Natural Health and the Wisdom of the Ages
When you look at medical practices over the centuries, specially in the Western world, there is the idea of ignorance and near savagery.
The middle ages for example had barbers, later to be known as doctors, whose main practice was to remove teeth and molars.
When sickness and fever struck, patients were bled either with knives or leeches.
Maggots would be put on an infection to eat, and therefore clean, the infected area.
The idea of cleanliness was not an issue.
After all a bath once a year was a risky business with the real danger of catching a chill and then worse.
Perfumes were expensive and brought from the East, and were the main alternative to body odors.
They weren't readily available so smells were an interesting ingredient of day to day life.
During the 14th century when the Black Plague struck Europe, it ravaged populations everywhere, but specially in the cities where sanitation was lacking in extreme.
But there is another side to history.
The Moors and the Arab culture at the same time had taken great strides in many subjects, including mathematics, astronomy and medicine.
The Chinese and oriental societies, as well as those in the Americas, in India and even Africa, had a down to earth knowledge of medicine which was based on the natural world.
Herbs and plants were the necessary ingredients of medicine.
During the Middle Ages in Europe, the day to day medical practices were in fact more advanced than has generally been acknowledged.
Natural remedies were the only options.
A lot of mumbo-jumbo did take place, but then again hasn't it always.
In fact today, in this day and age, isn't there also a lot of mumbo-jumbo, camouflaged in pseudo-scientific jargon? In the thirteen hundreds there was a magical thing called "the sponge".
It was rarely used and thought to have magical properties.
Few doctors had access to one of these.
It was a sponge that had been soaked in a herbal mixture - nobody was really sure what it was but amongst other things it had a paste of opium.
The sponge was soaked in water and placed over the patient's mouth.
When his breathing became deeper and louder the doctor knew he had fallen asleep and proceeded with the operation.
Although the magical qualities that surrounded the sponge were unknown, it was in fact a form of anesthesia.
Unfortunately the knowledge behind it was lost and so was anesthesia (except for large doses of alcohol) for five or six centuries.
Now at the early stages of the XXI century many natural remedies are again coming to light.
Some new, some known to different cultures and some being resurrected from days gone by.
One of the major benefits of natural health is that an important part of the philosophy behind it is the view of the person and his community, the physical side of the individual as well as the psychological and spiritual side.
In essence, a holistic view.
And all this stresses the health issue from the point of view being healthy, before needing to heal.
In short the process would be:
A doctor received a monthly retainer from his patients, as long as they were healthy.
The moment they became ill he immediately applied his healing knowledge, but the payments stopped.
Professional success was measured by the patients that were healthy and not by those that were cured.
In short a doctors job was to keep his patients healthy - he also had to cure them, but if they reached this state, he had failed on his first obligation.
The middle ages for example had barbers, later to be known as doctors, whose main practice was to remove teeth and molars.
When sickness and fever struck, patients were bled either with knives or leeches.
Maggots would be put on an infection to eat, and therefore clean, the infected area.
The idea of cleanliness was not an issue.
After all a bath once a year was a risky business with the real danger of catching a chill and then worse.
Perfumes were expensive and brought from the East, and were the main alternative to body odors.
They weren't readily available so smells were an interesting ingredient of day to day life.
During the 14th century when the Black Plague struck Europe, it ravaged populations everywhere, but specially in the cities where sanitation was lacking in extreme.
But there is another side to history.
The Moors and the Arab culture at the same time had taken great strides in many subjects, including mathematics, astronomy and medicine.
The Chinese and oriental societies, as well as those in the Americas, in India and even Africa, had a down to earth knowledge of medicine which was based on the natural world.
Herbs and plants were the necessary ingredients of medicine.
During the Middle Ages in Europe, the day to day medical practices were in fact more advanced than has generally been acknowledged.
Natural remedies were the only options.
A lot of mumbo-jumbo did take place, but then again hasn't it always.
In fact today, in this day and age, isn't there also a lot of mumbo-jumbo, camouflaged in pseudo-scientific jargon? In the thirteen hundreds there was a magical thing called "the sponge".
It was rarely used and thought to have magical properties.
Few doctors had access to one of these.
It was a sponge that had been soaked in a herbal mixture - nobody was really sure what it was but amongst other things it had a paste of opium.
The sponge was soaked in water and placed over the patient's mouth.
When his breathing became deeper and louder the doctor knew he had fallen asleep and proceeded with the operation.
Although the magical qualities that surrounded the sponge were unknown, it was in fact a form of anesthesia.
Unfortunately the knowledge behind it was lost and so was anesthesia (except for large doses of alcohol) for five or six centuries.
Now at the early stages of the XXI century many natural remedies are again coming to light.
Some new, some known to different cultures and some being resurrected from days gone by.
One of the major benefits of natural health is that an important part of the philosophy behind it is the view of the person and his community, the physical side of the individual as well as the psychological and spiritual side.
In essence, a holistic view.
And all this stresses the health issue from the point of view being healthy, before needing to heal.
In short the process would be:
- Being healthy (current state),
- Keeping healthy (preventive)
- Correcting ill heath (healing)
A doctor received a monthly retainer from his patients, as long as they were healthy.
The moment they became ill he immediately applied his healing knowledge, but the payments stopped.
Professional success was measured by the patients that were healthy and not by those that were cured.
In short a doctors job was to keep his patients healthy - he also had to cure them, but if they reached this state, he had failed on his first obligation.
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