Naturopathy has its origins in a variety of world medicine practices, including the Ayurveda of India, Chinese Herbalism of the East, Native Indian medicine of the USA, Nature Cure of Europe, and Unani-Tibb medicine of Greek origin. However, Naturopathic Medicine, as practiced in the West today, grew out of the eclectic healing systems of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Eclectics, considered the forefathers of modern Naturopathic Medicine, tended to use any means to help their patients as long as it didn't harm them. For over 2000 years, until the early 1800s, medicine was practised exclusively according to the principles established by the most famous Eclectic of all time – the ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates [460-377 BC], the founding father of natural medicine.

Although he followed the belief of his time that disease resulted from an imbalance of the four bodily humors, he maintained that the first and foremost principle of medicine must be to respect Nature’s healing forces, which inhabit each living organism, and that physicians should look to the laws of Nature and apply it to their practice. Hippocrates considered illness a natural phenomenon, which served as a catalyst for afflicted people, to discover the imbalances in their health. Where he fundamentally differed from his peers was that he strongly advocated that good food and hygiene was the cornerstone of health, postulating that the cause of most ailments was due to poor nutrition and unhealthy eating habits. Regarded as the original master of aphorisms, Hippocrates stated: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food" – wisdom that has, to this day, not lost its validity.

Hippocrates also taught that a key goal of medicine should be to build the patient’s strength through appropriate diet and hygienic measures, resorting to more drastic treatment only when the symptoms indicated this to be necessary. It’s interesting to observe that very little changes in the cycles of life [and medicine]. The Hippocratic beliefs and practices contrasted with the contemporary school of thought in his day, which stressed detailed diagnosis and classification of disease to the point of ignoring the patient.
The term “Nature Cure” was coined in 1895 by Dr John Scheel to describe his own method of health care. The modern term, “naturopathy”, was however only adopted in the early 1900s when Dr Benedict Lust, a German doctor, trained by Father Sebastian Kneipp, began using the term to name the Eclectic compilation of doctrines of natural healing that he envisioned as the future scope of natural medicine. In 1905 he founded the first naturopathic college in New York USA, the American School of Naturopathy. Over the next few decades he established several other naturopathic colleges throughout the United States, and naturopathic medicine flourished in the USA until the 1930s. Sadly, the advent of drug-based medicine, which began with the discovery of penicillin, heralded the decline in natural medicine and natural health professions for many years. Technical advances in science have persuaded the politicians and the public that allopathic medicine is a superior system health care, resulting in legislation that severely restricts the availability of other healthcare systems. The major contributory factor cited being the monopoly of healthcare, as generated by the drug industry, which was then, and is still now, supported by the conventional medical profession, and imposed on the public.

I956 saw a resurgence in the profession when the National College of Naturopathic Medicine opened in Portland, Oregon, offering a 4-year naturopathic medicine training programme with the intention of integrating science with naturopathic principles and practice. Australia, and now South Africa, offers professional naturopathic medicine training. The Allied Health Professions legislation has also been responsible for the paradigm shift that has placed SA in the forefront of history, regarding the current healthcare revolution, by recognizing and endorsing the value of 11 natural healthcare systems. Hopefully, in the not too distant future, we will follow the example of India, which has several naturopathic hospitals in the country – completing the circle that began so many thousands of years ago.

The First Aphorism of Hippocrates reads:
“Life is short; the art is long. Opportunity is fleeting, experience perilous and judgment is difficult. The physician must be ready, not only to do his duty himself, but to secure the cooperation of the patient, attendants and of externals.”