NDNR

Nature Cure
Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE

The way to live a long and healthy life is to get something wrong with you and learn how to take care of it. This is true, not only for the physician, but for patients, too.

Betty Radelet, 2009, p. 97

Park your “automobile” at a table where foods are served which have the stored sun energy which moves at 186,000 miles a second. They will cure you. You will grow younger as you grow older.

Harriet Zoll, 1924, p. 1126

Examine yourself well, and learn to understand that the unhealthful conditions of our age are not the will and the work of nature, but only miscarriages of our civilization!

George Hiller, 1904, p. 300

On December 3, 2011, I attended the Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians and National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) Living Legends Awards Dinner, where the profession was invited to share in celebrating Dr. Rick Marinelli for his commitment to excellence and selfless contributions in the advancement of natural medicine. In previous years, Dr. Betty Radelet and Dr. Ken Peterson had received similar awards for their service to the profession. That evening also highlighted three exceptional NCNM alumni, Dr. Ed Alstat, Dr. Joseph Coletto, and Dr. Jared Zeff, who were inducted into the NCNM Hall of Fame.

I was honored to sit with one of the most amazing women in Portland. As we listened to the speeches and shared our life’s journeys, I witnessed her eat a simple meal of raw vegetables that were artistically arranged on her plate. This article is dedicated to Dr. Betty Radelet, whose life is a testament to the wisdom of our elders. Her inspired conversation at the table and address to the gathering that evening reminded me of why I became an ND. For those who do not know Dr. Betty, she lives her talk and exudes more life than anyone I know. At 91 years old, she embodies the roots of our medicine and has just released a CD compilation of her book Anecdotes and Antidotes.

Helping patients live vitally into old age has been a topic for Dr. Radelet throughout her career. We can find that same passion in the early NDs who came before her. Primarily, they believed in prevention of disease. There is a certain smugness that some medical professionals present as they report life span rates rising in many countries as an indication of progress made toward longevity. However, concomitant rising and unsustainable costs have blunted our enthusiasm about maintaining that progress (Figure). We have become overconfident even as we marvel at the accomplishments of industrial strength around the globe and computer technology knitting the planet together as never before.

This same kind of enthusiasm and sense of growth and potential was present among our early 20th century NDs. They felt equally awed by huge milestones in agricultural and manufacturing capacity, by rapid improvements in communications networks predicated on telegraph and early phone systems, and by landmark events, such as the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Ill., in 1893, and the World’s Pure Food Exhibition just over a decade later, in 1907, in the same city. A caution within that optimistic period, though, showed up in one physician’s admonition:

We have, in these days of ours, reached the pinnacle of progress; we stand on the summit of civilization, on the apex of art and triumphant science; we deem ourselves superior to anything past ages ever knew . . . [yet] we feel fettered and weak in our struggle for existence; the stormy waves of life often break down our strength; we suffer from bodily weakness, consuming nervousness and early decay. (Hiller, 1904, p. 299)

In fact, those same early NDs expressed confident optimism for those raised under the right conditions:

[A] human being born of healthy parents, perfectly healthy himself, and spending his vital force properly and economically, may live, as a rule, from one hundred to one hundred and twenty years, and in exceptional cases may attain the age of one hundred and fifty, and even more. (Lust, 1900, p. 41)

The reality of longevity at the turn of the 20th century was grim, however, and the notion of a 12-decade life span seemed a stretch. In 1900, the life expectancy in the United States was 48.3 years for men and 51.1 years for women (Kinsella, 1992, p. 1197) compared with today’s life expectancy of 76 years for men and 81 years for women (United Nations Statistics Division).

The Body Is a Temple

Early NDs contended that rising industrialization and accompanying changes in lifestyle and environment were primary reasons for the retrogression in health. Hiller stated that “our industrial life is contrary to nature; our daily duties remove us more and more from nature, and it has become a difficult task to combat this denaturalization of our industrial conditions” (1904, p. 300). As our way of life succumbs to faster production cycles driven by information technology and increased threats to the natural world, we are finding ourselves reiterating the very sentiments our elders announced a century ago.

Hiller spoke to the heart of the matter: “We do not live in accordance with . . . nature’s laws. Nearly all the habits of our daily life transgress these laws and are in conflict with our own instincts and our intelligence” (1904, p. 301). Another prominent ND of the period, Ehret, pointed out a parallel concern, that as the world in which people lived and worked became faster and more toxic, individuals were also losing touch with their own bodies. He felt that “every person should know his own [body] and how to run it; there are no two just alike” (Ehret, 1918b, p. 558). People needed to become “an expert in knowing the body and taking care of it” (Ehret, 1918b, p. 559). Naturopathic physicians believed in the purity of the human body and understood the price of delinking personal health and environment from a natural lifestyle: “For the desecration of the human temple there is a heavy penalty” (Ehret, 1918a, p. 435).

With regard to the ideal factors in vital longevity, Professor Javali, an Italian physiologist, studied the lives of Italian centenarians. He found that the outward constitution of people had little influence on their longevity; rather, it was their long-term nutrition and lifestyle habits that made the difference:

Whether one be fat or lean, straight or bent, strong or weakly, whether one had good teeth or bad ones, whether he be a smoker or not, or a large or small eater—all this will not influence his chances of reaching an old age in the least. (Lust, 1903, p. 138)

What Javali found in his inquiries was that “the greater number of the centenarians either had been followers of the Vegetarian Principles or had eaten meat only sparingly, or on rare occasions only” (Lust, 1903, p. 138). The preparation of the food was plain and yet plentiful. Alcohol was not consumed, except for wine (Lust, 1903, p. 138).

The early NDs recognized a clear connection between longevity and diet; they also understood that the quality of the food itself, a reflection of the environment, was critical. Ehret saw that a “man is no stronger than his stomach. The troubles of the body originate in the stomach, and by the blood are carried to all parts of the body” (1918b, p. 558). Ehret also advised moderation in eating: “Eat only such food and drink such fluid as God intended man should use to nourish and sustain the body” (1918a, p. 436).

Wood put it this way:

If we desire a strong, active, healthy body, free from pain and disease and obedient to our will, and one that shall so remain for one hundred years or more, . . . let us see to it that none but the purest and most suitable solid and liquid food is supplied to our digestive organs. . . . Pure water is the only liquid agent in existence that will do this. (1902, p. 76)

He provided much detail to his contemporaries, adding suggestions even about the quantities needed. “Very few Americans drink enough water,” he contended: “Eight or ten glasses of water should be taken daily by the average person” (Wood, 1902, p. 76).

Regeneration

The search for health among the early NDs led them to a concept of “regeneration” that linked the importance of food and the true meaning of health. Food a hundred years ago, though, was not compromised in the way it is today. Food additives were few, and the need for prolonged shelf life, long-distance food sourcing, and the centralization of processing and production were just beginning. However, even then, food reform was top of mind. Hiller’s recommendations for food reform included the following:

The greatest possible diminution of our meat diet.

The diminished use of spices.

A more liberal use of vegetables of all kinds.

An abundant daily supply of fruits and nuts of all kinds, according to the seasons.

(1905, p. 4)

Rules were suggested, such as “never eat idly or between meals, . . . never eat when over-fatigued, but rest till actual exhaustion is relieved and a sense of hunger is expressed” (Wallace, 1902, p. 403). With regard to cooking, Wallace recommended to “employ waterless cookery whenever possible, that is, cook fruits and vegetables in their own juices, or in the juices of other vegetables or fruits” (1902, p. 404).

