Naturopathy + Nutritional Medicine

Naturopathy is a system of alternative medicine based on the theory that diseases can be successfully treated or prevented without the use of drugs and with the idea of treating as a whole. Finding the cause of disease by understanding the body, mind, and spirit of the person is the aim of a naturopath treating a patient. Under the umbrella of naturopathy you will find a number of modalities such as nutritional medicine, acupuncture and homeopathy.

Nutritional medicine is just one of those modalities within naturopathy, it is the relationship of food to the well-being of the human body and also the effects of the environment on the quality of food. With nutritional medicine it uses food and nutrients in specific doses in order to get the medicinal and therapeutic effects in order to heal patients.

Both naturopathy and nutritional medicine from the earliest days have had a positive effect on health and well-being. These positive health effects began for both during the 19th century in Europe starting with the medical system nature care, which referred to the combination of fresh air, nutritious food, sunlight, clean water, exercise and hydro-therapy to aid the restoration of a patients' health. Thomas Allinson from Scotland began the promotion of hygienic medicine in 1880, a natural diet and exercise regimen with no smoking or alcohol.

Nutritional medicine, like naturopathy started in the 19th century in Europe, where they believed that food was a primary source of medicine and even ancient Egyptians depicted the clear link between health and food in their pictographs around 5,000BC. However the true understanding of diet was not apparent until the work of Frenchmen Antoine Lavoisier who was recognised for his work on the idea of metabolism and the transfer of food and oxygen into energy.