1) eating a healthy diet full of nutrients, antioxidents and fibre and low in animal products, saturated fats, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and salt,
2) drinking lots of pure water,
3) regular exercise,
4) reducing stress,
5) massage therapy,
6) manipulative therapy,
7) hydrotherapy,
8) emotional therapy,
9) colonic irrigation,
10) no smoking,
11) moderate exposure to sunlight.
All of these are now recommended by conventional medicine as being the basis of good general health. Many of the prescriptive drugs used today have their basis in natural organic compounds found in plants. It is well known that people with poor diet, sedentary lifestyles and under stress suffer far more from physical and mental dis-ease than those who live healthily.
Every organism has a 'life energy', its function is to keep the body in harmony, technically known as homeostasis. This state tends to good health - mentally, physically and emotionally. Illness and dis-ease is natural and essential for a strong and effective immune system. It occurs when any part of the whole organism is not working well. Incorrect diet, food or environmental allergies and intolerances, poor elimination of waste products or toxins, destructive emotions, suppressive drugs, lack of exercise, dehydration, and even genetic factors can throw the body out of balance. The symptoms of an illness are evidence that the healing forces of the body are at work, and ought not to be suppressed in a healthy person. For example if you have a common cold you develop a temperature - this is your body’s way of killing the virus as it cannot survive in the elevated temperature. Therefore it is illogical and against your body’s own defences to take a temperature lowering drug like aspirin - you may make your cold last even longer! If you have a twenty four hour bout of diarrhoea it is the body’s way of ejecting the offending micro-organism causing the problem. It also clears any toxins and empties the gut and rectum of faecal matter. This is good for the body, so taking an anti-diarrhoea drug to hold the microbes and toxins in the alimentary canal cannot be good for you.
Naturopathic Holistic Therapy is a philosophy for life and not an inflexible system of interventional treatments. Its principles activate and strengthen the persons innate healing forces and effect a rapid and powerful reaction to any illness. All treatments or therapies are natural and holistic. There is more than a grain of truth in the old adage An apple a day keeps the doctor away'. Naturopathic Holistic Therapy is a ‘whole person approach’ and Naturopaths are more interested in understanding a dis-ease or symptom, (and restoring full health), than giving it a name or label. After all naming something does not eliminate it!
The triad of health
Good health depends on maintaining a balance of three things:- the body’s structure, biochemistry and emotions. The structure is the skeleton, muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves and organs. The state of health of the body’s structures is very important. If bones are out of alignment, muscles tense, or a nerves is trapped then severe pain may result, and the efficiency of vital organs my be impeded. Biochemistry is what we eat and drink, inhale and touch, the waste we produce, the toxins we store in our body and the hormone we secrete. Good nutrition is essential for tissue growth and repair, and a robust immune system along with many other bodily functions, such as our moods, emotional state, mental health, hormone production, and even fertility. Emotions are our state of mind and have a great effect on biochemistry, and vice versa there are many foods and herbs that effect the emotions.
What happens during a consultation?
You will be asked for details on your diet and alcohol consumption, lifestyle and smoking habits, sleep patterns, work and relationships with your family, friends, and colleagues and other things they feel are necessary. The therapist may take your blood pressure, your pulse, listen to your heart and breathing, examine your eyes, (Iridology), tongue, weigh you and determine your body fat percentage.
From these they will work out a therapy plan which will include some elements from several different therapies, eg. nutrition/diet, fasting/detoxification, allergy/intolerance tests, homoeopathy, hydrotherapy, stress management/relaxation, massage, or other manual therapy, exercise, colonic irrigation, (not available at Cressinghams) and emotional support -counselling, psychotherapy, or hypnotherapy.
Every person is different so every therapy plan is unique and it is not possible to say exactly how many sessions you will require or how long specific therapy plans will last as they are reviewed and modified as the person heals.
If there is any medical condition thought to be present you will be recommended to visit your GP and no therapy will be recommended.
What is treatable with Naturopathic Holistic Therapy?
Most acute and some chronic dis-eases;- anaemia, allergies/intolerances, arthritis, blood pressure, bronchial problems, candida, circulatory disorders, colitis, constipation, cystitis, depression, eczema and other skin conditions, insomnia, IBS, migraines, menopausal problems, PMS, sinusitis, stress, ulcers, and many more.
A Naturopathic Holistic lifestyle can help prevent many of the above from occurring or at least make then less virulent when they do.
Therapist
Richard Wain