Fletcherizing

Another Italian who added to the enhancement of longevity was Horace Fletcher, who felt that “everybody eats too much” (Kellogg, 1905, p. 53). Fletcher’s eating guidelines were popular with the early NDs. Fletcher believed that people’s eating habits were a response to social custom rather than true hunger and advocated: “[D]o not eat between meals [and] . . . quit eating promptly when your appetite seems satisfied” (Griffin, 1910, p. 342). The essence of Fletcher’s theory was to take small bites of food:

[C]hew the food industriously . . . do not swallow the food until it loses its original taste. This does not mean that the food shall lose its taste or flavor entirely, but it should be chewed until it loses its original taste. (Griffin, 1910, p. 342)

Kellogg, a strong American advocate of healthy lifestyle, explained: “Fletcherizing or thoroughly chewing the food, increases its digestibility to such a degree that decompositions are prevented” (1905, p. 56). Yet another Fletcherism that we are familiar with is “[D]o not drink much water for half an hour before meals or for an hour or two after meals” (Griffin, 1910, p. 343).

The early NDs, then, were focused on food as medicine and on lifestyle as the embodiment of values that respected the life force. Senescence was a natural process, they knew, and overeating in their view accelerated the process. Overeating attributed to excessive waste material in the blood, leading to arteriosclerosis, which was the beginning of old age (Tracy, 1908, p. 210). Lindlahr, too, attributed carnivorous eating habits to aging and the accumulation of waste or morbid matter (1908, p. 302).

Mucus-Forming Foods

The early ND Arnold Ehret advocated a theory of a mucus-less diet healing system that still finds strong support among current naturopathic dietary principles. He classified fruits, starchless vegetables, and greens as mucus-less foods. Ehret wrote about aging and the consumption of mucus-forming foods, which he saw as “unnatural food-material, which in course of time has accumulated, especially in the digestive organs, and which makes its appearance in the shape of mucus-excretion” (1912, p. 436). He saw “all symptoms of ageing [as] latent disease, accumulation of mucus and clogging-up by mucus” (Ehret, 1912, p. 437). Zoll phrased dietary indiscretions this way: “Live vibrating foods do not clog” (1924, p. 1127).

Ehret also wrote many articles on the subject of aging in The Naturopath and Herald of Health. He taught that “if we want to have a vigorous old age, we dare not abuse our bodies in youth” (Ehret, 1915, p. 423). Indeed, Ehret pointed out more than once that the fact that an individual “do[es] not care for his own body can be verified by the thousands of doctors” (1918b, p. 558).

Raw Food

A hundred years ago, Ehret advocated raw food. Today, we may conclude that the interest in raw food and in veganism is a current reaction to Monsanto and the overwhelming erosion of vital longevity by overprocessed foods. However, it is valuable for modern NDs to recall that 11 decades ago Lust himself had much to say about the question of how to live with raw food. He wrote: “Not only is it possible to eat all kinds of fruit, vegetables, corn, and all leguminous plants in their raw state, but even it is possible to make them palatable to the most fastidious palate” (Lust, 1902, p. 107). Indeed, vegetarianism was considered to be a path of “perfected nutrition” (Lee, 1911, p. 289). Lee suggested that vegetarian foods “wisely used, are competent to sustain human life, advance civilization, lessen mortality, [and] increase average length of life” (1911, p. 291).

Harriet Zoll at the time also lectured on “unfired” foods that keep people young. She divided foods into live food and dead food: “Processing and cooking lowers the vibration. The longer the food is cooked the deader it is” (Zoll, 1924, p. 1126). She asked the question: “Do you drink live juices or do you drink dead chemicals?” (Zoll, 1924, p. 1126). She recommended to people new to live foods to make “a list of at least 50 live foods. Try eating each one in its natural state” (Zoll, 1925, p. 51).

Another raw food enthusiast, Helen Sherry, who championed this new way of eating under the banner “apyrotrophers” continued: “It is not enough for us to eat the right things; we must eat them in the right way” (1913, p. 50). Sherry elaborated that “the new vegetarian wants his food with all its nutritive value to the system, that is to say, he wants it uncooked, or unfired, and for that he calls himself an Unfired Fooder, or, in Greek, an Apyrotropher” (1913, p. 50). George Drews, who led the Apyrotropher [unfired fooder] Society, answered the question of raw vs. cooked food: “People may eat cooked food if they wish to do so, but they should eat a larger proportion of clean raw food than they now do” (1914, p. 833).

In any case, the importance of live food was repeatedly emphasized by Zoll: “Food right from the plant vibrates with 100 percent life” (1924, p. 1126). She endorsed that each meal should always begin with a salad: “While hungry make sure of the 100 percent dish. It will start up digestive activity. Live food will comfort the hunger sense and you will not load up so with the slower, cooked foods” (Zoll, 1925, p. 52). At the same time, others made recommendations to “[e]at the fruits that are in season” (Wallace, 1902, p. 403). Another who advocated the raw diet was John F. Morgan. He stated simply that “a raw food diet prolongs life” (Morgan, 1902, p. 512).

Ultimately, the lessons from our early naturopathic pioneers have arrived intact for us. Despite the economic and industrial progress in Western countries, wealth does not assure healthy longevity. The United States ranks 36th in life expectancy (Canada ranks 11th), despite America’s being the biggest consumer of health today (Table and Figure). Something is very wrong with the current health picture. Japanese people spend the lowest among the developed nations and yet live the longest (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2010). In America, where the most advanced medical science and technology are available, healthcare costs in the last 44 months of an American’s life equal that spent in all the rest of his or her life (Schleich, 2011). When the early NDs advocated the need for healthy eating to ensure healthy people, they were prosecuted, persecuted, and jailed for being dangerous for the American people. We live at a time when our precious food is being contaminated and adulterated at every step in its journey along the food chain. It is time that we seriously look at what we are eating and why. I leave the last word to Dr. Betty:

Your diet is what you eat, good or bad. A good diet does not have to be complicated. One simple rule that helps: Eat something fresh with each meal. In fact, the bulk of your diet should be raw, fresh foods. (Radelet, 2009, p. 131)

 

Table. Female and male life expectancy (2005-2010), from the United Nations Statistics Division (2011)

Rank	Location	Overall, y	Male, y	Female, y
1	Japan	82.6	79.0	86.1
2	Hong Kong (China)	82.2	79.4	85.1
3	Switzerland	82.1	80.0	84.2
4	Israel	82.0	80.0	84.0
5	Iceland	81.8	80.2	83.3
6	Australia	81.2	78.9	83.6
7	Spain	80.9	77.7	84.2
8	Sweden	80.9	78.7	83.0
9	Macau (China)	80.7	78.5	82.8
10	France (metropolitan)	80.7	77.1	84.1
11	Canada	80.7	78.3	82.9
36	Cuba	78.3	76.2	80.4
36	United States	78.3	75.6	80.8

 

 

 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE is a faculty member working as the rare books curator at National College of Natural Medicine (Portland, Oregon). She is currently compiling several collections based on the journals published early in the last century by Benedict Lust. In addition to her work in balneotherapy, she is the founder of the Breathing Academy, a training institute for NDs to incorporate a scientific model of breathing therapy called Buteyko into their practice.

 

 

References

Drews, G. J. (1914). Edible thistles. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 19(12), 832-833.

Ehret, A. (1912). Sick people. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 17(7), 434-438.

Ehret, A. (1915). Youth and old age. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 20(7), 423-424.

Ehret, A. (1918a). The purity of the human temple. Herald of Health and Naturopath, 12(5), 435-436.

