“Natural” v Natural

Series: Disease, the Cause and the Cure

Part 2 How to adapt in an unnatural world, Section 1.

Trigger warning: this post will challenge your beliefs. Please accept the challenge and examine your beliefs without bias.

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The word “natural” can mean many different things depending on each individual’s views. When it comes to healthcare, the term is misused so often that it has caused many people to discredit anything considered a natural remedy. Unfortunately, the entire field of natural healthcare is considered by many as quack medicine because there are so many conflicting and unverified cures.  

Usually, these practitioners’ theory is that medical interventions, such as prescription medications, vaccines, and surgery, are unnatural and should be avoided at all costs. They tend to focus on the adverse side effects of such interventions, but at the same time, fail to acknowledge the safety and success rate and that every intervention will most likely cause .an adverse reaction. Any intervention that claims to be side-effect-free is unfounded because physics proves that every action causes an equal and opposite reaction.

Many alternative healers use naturally produced products such as crystals, herbs, roots, plants, animal products, and more. They claim that these products come from nature and have healing properties. These claims are usually not based on peer-reviewed testing. Most of these claims have been passed down generation after generation and becoming part of a sacred cultural belief. 

Many forms of alternative healthcare promote food cures. Herbology, for example, still promotes using dangerous plants, such as arnica, as cures. Some say eating a plant-based diet will cure disease without considering that humans don’t produce enzymes to digest many of the plants they recommend, such as grains, nuts, and animal products.

People may see some positive results from such natural remedies, thus accepting the entire gamut of unfounded teachings. This is easily seen in cures that I consider supernatural. These healers, or mediums, claim to be able to channel abilities that are part of the natural yet unseen world. For instance, many religious people believe in the healing power of prayer because it seemed to work on them or someone they knew. This irrational way of thinking doesn’t consider that prayer alone doesn’t work in the majority of cases. The same can be said about fortune-tellers, energy healers, tarot card readers, and the like. They all claim that powers exist from a source beyond our knowledge, but they have no reproducible and verifiable evidence to back up such a claim.

Is modern medicine any better? I would argue that it’s just as ineffective. People suffer while wandering from specialist to specialist, searching for a cure. The medical system alone is counterproductive because instead of prevention, they seek remedies to symptoms. People go to medical doctors hoping to be cured, just like people flock to religious leaders hoping to receive healing power from God.  

So what is the natural way to cure ailments? Prevention. Does this mean that we all should live in a sterile bubble protecting us from germs? That’s not natural at all; that’s unnatural and just as unrealistic as trying to eradicate any disease. Nature has provided us with the simplest method to good health. Still, since we live in an unnatural world that focuses on curing symptoms, we’ve never had the opportunity to learn that our body, like anything else, will suffer when we live outside the natural environment to which we belong.

Real natural healthcare does not use herbs, minerals, spirit mediums, prayers, or even vaccines to cure symptoms. That’s not to say that these interventions are not helpful or should be avoided. The concept of treating a symptom rather than the cause is flawed thinking. Not tracing back the origin to its original cause (lifestyle) is also flawed and cannot be considered natural by any means.

You may argue, ‘What harm does belief in ineffective remedies have as long as it brings happiness to one’s life?’ My answer to that is simple: would you rather live a life with reduced potential, energy, stamina, unnecessary pain, suffering, and disease, or a happy life full of vitality? We can’t expect our bodies to work at maximum potential unless we remove the habits that cause us the most harm. Ignorance and misinformation won’t protect you from the consequences of an unnatural lifestyle.

Real natural healthcare is an adapted natural lifestyle that allows our bodies to work at peak performance, thus eliminating the cause of many symptoms. If we are not living in harmony with the natural order of things, our bodies suffer, and that’s when symptoms occur. This series will show you how simple and inexpensive adapting to a natural lifestyle can be.

Click here to read more from the “Natural Healthcare for our Modern World” collection.