Natural Hygiene Diet
Natural hygiene or orthopathy is an alternative to medicine that claims that the human body can and will heal itself if the causes of disease are removed. However, it does acknowledge that this concept is not helpful for some conditions, such as diabetes and others. For chronic conditions and serious diseases, it recommends being under the supervision of a professional practitioner.
Natural Hygiene Diets
Theories of natural hygiene
It is characterized by several theories:
* The human body contains the power to heal itself (without medicine).
* Disease exists when the body is prevented from healing itself.
* The primary causes of disease are stress, toxemia, over working, over
eating, taking unhealthy substances, etc.
* Germs, bacteria, and viruses are not the primary cause of disease.
* Medicines are poisons to the human body and are harmful.
* Vaccinations are not effective, not safe and damage the immune system.
Natural hygiene claims to enable people to get well by removing the causes
of disease, rather than by treatment with medicines and other foreign
substances. As in all therapeutic systems, determining the true cause of a
disease is a vital part of Natural Hygiene. Proponents claim that other
health systems begin treatment without knowing the cause, or falsely stating
that the cause is unknown, or describing as the cause what is merely a
description of the disease, e.g. the cause of arthritis is claimed to be a
stiffening of the joints.
History of natural hygiene
While natural hygiene is promoted as a new discovery, it in fact has roots
in a number of alternative therapies that go back to the early nineteenth
century. Dr. John H. Scheel, a German-born homeopath, coined the word
naturopathy in 1895 for a system of dietary restrictions and herbal nostrums
that conspicuously included fasting as a treatment, all founded on a sort of
vitalism that was in vogue at the time, and was promoted as a philosophy by
Henri Bergson, among others. Scheel's "naturopathy" itself stemmed back to
the thought of the Rev. Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian clergyman and
inventor of the Graham cracker, who believed that diet and morality were
related and who taught that vegetarianism helped keep the libido in check.
Some such as James Redfield even claimed a pure diet is a key step on the
path to spiritual awareness and enlightenment.
The role of fasting
Natural hygiene holds that the true cause of disease is toxemia, or
poisoning, in the blood. Natural Hygiene claims that these toxins are a
normal product of metabolism or living. Advocates claim that enervating
habits, or nerve energy destroying personal habits, such as worry,
stimulants, or vaccinations; builds up toxins in your blood. Enervation
(i.e., wasted nerve-energy ) is claimed to stop toxins from being eliminated
from your blood. Natural hygiene theories rely on fasting as treatment for
toxemia.
Natural hygiene practitioners often operate fasting clinics and fasting
retreat centers patients undergo fasts and then they may be placed on a raw
food diet for a length of time equal to the number of days of their fast.
They claim that, as a result of fasting, people often recover from cancer,
arthritis, asthma, digestive problems, high blood pressure, heart problems,
and many other diseases.[citation needed]
For the purposes of natural hygiene, fasting means eating nothing, drinking
only distilled water and getting lots of rest.
According to natural hygiene advocate Dr. Herbert Shelton the body enters a
state of Autolysis or self-digestion in about the fourth day of a fast in
which the body can break down even cancerous tissues and eliminate them.
Advocates say that attempting to do a long fast (more than 14 days) without
the supervision of a natural hygiene practitioner is not recommended.
Furthermore, they do not recommend fasting for the treatment of diabetes,
cancer of the kidneys, cancer of the liver and severe anemia.[citation
needed]
Natural hygiene vs medical science
Natural hygiene claims to be contrary to medical science and that the two
systems are directly opposed to each other in philosophy and practice.
In "Natural Hygiene, Man's Pristine Way of Life", Dr. Herbert Shelton, the
founder of the American Natural Hygiene Society (now known as the
International Natural Hygiene Society wrote about the conflicting
ideas between Natural Hygiene and Medical Science. Others have also shared
these views including Harvey Diamond who co-wrote the Fit for Life book
series in the 1980's.
Natural hygiene claims that drugs and medicines are poisons to the human
body and have no healing properties. Natural Hygiene maintains that drugs
have the effect of masking symptoms or changing symptoms, but not for the
better.[citation needed]
Natural hygiene practitioners acknowledge that in cases of emergency, such
as stroke, heart attack or automobile accident, emergency medical science
plays an important role.[citation needed]
Natural Hygiene vs naturopathy
The beliefs of natural hygiene and naturopathy are quite similar.
Naturopathy developed from the water and nature cure in Europe during the
19th century. Natural hygiene developed from the water cure in America
during the 19th century. Natural hygiene talks about blood toxemia while
naturopathy talks about the accumulation of morbid matter.
However, Natural hygiene prohibits all use of drugs including herbal and
homeopathic medicines. Natural hygiene's primary treatment method is
fasting, and does not use any manipulative therapy, while Naturopathy uses
both herbal and homeopathic medicines as well as the manipulative therapies
of body work or massage therapy, osteopathy, and chiropractic.
See also
* Christian vegetarianism
* Fruitarianism
* Veganism
* Vegetarianism
References
* Natural Hygiene, Man's Pristine Way of Life - by Herbert Shelton, Dr.
Shelton's Health School, San Antonio, Texas, 1968.
* A collection of Hygienic Review articles - by Dr. Herbert Shelton.
* Toxemia Explained: The True Interpretation of the Cause of Disease - John
Tilden, MD. Denver, Colorado, revised 1935.
* Fasting Can Save Your Life - by Herbert Shelton.
* Health For The Millions - by Herbert Shelton.
* The Hygienic Care Of Children - by Herbert Shelton.
* Orthotrophy Volume II - The Hygienic System - by Herbert Shelton.
* Orthotrophy Volume III - Fasting and Feeding - by Herbert Shelton.
* Fasting for Renewal of Life - by Herbert Shelton.
* Fit For Life - by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond ISBN 0-446-30015-2
* Fit For Life II - by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond ISBN 0-446-35875-4
* Fit For Life: A New Beginning - by Harvey Diamond ISBN 1-57566-718-5