Ehret, A. (1918b). The care of the human machine. Herald of Health and Naturopath, 23(6), 558-559.

Griffin, S. J. (1910). Horace Fletcher’s ideas of how to attain long life and happiness. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 15(6), 342-343.

Hiller, G. (1904). The art of living long and free from care. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 5(12), 299-306.

Hiller, G. (1905). The art of living long and free from care: A guide for rich and poor in sickness and in health. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 6(1), 1-5.

Kellogg, J. H. (1905). New theory on eating. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 6(2), 53-56.

Kinsella, K. G. (1992). Changes in life expectancy 1900-1990. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 55(6)(suppl), 1196-1202.

Lee, E. (1911). Feeding the human animal. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 16(5), 289-291.

Lindlahr, H (1908). Why we favor a vegetarian diet, The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 9(10), 302-306.

Lust, B. (1900). Age of the natural man. The Kneipp Water Cure Monthly, 1(2), 41-42.

Lust, B. (1902). True method of healing: Regeneration. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 3(3), 107-109.

Lust, B. (1903). How to become old. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 4(5), 137-138.

Morgan, J. F. (1902). The generative life forces. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 3(12), 511-513.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2010). OECD health data. OECD Health Statistics (database). doi: 10.1787/data-00350-en.

Radelet, B. (2009). Anecdotes and antidotes: Forty years of smiles and tears in a natural health clinic. Beaverton, OR: BJ Publishing.

Schleich, D. (2011). Notes from a presentation on healthcare.

Sherry, H. (1913). A plea for an Apyrotropher Society. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 18(1), 50-52.

Tracy, S. G. (1908). High frequency electricity to retard old age. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 9(7), 210-211.

United Nations Statistics Division, Demographic and Social Statistics. (2011). Social indicators: Indicators on health. Retrieved December 23, 2011, from http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/socind/health.htm

Wallace, C. L. H. (1902). General rules for the physical regeneration of man. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 3(10), 403-405.

Wood, A. F. (1902). Influence of water on health and longevity. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 3(2), 74-78.

Zoll, H. (1924). How to grow younger as you grow older. Herald of Health and Naturopath, 29(12), 1126-1129.

Zoll, H. (1925). How to grow younger as you grow older. Herald of Health and Naturopath, 30(1), 51-54.

Nature Cure Clinical Pearls
Sussanna Czeranko, ND
 

The American Medical Association is a powerful trust, and the more vicious because fortified by laws. This [is] clearly class legislation, for none of the numerous other systems of healing and treatment of disease, nor any other calling or profession enjoys similar privileges.
 
Adolf Candrian, 1910, p. 617
 
Voters should be careful whom they support for legislative positions and for city, town and county councils, demanding pledges of the candidates that they will never be party to the enactment of laws, which infringe the rights of all for the benefit of the few . . . . [S]upport only those candidates for office who are friends of medical freedom.
 
A. A. Erz, 1912, p. 708
 
Under the guise of a hypocritical pretense of protecting public health from everybody but themselves, a movement that will legislate out of business or into jail every drugless healer in this country.
 
Benedict Lust, 1926, p. 67

 
Was the assault by the American Medical Association (AMA) on the NDs in the early 20th century calculated? Very. Were they successful? Very. How did they do it? Read on.
 
As we intimately know today, health has been turned into an expensive commodity. If you do not have health insurance and you live in America, getting sick can at the least be very expensive and, more often than not, financially calamitous. A mild heart attack will cost about $75,000 for a short hospital stay complete with a medley of medical interventions. Amid such abundance, how is it that so many people are denied the simple basic human right of secured healthcare? The answer to this question is complicated. It all began with the medical trusts.
 
The Medical Trusts
 
The medical trusts was a colloquial term used by drugless therapists and others to characterize the early AMA. “On May 5, 1847, 250 physicians representing many of these medical societies and some medical schools met in Philadelphia to establish a national medical society, the American Medical Association” (Weiss and Lonnquist, 1996, p. 28). The primary goal of this collaboration was to create financial security for its members. An early ND speculated that the “old school” physicians “fear that the new rational methods [of the NDs] will become popular and so injure their own practice and deprive them of a means of livelihood and also put a scar on the ‘honor of the profession’” (Clauson, 1910, p. 514). The medical trusts recognized that the “competition from homeopaths and other alternative healers was limiting financial success for physicians and reducing pride in the field” (Weiss and Lonnquist, 1996, p. 28). That the medical trusts evolved into the “largest and most dangerous trust that ever cursed a nation” (Robinson, 1908, p. 89) is the focus of this month’s article.
 
Over the subsequent several decades after its establishment, members of the AMA systematically infiltrated all strata of political influence, state and federal, with the objective of gaining the power to achieve “a monopoly of the healing art” (Macfadden, 1926, p. 110). The MD turned politician. The “regulars” became “especially active in politics, and captured as many public offices as possible” (Erz, 1912, p. 707). To secure their monopoly, “They have a legislative committee to lobby their infamous trust bills through all the law-making bodies” (Robinson, 1908, p. 89).
 
Pondering the rise of the regulars to political power and the consequent autocratic powers of the medical trusts, an outraged physician of the period, J. T. Robinson, MD, declared in 1908:
 
The great masses of the people of a once free and glorious republic have become the fawning, cringing slaves of their dictators, and masters; they will hug the limbs and kiss the hand and lick the faces of these politico-medical oligarchs.
 
By the turn of the 20th century, these politicomedical oligarchs were well on their way to becoming the only show in town. By the beginning of World War II, they were positioned to determine the future of healthcare in the United States forever.
 
The targets of these politicomedical oligarchs were described in an article published in The Ophthalmologist and reprinted in The Naturopath and the Herald of Health in 1905. Ironically, this article outlined the AMA’s code of ethics at the same time that it communicated a strategy to suppress the naturopathic profession, among others.
 
Certain people, who are otherwise good citizens have taken up mechanical methods of ascertaining causes of human ills and in a few months learned how to relieve many of what we have believed to be incurable chronic ills. They call themselves Neurologists, Ophthalmologists, Hydropaths, N.Ds., Naturopaths, Hygienists, Osteopaths, etc. These are the most dangerous classes that have arisen and must be suppressed, but in doing this, public sentiment must be first arrayed against them, hence if one of them has any social or political or financial standing let him alone, until we shall have suppressed those of his class who are not so fortunately situated; then we can go after the strongest. (1905, Who are the quacks?, p. 62)
 
The Great Trade of 1910
 
A significant year in this struggle was 1910. Not only was the infamous Flexner Report published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in April of that year, but also by this time the AMA had established the only national standards for accrediting medical schools under the auspices of the Council on Medical Education (CME):
 
In 1910, the states and the federal government made a deal with the AMA. In return for providing the best and most efficient health care system, the states and the federal government gave the CME a monopoly over the production and licensing of physicians, including the power to establish standards for medical schools. (Weiss and Lonnquist, 1996, p. 29)
 
Known as the Great Trade of 1910, essentially the medical trusts had exclusivity to control and determine the face of the medical profession. The fate of the NDs was sealed.
 
Exclusive Right to Treat the Sick
 
In that same year, Dr. L. Blumer of Hartford, Connecticut, in an article in The Naturopath and the Herald of Health raised questions about the scope of power exercised by MDs. He wrote:
 
[A]re they not as a class given special privileges, special monopoly to control the entire healing art and to prosecute any one who dares to step forward claiming he has a better way, a new way, a safer way, instead of taking chances with guess work in prescribing poisons, and taking the chances on the lives of human beings? (Blumer, 1910, p. 199)
 
The early NDs were quickly overwhelmed by the pernicious legislative efforts of the early MDs in their pursuit by nefarious designs of dominion over medical care.
 
