By Dada Dharmavedananda
Everyone is familiar with the techniques and tools of modern medical treatment. When you are ill you call a doctor and maybe you take some medicine such as an antibiotic.
The medicine hopefully will knock out the bad microbes that caused the disease. When you get really serious problems then you are rescued by the miracles of modern surgery. This approach has its place but there is also a natural therapy that is more geared to prevention of disease and the curing of the disease in a gentle and natural way.
In case you are wondering how such a natural therapy works, I would like to introduce the basics of natural therapy in this article.
Disease is primarily the result of bad habits, which cause toxins and stress to over-accumulate to the point that the body-mind responds by a sudden and radical release of toxins and/or stress – which is called disease. Suppression of that release by drugs may bring temporary relief and comfort, but invariably forces the body-mind to later release the toxins and stress in an even more radical fashion, i.e. a worse disease. For example, frequent suppression of a cold may become influenza, which suppressed may become asthma, which suppressed may become skin eruptions, which suppressed may produce cancer or severe heart trouble. The environment in a natural health clinic, on the other hand, provides various means so that the natural cleansing process may be accelerated to enable the body and mind to fully eliminate the cause of disease:
• a nutritious diet which is very easy to digest, freeing the digestive system from its normal burdens
• glandular yoga exercise causing the hormonal system to re-balance and maximize its effectiveness
• hot & cold water treatments and mud treatments to relax stressed nerves, eliminate toxins, and tone-up exhausted internal organs
• a water-drinking system to cleanse toxins
• mental exercise or meditation to convert stress into calm positivism
• entertaining and educative activities to fill the patients’ days in a fun, interesting and relaxing way so that they can overcome their stress and disease
• in some cases (according to the patient’s capacity), graduated fasting program or specialized elimination diets – such as liquids or fruits and vegetables only for a reasonable number of days
• in some cases (according to the patient’s capacity), slightly vigorous exercise to cause toxins to release more quickly
Naturotherapy is not dependent on medicines. Food itself is an adequate medicine. It is not only the best way to permanently cure patients of their chronic diseases, but also an excellent way to introduce people to healthy life styles. The ultimate purpose of therapists is to help people become physically fit, mentally relaxed, fully conscious individuals.
The natural health clinic primarily serves those having problems relating to internal organs and to the mind. Such problems include, for example, cancer, heart trouble, diabetes, asthma, skin disease, arthritis, sinusitis, hemorrhoids, kidney stones, liver debility, high blood pressure, acidity, ulcer, kidney stones, arthritis, and mental depression. Also included are problems not normally thought of as disease such as overweight, pimples, menstrual complications, inadequate physical energy, and mental weakness.
About the author
Dada Dharmavedananda is a yogi and naturopathic doctor. He is the founder of the Ananda Marga Yoga Wellness Center, an in-patient natural treatment center in Cebu, Philippines. www.amwellness.org