The ideology of vitalism
The most fundamental tenet of the natural health philosophy is that the human body has the capability of healing itself. The ideology of vitalism is in opposition to the to mechanism and interventionism.
In natural health, all healing is essentially self-healing, a basic property of all living beings. Vitalism is an ancient concept that can be traced back to the body's own innate vitality, vital energy, vital force, or the 'vis medicatrix naturae' (i.e., the inherent wisdom of the body) of Hippocrates (c.460-377BC), the father of medicine, who wrote that "the natural healing force within us is the greatest force in getting well."
A physician can kill an infection with antibiotics, perform surgery, put a broken limb in a cast, or suture a wound, but all healing is performed by the patient. If the patient does not respond to the treatment, all the efforts of the physician have been useless.
In natural health self-healing is paramount. The in-built natural healing process is respected and recruited during treatment, although it is not necessarily understood.
Mononucleosis (mono or the kissing disease), for example, can not be cured by conventional medicine and needs to run its course naturally over about 2 to 4 weeks. There are thousands of health conditions that can be cured by mother nature alone.
That is called vitalism.
The ideology of holism
You can not have holism without vitalism. Healing is a power provided by vitalism. The ideology of holism is in opposition to reductionism and medical specialization.
In natural health healing is a concerted effort of the entire organism and cannot be achieved by any part in isolation from the whole. Holism is part of the complex biopsychosocial model that offers a systems theory approach to health, illness and healing. Holism is an ancient concept that can be traced back to Paracelsus (1439-1541), the father of modern medicine, who insisted on treating the whole being rather than merely the part displaying disease.
Respecting and understanding the defensive abilities of the body and differentiating between disease symptoms and defensive or recovery symptoms has always been an absolutely fundamental part of the various forms of holistic or natural health based practices.
Under holism, sickness is viewed as a result of a weakened body that has fallen into an unbalanced condition. As such, it is remedied by overall strengthening of the body’s natural resistance to disease. This is in opposition to allopathic medicine's view of disease as a localized malfunction due to specific pathogens or degenerative processes that attack particular organ systems.
The ideology of individualism
You can not have individualism without holism. The entire organism after all is the individual. The ideology of individualism is in opposition to the needs and concerns of the community.
The individualistic ideology of Western society is about (1) the primary importance of the individual over the needs and concerns of the community, and (2) the virtues of self-reliance and personal independence. True individuals are both self-reliant and independent. Individuals are assumed to have the power to make changes in their own lifestyles. Thus, under an individualistic ideology individuals are capable of accepting responsibility for their personal health.
Natural health stresses self-care.
The ideology of individualization
You can not have Individualization without Individualism. Individualization is important because of the primary importance of the individual. The ideology of individualization is in opposition to the to treating the diagnosis rathr than the patient.
Human beings are exceedingly complex and highly variable. Natural health based practices are about patient centered treatment which addresses a patient's individual needs as opposed to the managed care protocol of modern medicine which treats each patient as just a statistic.
Everybody is different due to genetic diversity. But, more importantly everybody behaves differently and lives in a different environment. Therefore, treatment should not be exactly the same for each person.
In natural health based practices patients are treated as individuals. Everybody is different - our physical make up, our daily lives, our emotional states - no one human being is exactly the same as another. Natural health based practitioners take this into account when they treat patients - they find out about each individual person, rather than just the illness.
When you treat the disease, either a high-tech diagnosis is made with the expensive tools of modern medical science or a diagnosis has been made based upon a physical examination of the patient. But, when you treat the person a case-study is taken that ascertains what the patient has been doing wrong because all illness is assumed to be the fault of the patient. Further, the natural doctor will try to regulate the life of their patients, their diet, etc., first before using any drugs. Once the wrong behavior has been stopped; drugs in the form of vitamins, minerals, and herbs are given that will assist the patient in recovering naturally from their situation.
In short, treating the disease emphasizes pathology and centers on the simplistic biomedical model of health, whereas treating the patient emphasizes the behavior of the patient and centers on the complex biopsychosocial model of health otherwise known as the mind-body connection.
The ideology of victim-blaming
You can not have victim-blaming without individualism. The victim-blaming approach to personal health follows the individualistic ideology of Western society (which is strongly rooted in the development of Protestantism, the 'work ethic,' and American history). The ideology of victim-blaming is in opposition to society reducing the socioeconomic inequalities in health.
With victim-blaming the individual is supposed to take responsibility for their health. To improve their prospects in life, the victim must change rather than the environment around them. Under the ideology of victim-blaming health problems are viewed as something that should be self-corrected. At-risk behavior is seen as the problem and changing lifestyle is viewed as the solution.
When a person gets sick the assumption is that the victim must have done something wrong. When the victim comes down with a lifestyle disease the assumption is that the victim must have been doing something wrong for a very long time.
The notion of a healthy lifestyle requires the ideologies of individualism and victim-blaming, without consideration of the socioeconomic factors involved in individual lifestyle choices.
The ideology of 'Prevention is better than a cure'
You can not have prevention without victim-blaming. If you are not responsible for your health then there is nothing to prevent. The ideology of 'prevention is better than a cure' is in opposition to crisis-oriented allopathic medicine.
In prevention the emphasis is on building up health rather than on fighting disease.
Primary prevention is focused on intervention to prevent the occurrence of a disease, condition, or injury. Secondary prevention activities are concerned with early detection and intervention in the potential development or the existence of a disease. Tertiary prevention is focused on treatment of a disease state to lessen its effects and to prevent further deterioration.
Since most of the factors that affect our health are lifestyle choices, prevention is everyone's responsibility. By correcting unhealthy lifestyles illness can be prevented. Life and health are one.
Preventing illness and healing is primarily self-care.
External links
- Personal Health Tutorials
- Prevention and Healthy Lifestyles
- Natural Health Mailing List
This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
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