An address by an excongressman at the time, however, indicates how this conspiracy was accumulating into a form of medical tyranny:
 
This campaign for restrictive legislation is another manifestation of the ever widening, vicious effects, which inevitably follow social injustices. Instead of demanding the repeal of laws that violate their equal rights to equality of opportunity, they strike blindly at those who, endowed with the same rights, are in other ways, and through other methods, practicing the healing art. (Baker, 1912, p. 514)
 
Three years later, a report of the U.S. Bureau of Education on Medical Education was crafted by the Council of Medical Education of the AMA. Significantly, there was no mention of any of the various schools of drugless medicine (Fritz, 1915, p. 640). It is not surprising that the NDs would take an oppositional stance when faced with such harassment and eventual obliteration.
 
Numerous articles and editorials during this period emphasized the objections made by the NDs against the medical trusts. The following three recurrent issues found expression in print, during conferences, and at numerous hearings and other confrontations involving the medical trusts: the persecution of naturopathic practice, fitness of the drug therapy, and the freedom to choose.
 
One physician asked, “Why is it that the old school doctors are trying to annihilate the newer schools?” (Clauson, 1910, p. 514). The literature demonstrates that initially it was difficult for members of the nature cure movement to comprehend why allegations were increasingly made about “dangerous elements” of their medical practice. In their view, the practitioners were simply following the laws of nature, and their apothecaries and therapies were devoid of poisons, consisting rather of plants, water, air, sunshine, and earth. In describing naturopathy at the time, Dr. Carl Schultz of the Naturopathic Institute in Los Angeles, California, wrote, “Naturopathy teaches the people how to keep well and how to raise healthy children and by that a healthy Nation” (1905, p. 217). The methods used by the NDs arose from the nature cure movement: “The doctor may prescribe, but nature alone can cure” (Candrian, 1910, p. 616).
 
It was not lost on the early NDs that the use of drugs by the regular physicians had even been criticized by members of their own guild. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, a distinguished physician and a professor at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts), was thus described:
 
[He] was honest and bold enough in one of his addresses before the Massachusetts Medical Society to say: ‘I firmly believe that if the whole Material Medica [sic] could be sunk to the bottom of the sea, it would be all the better for mankind, and all the worse for the fishes.’ (Blumer, 1910, p. 205)
 
The NDs argued that the “drug poisons and vaccination produce more disease and send more people to a premature death than the diseases themselves” (Blumer, 1910, p. 199).

Despite their protestations, the NDs found themselves facing an adversary “posing entirely as the benefactor of suffering humanity” (Zurmuhlen, 1912, p. 609) in a political and healthcare climate in which the medical trusts insisted on having laws in place “for the purpose of protecting the public health against incompetent medical practitioners” (Macfadden, 1929, p. 42). Insinuating themselves in civil society as the representatives of official medicine, the so-called regulars proclaimed their privilege in the name of public safety. There was much propaganda to sway the public into their arms: “[Naturopathy] is a medical cesspool with legislation planned to give opportunity to every form of healing that departs from regular medicine” (Fishbein, 1927, p. 52).
 
Who Is the Quack?
 
To undermine the naturopathic profession and to prejudice the public against its legitimate presence in the healthcare landscape of the time, the term quack was applied to the NDs. The fight was vicious with the medical trusts. The voice of Benedict Lust in defending the NDs was prolific. He countered: “There is nothing irrational, no smacking of quackery, in Naturopathy or nature cure. It covers all there is to the prevention and cure of disease according to natural law” (Lust, 1934, p. 333). He had earlier written: “When every individual in the healing art, not belonging to the allopathic profession is classed as a quack, regardless of his skill and achievements in the healing of his patients, we distinctly and radically disagree with him” (Lust, 1926, p. 109).What the NDs of the time knew was that the drugs used by the regulars were dangerous. They documented and challenged, for example, the habitual use of calomel (a mercury derivative that mutilated) for ailments, such as constipation or croup in children, reporting not only its commonplace presence in the repertoire of the MDs but also its danger to patients (Hilf, 1915, p. 554). The NDs asked a question of their own: who are the quacks in such a scenario?
 
The reach of the AMA was extensive and unrelenting, so much so that the medical trusts eventually gained the power to determine who could practice and who could not: “Medical laws stand for fencing in of the healing profession for one school only. Thus every citizen is denied the right to select the physician of his own choice” (Erz, 1912, p. 708). It was said that the medical trusts:
 
[W]ould create a monopoly more odious that was ever before conceived, one which would touch and control the life of the people at thousand points of contact and—the most audacious feature of all—would impose the cost of its own support upon the country to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars every year. (Candrian, 1910, p. 617)
 
The allopathic profession, in the form of the AMA, soon garnered the legal support to silence and eradicate any medical practitioner whom they desired.
 
And silenced they were. The early NDs affected by these AMA activities can be summarized by Benedict Lust’s experience as an early ND: “Although I have been arrested sixteen times by the New York County Medical Trust, and I have been arrested three times by the Federal Government, I have never been fined” (1934, p. 296). Despite his never having been convicted, Lust eventually paid thousands of dollars of fines for himself and on behalf of many of his less solvent colleagues. Accounts of thousands of arrests of other NDs dominated the early journals. Many NDs were “robbed, persecuted, prosecuted, jailed, handcuffed and stigmatized in every conceivable manner possible by the hyenas and serpents of the American Medical Association” (Robinson, 1908, p. 91). By occupying political offices, the medical trust had at its disposal the legal armor of policing and incriminating all nonmembers for free. The proclamation in many legal jurisdictions that illegal practice of medicine by anyone other than the regulars “reliev[ed] the Medical Trust of the expenses connected with securing evidence and prosecuting these cases” (Lust, 1926, p. 68). The central question of the time then became who has the right to be a physician, a healer?
 
Who Shall and Who Shall Not Heal?
 
In the tumultuous year of 1910, W. W. Flower wrote:
 
Do you know that there are five bills before the present congress which, if passed, could be so used, and concealed purpose of which is to give such powers to a national department or bureau or ‘officer’ of health . . . . Do you know that the terms of all of bills are so subtle that such bureau or department could at any time take action according to its interests or prejudices without specific legislation while the moral effect would be to commit the United States Government to the establishment of a system of medicine, denying to the people the right to determine for themselves the kind of medical treatment they shall employ? (pp. 485-486)
 
Bernarr Macfadden continued in 1926:
 
The object of this bill is to crush drugless healing. The allopaths are planning to eliminate the men who are advocating methods different from their own. The allopaths want a monopoly of the healing art, and this bill will help them to suppress all knowledge in reference thereto. (p. 110)
 
The Webb-Loomis Medical Practice Act of 1926
 
With each law passed, the NDs found themselves in an increasingly precarious position as a profession. Their efforts to gain a foothold in medicine eroded slowly and surely. On May 17, 1926, the Webb-Loomis Medical Practice Act was passed by the medical society of New York in its efforts to completely squash the “irregulars.” The legislation meant that “all drugless practitioners who were rendering service to the public without a state license could be put out of business.” This law “attracted more nation-wide attention and was the occasion for more intense discussion than perhaps any other bill introduced in the Legislature that year” (Anderson, 1930, p. 226). How effective were the medical trusts? Indeed, very effective.
 
