Our Philosophy: Natural Wellness

Natural Law

“Nature is Ordered and Intelligent”

All living systems operate under the knowable, immutable principles or laws of nature, and one’s state of health is no exception. It takes time to get sick, and likewise, time will be taken to heal. Conventional medicine has taught us to believe that the immediate relief of dis-ease through symptom suppression is equivalent to cure. However, the list of side effects accompanying any pharmaceutical drug is proof enough that they’ve effectively just traded one symptom for another… and so, they prescribe another drug for that symptom, ahem, I mean “side effect”, and so on.

In contrast, nature works in incremental changes through time that are predictable and dependent on each individual’s own healing capacity. For instance, Herring’s Law states that healing happens from: 1) the inside out; 2) the top down; 3) from most important to least important organs/systems; and 4) in reverse order of their chronological appearance. This is important to know, because this is what one should expect during their own journey back toward lasting health.

Another example is the Law of Dual Effect that essentially states that there is an immediate, short-term effect from any given stimuli or intervention, followed by a longer-lasting effect of equal and opposite direction. We use this clinically in our therapeutic application by first identifying and addressing the underlying cause of dis-ease. Then, we support and stimulate the body to work through the process of healing on its own, thereby resolving the symptom and its cause to achieve the long-term health outcomes we desire . On the other hand, if you suppress a symptom the short-term outcome is relief from the prevailing symptom. However, by not identifying or treating the underlying cause, the dis-ease eventually reappears in an equal and opposite direction to that of the suppressing intervention, with longer-lasting duration than that of the original symptom… and this is how chronic disease has surpassed infectious disease as the leading cause of death worldwide.

Vis Medicatrix Naturae

“The Healing Power of Nature”

Vitalism or, “The healing power of nature” is the inherent self-organizing and healing process of all living systems which establishes, maintains, and restores health. This process is recognized to be ordered and intelligent, as described by Natural Law.

We believe that Nature knows best. That is, the body knows more about its business than do we. Vitalism posits that the underlying causitive factors that maintain life and balance are beyond the realm of mechanistic apperception (eg. the ability to understand a phenomena by assimilating it to the body of knowledge that exists). Further, we view a patient’s symptoms as the body’s own intuitive reaction to restore balance or order in a system that is imbalanced. This imbalance, or state of dis-ease, is evidence of an effort being made by a living system to continue to live. If we suppress the process, we disrupt the body’s ability to resolve the underlying cause. With this in mind, Naturopathic Vitalists work with nature to support the body’s efforts, assisting it to work through the process of healing naturally, in the aims of resolving one’s state of dis-ease and re-establishing a true state of health.

Vitalism is the theory that the origin and phenomena of life are dependent on forces and principles distinct from purely chemical or physical processes. The theory began in the 18th & 19th century between those who felt that the known mechanics of physics would eventually be able to explain the difference between life and non-life, and vitalists who argued that the processes of life could not be reduced to a purely mechanistic process. This argument is easily put to rest as the finite limits of mechanistic Newtonian physics are well documented and the more encompassing theories and infinite reality described by Quantum physics & String theory replace it. There are in fact many forces beyond human perception and our technology’s ability to measure them, and as the saying goes, “The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know.”