and what feels to you like not good.

Maybe we should look a bit more at animals to understand.

"Animals are the bridge between us and the beauty of all that is natural. They show us what's missing in our lives, and how to love ourselves more completely and unconditionally. They connect us back to who we are, and to the purpose of why we're here." ― Trisha McCagh

#peace #goodfood #nature #fruitsandvegetables #wholefood #freedom #Naturopathy #naturopathicmedicine #selfhealing #Air #Water #Food #Physicalactivity #Relaxation #Herbalmedicine #Hydrotherapy #Breathing #Reflexology #Energy #Vibration #chakras #RootChakra #Muladhara #SacralChakra #Svadisthana #NavelChakra #Manipura #HeartChakra #Anahata #ThroatChakra #Vishudha #ThirdEyeChakra #Ajna #CrownChakra #Sahasrara #spiritualbody #yinandyang #PolGrégoire #rawwholefoodlifestyle #RawFoodism #AnnWigmore #ViktorasKulvinkas #HippocratesHealthInstitute #PaulKouchakoffMD #Omega3 #Calcium #TrishaMcCagh