The insidious remarks of one judge, commenting on this bill, were that “if a man gave a drink of water to a fainting woman he would be guilty of practicing medicine without a license, and subject to fine and imprisonment” (Macfadden, 1929, p. 42). Many contemporary NDs continue to have similar experiences. In 1999, while practicing in a Canadian province without licensure for NDs, I was visited by a representative from the local college of physicians and surgeons, instructing me that I would be charged with practicing medicine without a license “if I merely prescribed a patient to drink water.”
 
We witness today not only the dominance of the orthodox biomedicine professions but also their piracy of naturopathic modalities. Acupuncture taught in short weekend courses enables an allopath to practice dry needling with their patients. The rigor of training is short, but the MD title is the unassailable framework that permits this cherry picking of modalities whose clinical content, philosophical underpinnings, and effectiveness are predicated on much more substantial training and supervision. A hundred years ago, when their own practices were not working, the old school was quick to adopt practices used by the NDs under the guise of “modern medicine.” The following quotation illustrates the opportunism by the contradiction implied in the legitimate therapeutic practice or method used by one group, such as the regulars, being condemned as dangerous quackery when used by the NDs:
 
When a new natural method of healing springs up, it is ridiculed by the ‘regulars’ but as soon as laymen begin to believe in this same method and demand its application, the medics at once seize upon it, transplant it to their own soil; proclaim it as their own ‘new discovery’ and proceed to practice it without preparation in a school which teaches natural methods. They seem to think that ‘natural things’ are so simple as to be acquired without any special training, when as a matter of fact our system is quite complicated. (Clauson, 1910, p. 514)
 
In the view of some of our forebears, access to and control of hospitals became not only the last straw but also a clear indication of the pervasive and unrelenting quest of the allopathic profession to dominate the medical terrain in America:
 
The drugless organizations introduced the Hospital Bill in the Washington Senate and House . . . .  [o]pening the hospitals as public institutions to the licensed physicians of all schools and giving the public a chance to choose their own doctors rather than having to submit to the dictates of the medical association. (Lust, 1930, p. 67)
 
The NDs argued that “the people build the hospitals, free them from taxation and then the medical trust steps in and proceeds to appropriate them to their own uses and to dictate to the public who shall be admitted to practice in them” (Lust, 1930, p. 66). As Robinson had prophesized, “We cannot tell what the world has lost by this infamous system of oppression and suppression” (1908, p. 90).
 
This period in the history of naturopathic medicine was bruising and painful. However, Dr. Carl Schultz captures the indomitable spirit of the profession:
 
Whatever you do, the time will come when Naturopathy will rule in the whole world, not by force of Police or penal laws, but by virtue of its incomparable results in leading humanity to wisdom, health and longevity and to the pinnacle of happiness. (1905, p. 219)
 
 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND is a licensed naturopath in Ontario and Oregon. She is currently a faculty member in the Advancement Department at NCNM, conducting historical research in its rare books room. She is applying these studies to the creation and delivery of curriculum featuring Nature Cure, including Balneotherapy and Buteyko breathing. She is currently planning another of her annual, educational Balneotherapy and Spa trips to Eastern Europe and welcomes interested doctors to accompany her.
 
 
 
 
 
 
References
 
Unknown author, (1905). Who are the Quacks? Naturopath and Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol VI, #3, pp 61-65.  This article was a reprint from the The Ophtalomologist.
 
Anderson HB (1930). Who Are the Quacks? Nature’s Path, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XXXV, #8, pp 226-227.
 
Baker R (1912). Fighting the Doctor-Drug-Trust, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XVII, # 8, pp 513-515.
 
Blumer, L (1910). The Revolution in Medical Practice, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XV, #4, pp 195-210.
 
Candrian, A (1910). The Editor as His Own Doctor, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XV, #10, pp 615-618.
 
Clauson, JA (1910). The Dawn of A New Era, A Farewell Address to American School of Naturopathy, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XV, #10, pp 514-516.
 
Erz, AA (1912). Friends of Medical Freedom and Voters, Attention! The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XVII, #11, pp 707-709.
 
Fishbein, M (1927). The New Medical Follies, Boni and Liverlight Publishing, New York,  pp 235.
 
Flower, BO (1910). Do You Want the ‘Doctors’ Trust’ To Be Able To Force Its Opinions on You?  The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XV, #8, pp 485-486.
 
Fritz, WW (1915). The Medical Trust Monopolizing the Federal Bureaus and Healing Arts, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XX, #10, p 640.
 
Hilf, SB (1915). Who is the Quack? The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XX, #9, p 554.
 
Lust, B (1926). Medical Tyranny, Nature’s Path, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol II, # 2, pp 67-68.
 
Lust, B (1930). The Medical Trust, An Observation of its Methods, Nature’s Path, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XXXV, #3, pp 66-67, 80.
 
Lust, B (1934). Medical Liberty Versus Unconstitutional Health Laws, Invisible Government and Self-Assumed Authority by the Medical Trust, Naturopath and Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XXXIX, #10, pp 296-298.
 
Lust, B (1934). Medical Liberty Versus Unconstitutional Health Laws, Invisible Government and Self-Assumed Authority by the Medical Trust, Naturopath and Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XXXIX, #11, pp 332-334, 341-342, 351.
 
Macfadden, B (1926). What is Liberty? Who are the Quacks? Naturopath and Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XXXI, #3, pp 109-112.
 
Macfadden, B (1929). Medical Tyranny in New York, Nature’s Path, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XXXIII, # 2, pp 42.
 
Robinson, JT (1908). The Medical Trust in the United States, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol IX, #3, pp 89- 92.
 
Schultz C (1905). Naturopathy, what it is, What it does, and Why it is Opposed by the Medical Trust. The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, Vol VI, #8, pp 216-219.
 
Weiss, GL, Lonnquist, LE (1996). The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness, Prentice-Hall Inc., New Jersey, pp. 397.
 
Zurmuhlen C (1912). The fight For Medical Freedom Against the Allopathic Trust, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol XVII, #9, p 609.
 
 
 
 

The Guardians of Health
Sussanna Czeranko, ND
 

If you are the enviable possessor of a set of good sound teeth – all your own – then perhaps you do not appreciate your wonderful possession.  If you do, you are one of the minority.
 
Edward O. Johnson, 1919, p. 600
 
Since primitive man has had high immunity to dental caries, he becomes our control in the great experiment of civilization.
 
Weston Price, 1934, p.871
 
White sugar is the greatest individual destroyer of tooth-tissues, because of its total lack of vitamines [sic] and mineral salts and because of its totally lifeless, artificialized character, caused by the sulphur-bleaching process which it undergoes.
 
Edwin J. Ross, 1924, p. 618

 
Our early forebears knew the state of the teeth could be regarded as an index to the state of the entire body.  Indeed, over time the dental profession has increasingly paid attention to the conclusions of the early naturopaths that  dental health is inextricably linked to overall health, and most particularly to diet.  It is valuable to revisit what our elders knew about dental health and to celebrate the clinical pearls they have passed on.   They knew, as we know, that our pearly whites are powerful barometers of our health, and a priceless element of good health.   Almost a century ago Johnstone reminded us,  “You can best show your appreciation of your precious possession by learning how to take care of them.  It is matter of self-preservation as well as common sense.” (Johnstone, 1919, p. 600)
 
Our teeth are manifestly fundamental in our lives.  They certainly come in handy for the things that we love to do: talking and eating.  Without exception, a beautiful smile is enhanced by white healthy teeth and not to mention, a much marketed asset in social interaction.  But when we fail to care for our teeth, disaster looms ahead.  As one doctor put it during the roaring twenties, “bad teeth, apart from their unsightliness, indirectly cause much illness and most agonizing pain in the form of toothache and neuralgia.” (Knaggs, 1927, p.172)
 
During that same period, statistics reported defective teeth amongst school children at an estimated 95% prevalence rate in the U.S. (Knaggs, 1927, p. 172) Our early naturopathic doctors knew that teeth were critical in determining overall health.  Since the mouth and teeth lie at the start of the alimentary tract, they explained, the teeth have the responsibility of taking the first step in the digestive process.  Kellogg, who had a deep and abiding interest in all aspects of nutrition, explained that chewing gets “the saliva flow[ing] freely, the gastric and other juices likewise begin to flow and the peristaltic waves which move the food along the food tube from one laboratory to another, start in the stomach and travel along the whole thirty feet of the alimentary canal.” (Kellogg, 1923, pp.18-19)  Lust weighed in by noting, “If food is not thorough masticated it cannot be thoroughly permeated by the saliva” (Lust, 1901, p. 244) which ultimately results in poor digestion.  Healthy teeth, then, were paramount in the dynamic of healthy digestion.
 
Kuhne reminded his colleagues at the time that “the teeth are the only bones which project from the body and are not covered with muscular tissue.  He reminded his patients about the essential due diligence necessary to address the  “yellowish mucus [which was] constantly being deposited on the teeth, which even takes a hard form, known as tartar.” (Kuhne, 1918, p. 363)  Tartar deposited onto the teeth was seen by Kuhne and the early naturopaths as cause for grave problems, such as pyrrohea or Riggs disease. Lust’s position was, “If tartar forms on the teeth, it must be carefully removed … otherwise in time, serious disease of the gums results, and the teeth become worthless and fall out.” (Lust, 1905, p. 25)
 
Rigg’s Disease
 
Hirshberg had a particular interest in Pyrrohea Alveolaris or Rigg’s disease.  He described phrrohea alveoaris as “a local infection of the gums and teeth with germs, which have a predilection and preference for tissues weakened by scratches from food particles, unsterilized bristles of poor tooth brushes or parts weakened by anemia, indoor air, darkness and health below par.” (Hirshberg, 1918, p. 622)  He and others at the time did not consider Pyrrohea a unique disease, but rather the tip of the iceberg covering up many other systemic problems.  Knaggs illustrated this important point of view by noting, “it is important to remember that pyrrohea is not a disease per se but just a symptom of a much more widely spread condition of septic ill health.” (Knaggs, 1927, p. 172) For those diagnosed with Rigg’s disease, that may have presented with an initial toothache, their condition was frequently accompanied by complications of “joint pains, joint deformities, joint swellings and general diseases.” (Hirshberg, 1918, p. 622)
 
Tooth Abscesses
 
The early naturopathis also had much to say in keeping with the notion of the vis  about the notorious abscesses with which many of their patients presented.  Clements wrote,“A tooth abscess is like any other abscess, an accumulation of pus. … When an abscess occurs in a dead tooth, it is an effort on the part of the system to dissolve the root of the tooth. To retain such a tooth is a mistake, and is a constant drain upon the vital powers of the body.”  (Clements, 1926, 339)  The early naturopaths knew that abscessed teeth needed to be removed to maintain good health.  But having a mouth with missing teeth also meant problems.
 
Lust’s position was that “partial or complete toothlessness can bring on various diseases, such as throat, chest and stomach troubles” and he advised often that it was , “the duty of everyone who can afford it, to have a suitable set of artificial teeth made.  Many diseases in which medicine has been powerless have been cured by following this advice.” (Lust, 1905, p.25)  In any case, from this familiar perspective, untreated pyorrhea was “associated with pernicious anemia, grave gastric disorders, headaches, nausea, sick stomachs, tonsillitis, enlarged glands, joint fevers, [rheumatism], earaches, neuritis, Bright’s disease, and fatal carbuncles [severe skin abscesses].” (Hirshberg, 1918, p. 623)
 
The historical record shows that the causes of dental disease were much discussed and the early naturopaths saw diet as central to addressing these challenges.  Brown advocated for conscious prevention, asking parents to take responsibility for their children’s dental health beginning right in the prenatal period.  He wrote,“Good gums depend largely upon the kind of foods the mother eats before the child is born.  From good gums come good teeth.” (Brown, 1920, p. 144)  The early naturopaths also repeatedly stressed that to keep the teeth disease-free, cleaning of the gums and teeth was essential.  Ross advised, “Sufferers from gum or tooth troubles should also carefully remove all material lodging in spaces between the teeth or in tooth cavities after a meal, and then eat an apple or half an apple after each meal.  Other fruits are also good, but apples are best for this purpose as they contain elements which clean and protect the teeth. (Ross, 1924, p. 618)
 
Gum Chewing
 
In the interest of good dental and digestive health, habits such as chewing gum were not condoned by the early naturopaths.  In those early years of the last century, a patient inquiring of his naturopath whether gum chewing was a good form of exercise to help his molars, was told, “it was neither a health habit nor beneficial to emulate the Holstein tribe.” (Johnstone, 1919, p. 601)  Rather than chewing gum the way a cow would work through its cud, eating raw vegetables was the advice given to patients.  Thus, as we have seen in much of the historical record of what the early nature-cure doctors recommended for many presenting conditions, dental health could be much enhanced by paying attention to the role of raw foods such as fruits and vegetables.  The benefits, they felt, were multifaceted.  The hardness offered to the teeth a form of exercise as opposed to “soft, mushy foods, which do not offer sufficient resistance to the teeth and so weaken the entire structure of the teeth and gums.” (Ross, p. 618)
 
John Harvey Kellogg and Weston Price
 
The early naturopaths strongly believed that food was vitally important in maintaining healthy teeth.  One who saw a poor diet as the main factor for degenerative teeth was Dr Kellogg: “I wish to be clearly understood as maintaining not only that decay of the teeth is not the primary cause of indigestion but the reverse of it.” (Kellogg, 1902, p. 304)  A strong voice which supported Kellogg’s convictions was Weston Price.  He was a dentist in the early 20^th century who did much to articulate valuable answers to questions like, ‘Why are modern teeth so bad?’  By the end of [Weston Price’s] unusual career, a career that took him on “150,000 miles of field visits all over the globe in attempt to satisfy [this] single burning question” (Johnson, 1985, p. 53), Price and his wife had done much to describe the causes of dental disease in developed societies of the time.   He and his wife traveled studying the diets of isolated and non-modernized cultures.  His mission was simple.  Since primitive societies were relatively free from modern degenerative processes, he wanted to determine what factors were responsible for their “high immunity to dental caries and freedom from dental arch deformities”. (Price, 1936, p. 854)  Price explains:
 
In my studies of living primitive races in various parts of the world, for comparison of groups that are still isolated with groups of that same stock that are in contact with our modernizing influence, I have found everywhere an immediate breakdown of the dental organs.  The development of dental caries and change in facial and dental arch form wherever these primitives had departed from living in accordance with the tradition of their tribes by utilizing the foods of the white civilization that was encroaching upon them.  Similarly, their skeletons revealed a very high incidence of physical excellence and such as would rarely be seen in our modern culture.  The difference in the number of teeth attacked by caries would average approximately a 30 fold increase in the modernized groups. (Price, no date, pp 2-3)
 
Weston concluded that traditional diets were associated with almost complete immunity from tooth decay.  These traditional “diets were unusually high in protein, vitamins, minerals and [fatty acids] with none of the empty calories [found in refined sugar products]” (Johnson, 1985, p. 55).  Weston’s conclusions were also noted earlier by John Kellogg who observed, “the savage wears almost no clothing, takes no colds, knows nothing of nasal catarrh and his teeth are as sound as a dog’s.” (Kellogg, 1902, p. 304)  The undeniable truth, these early nature-cure doctors concluded, was that white flour and sweet foods of the modern civilization were the culprits in dental disease.
 
Although the early naturopaths shared Price’s conclusions about diet, his articles did not appear in any of Benedict Lust’s naturopathic journals.  One contemporary naturopath, Dr Ross, echoed Price’s teachings, condemning modernized foods found in refined carbohydrates.  He stated, “Among the worst of the second class of foods are candies, pastries, jellies, jams and all foods into which white sugar enters as an ingredient. … white bread, light rye bread, refined and denatured cereals are also injurious to the teeth because they lack calcium.” (Ross, 1924, p.618)  This disdain for starches was widely reiterated.  Johnstone, for example, remarked, “a preponderance of starchy foods is a splendid thing to further the cause of decayed teeth.”  (Johnstone, 1919, p. 601).  At the same time, many naturopaths of the period loudly warned of the dangers of white sugar.
 
The Evils of White Sugar
 
The problem with the refined sugars, they taught their patients, was that they were “acid-producing.  An excess of white sugar in the body steals lime from the blood that is needed to repair the teeth.” (Hanoka, 1926, p. 91)  According to the early naturopaths, the ‘modern civilized diet’ was “lamentably deficient  in organic lime and phosphorus.”  (Knaggs, 1927, p. 172)  These deficiencies “predisposed people to dyspepsia, which leads to clogging of the lymphatic glands.  If the glands become clogged and unworkable, the process of digestion is greatly retarded.”   (Knaggs, 172) With a faulty digestion, the creation of “organic acids, including oxalic, acetic, lactic and butyric acids are freely formed in the stomach and bowels.   When absorbed by the blood they combine with its lime salts forming chiefly oxalate of line.”  (Knaggs, 172)   Many processed foods lost the bulk of their lime and phosphorus salts rendering the food deficient in the constituents needed to form healthy teeth.
 
Weston also observed that anatomical deformities such as underdeveloped jaws, irregularly spaced teeth or cracked teeth were virtually unknown among people who had not come into contact with modernized food or what we now call the “SAD” diet.  Changes to the facial structure and dental arches with associated irregular teeth could occur within one generation if there were deviations from traditional dietary habits.   Weston demonstrated this phenomenon in many of his studies and written materials.  For example, as late as the fourth decade of the last century, he noted:
 
The health of the supporting tissues, as expressed in loosening of the teeth or so called pyorrhea, often changed from a very high immunity to an exceedingly low immunity in a short time after a group had made contact with modern civilization.  Particularly significant has been the fact that facial and dental arch form as well as body form often changed relatively quickly after the new contact was made.(Weston, 1941, 550)
 
Diet impact upon dental health was well supported in clinical practice and documented in numerous publications on the subject.  Another factor in dental disease was the controversial vaccinations.  Whenever “people are not vaccinated their teeth are sound, but wherever the practice of vaccination has been introduced the teeth of the people deteriorate just in proportion as the population comes under the influence of vaccine.” (Bruechert, 1911, p. 423)  Dr Knaggs, a distinguished and prolific author wrote a book, Why Our Teeth Decay (or Pyorrhea Unveiled).  Knaggs claimed that vaccination had a “profoundly injurious effect upon the just budding permanent teeth.”  (Bruechert, 1911, p. 423)
 
Adam’s Ale vs. Tooth Pastes
 
Many opinions and suspicions existed at the time about the use of tooth pastes and powders.  Brown admonished his colleagues and his patients, “tooth powders like many medicines, are made to sell and not to cure. No preparation ever made will restore the teeth when once they begin to decay.” (Brown, 1920, p. 146)  The prolific Lust added to this debate, saying, “it is reasonable to suppose that all largely advertised tooth pastes and mouth washes are objectionable, because we never know how and where they are made, and whether or not dangerous substances are used in their manufacture.” (Lust, 1903, p. 337)
 
When the tooth powders failed to meet approval, the use of water for teeth cleaning was a sure win according to early naturopaths such as Brown. “One should wash his or her teeth at night and morning, especially before retiring.  Parents should see that their little ones use plenty of ‘Adam’s Ale’ [water] in their mouths after eating candy.” (Brown, 1920, p. 146) But not all had the confidence that water was enough  to clean the teeth.  Lust noted, “pure water alone, however, is not sufficient to cleanse the teeth, as is necessary, and to prevent formation of tartar, food remaining in the teeth cannot be removed by rinsing alone and only helps rapid decay.” (Lust, 1903, p. 337)
 
Lust suggested, “the very best tooth-cleaning remedy is the common garden sage, i.e. its green leaves.” (Lust, 1901, p. 244)  He added, “During the cold season, when fresh sage leaves are not to be obtained, you may take sage leaves powder and finely-ground linden wood coal in equal parts, mix them well together and clean the teeth.  … The chewing daily of Juniper berries is also very beneficent for the preservation of the teeth.” (Lust, 1901, p. 244)  And, typical of Lust, he recommended a wide range of natural options for his patients, and as advice to his colleagues in their consultations about dental health.  He wrote, “As an antiseptic the addition of powdered and clean charcoal can be recommended, but it also can be used alone.  A very pleasant and suitable mouth wash is one drop of cinnamon oil in a large glass of water.” (Lust, 1905, p. 25)
 
The early naturopaths insisted that keeping our teeth healthy was essential for a disease free life.  Their approaches often zeroed in on prevention.  Informing their concerns was the worry that dental health was as affected by an approach which considered the state of the entire body, including habits, attitudes, and trusting in the body’s innate wisdom to heal itself.  In this regard, in 1902, Kellogg stated, “the teeth of men and animals fed upon an insufficient, impure, or unnatural diet, undergo decay in sympathy with the deterioration of the whole organism, and often affords the first evidence of general tissue degeneration; hence the state of the teeth may be regarded as an index to the state of the entire body.” (Kellogg, 1902, p. 304)
 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND is a licensed naturopath in Ontario and Oregon. She is currently a faculty member in the Advancement Department at NCNM, conducting historical research in its rare books room. She is applying these studies to the creation and delivery of curriculum featuring Nature Cure, including Balneotherapy and Buteyko breathing. She is currently planning another of her annual, educational Balneotherapy and Spa trips to Eastern Europe and welcomes interested doctors to accompany her.
 
 
 
 
 
 
References
 
Brown, GP (1920). How to Preserve the Teeth, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXV, #3, pp. 144-146.
 
Bruechert, HA (1911).  Vaccination and Teeth, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XVI, # 7, p. 423.
 
Clement H (1926). Tooth Abscesses: A Further Discussion, Nature’s Path, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. II, # 7, pp. 339-340.
 
Hanoka, NS (1926). Keeping the Teeth Healthy, Nature’s Path, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. II, # 2, p. 91.
 
Johnson, K (1985). The Pioneer who Linked Diet and Disease, East West Journal, March, 1985.
 
Johnstone, EO (1919). How Are Your Teeth? Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXIV, #12, pp. 600-601.
 
Kellogg JH (1902). The Significance of Dental Decay. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. III, # 7, p. 304.
 
Kellogg JH (1923). The Itinerary of a Breakfast, Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York, 1923, pp. 210.
 
Knaggs, HV (1927). Why Our Teeth Decay? Nature’s Path, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. III, # 4, pp. 172-173.
 
Kuhne, L (1918). Diseases of the Teeth, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXII, #4, pp. 362-363.
 
Lust, B (1901). Care of the Teeth, The Kneipp Water Cure Monthly, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. II, # 9, p. 244.
 
Lust, B (1903). How to take care of the Teeth, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. IV, # 11, p. 337.
 
Lust, B (1905). Hygiene of Teeth, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. VI, # 1, p. 25.
 
Lust, B (1905). Care of the Teeth, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. VI, # 10, p. 273.
 
Price, W (no date). Dentistry and Race Destiny, article found in NCNM’s Rare Book Room, pp. 2-3.
 
Price, W (1934). Resolved: “That a Clean Tooth does not Decay and that Mouth Cleanliness Affords the Best Known Protection Against Dental Caries, Dental Cosmos, Vol. 76, August, pp. 860-887.
 
Price, W (1936). New Light Obtained by a study of Primitive Races on Modern Physical Degenerations, Including Dental Caries, Dental Cosmos, Vol. 203, August, pp. 853-873.
 
Price, W (1941). Race Decline and Race  Degeneration, The Journal of the American Dental Association, Vol.286, April, pp. 548-558.
 
Ross, EJ (1924). The Teeth – How to Care for Them, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXIX, # 7, p. 618.

Chlorosis or Poverty of the Blood
Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE
 

The chlorosis of young girls has become a fashion.  There is scarcely one family with grown up daughters of which not one, at least, is suffering of chlorosis.
 
Benedict Lust, (1908, p. 6)
 
Nervousness and chlorosis or anaemia, often go hand in hand.  The first thing to do is to remove the cause, which, in many cases, is tight lacing, the wearing of stays [corsets], want of nutritious food, too little exercise out of doors, general weakening and softening of the system.
 
Sebastian Kneipp, (1902, p. 185)
 
Do not wear corsets. … We may fool ourselves and part of the public but never the organs that suffer for the proper amount of space, because we have not the courage to live a natural life.
 
E. K. Stretch, (1916, pp. 101-102)

 
You have come a long way baby!
 
The phrase, ‘you have come a long way baby’, slammed through the cigarette advertising world some years back, pointing out the supposed huge strides in the equity of women, of course neglecting to include new data about the inevitable and accompanying surge in female lung cancer.  Pernicious in a similar way was the dangerous manipulation of women’s fashion and clothing styles to the detriment of their health.  The archaic condition “chlorosis” was an unnecessary condition arising from those fads. A century ago, a woman’s clothing, her work opportunities, and her living conditions collectively generated powerful impacts on her health. A prevailing lack of understanding of women’s actual medical needs grew from the paucity of information and research not only about the inappropriateness of, say, the use of corsets or the presenting condition of chlorosis, but also about women’s health overall.   Living in this medical vacuum, women suffered.  The conspicuous absence of women doctors administering to women at the turn of the last century compounded the serious misinformation and dearth of data.
 
In this environment, one popular and trivializing diagnosis projected frequently onto women was characterized by terms such as “hysteria” and “nerves” which fell under the umbrella of neurasthenia.  Another common female diagnosis, referenced above, was the green sickness or chlorosis, “the twin sister of anemia” (Bilz, p. 1540)
 
Chlorosis was widespread among young women, affecting the delicate and not sparing the strong.  In the first decade of the last century, Dr Seibert found that chlorosis affected those in “the higher strata of society” and remarked that “servant girls, as a rule, remain immune from it, while seamstresses, milliners, girls who work in factories, mostly those who have to live in poorly ventilated rooms and by their work are obliged to remain in an unnatural position, suffer from this sickness.” (Seibert, 1908, p. 79) Authors such as Kuhne and Lust also noted that chlorosis affected all classes of women.  “Neither poor or rich, neither young or old, are free from these disorders.” (Kuhne, 1918, p. 352)
 
The symptoms of chlorosis experienced by young women resemble those of anemia.   “The first symptoms of chlorosis are the pale, almost waxen color of the gums and the inner eyelids; languid physiognomy, heavy walk, palpitations of the heart, somnolence, sense of discomfort and disinclination for work.” (Lust, 1908, p. 6) The weakness felt in these young women may also be accompanied with “palpitations of the heart with the least exertion, a feeling of oppression, lethargy, and aversion to a meat diet.” (Bilz, 1898, p. 514)  As Kuhne explained it, chlorosis “render[s] people mentally and physically unfit … with a loss of appetite and the bowels no longer act regularly.” (Kuhne, 1918, p. 352)
 
The quality of blood was paramount in understanding the full picture of chlorosis.  Those with chlorosis illustrated clearly “the effects of poverty of blood”. (Kneipp, 1891, p. 234) Chlorosis impacted menstruation resulting in dysmenorrhea, or amenorrhea and “the bleeding … are most irregular, or leucorrhea appears, which greatly weakens the patient.” (Lust, 1908, p. 6) The blood flow could be scanty or profuse and of a pale red color. (Lust, 1920, p. 233)   Menstrual cramps caused by “sedentary occupation or the corset contribute to the prevention of the right blood circulation” or blood stagnation. (Seibert, 1908, p. 80)  Others, such as Kuhne saw irregularity and disturbances in menstruation as “an unmistakable proof of the presence of an encumbrance of morbid matter.” (Kuhne, 1918, p. 636)
 
Lust further explained, “Often chlorosis is accompanied with convulsive attacks.” (Lust, 1908, p. 6)  Kuhne saw patients with chlorosis also experiencing epileptic fits.  “Imperfect digestion in conjunction with insufficient activity of the skin and lungs were the sole causes of these diseases.” (Kuhne, 1918, p. 355)  By treating the chlorosis, the fits were also cured.  The causes of chlorosis were multifold but one huge factor was the impulse to achieve a notorious hourglass figure and then have to endure the consequences of the methods.
 
The Corset: Why were they worn? To improve the figure!
 
Trim tiny waists are as coveted by women today, as a century ago.  The moment we see and feel the love handles growing on our bodies, we will stoop to starving, counting calories, HCG diets, exercise or anything to return our tiny waists.  A century ago, the corset was quite effective in achieving this goal.  “There has never been invented an instrument to a sure, though slow destruction of the body as the corset.” (Wagner, 1909, p. 13) The corset was designed to create an hourglass figure, but in doing so also “press[ed] the vital organs out of place, disfiguring the body, prevent[ing] breathing, caus[ing] stomach troubles, cancers or tumors of the breast, defective circulation, ill health and maternal injury.” (Neff, 1910, p. 149) “No wonder women have spasms, nervous prostrations, fits,” professed Dr Neff in his urge to women to discard the corset. “The natural form of the body cannot be improved upon by this health destroying corset, that disfigures the body until its natural shape is lost.” (Neff, 1910, p. 149)   Women wearing the corset would find themselves “as if they should fall to pieces if the corset was removed.” (Gleason, p. 156)  Like chlorosis and neurasthenia of the day, women’s use of the corset provoked much discussion in the naturopathic profession.
 
Dr Gleason was a female family physician in the 19^th century who was disgusted with corset use claiming that:  “tight clothing seems to squeeze out all common sense”. (Gleason, 1869, p. 157)  She reasoned, “if the bottom of the waist is snugly bound, the diaphragm is limited in its action, hence the lower portion of the lungs are not fully inflated.  The stomach and liver lack their proper play-room and needed motion, and with both digestion and respiration impeded, there is no power to keep health, in any part of the body.” (Gleason, 1869, p. 157)  Berggren adds, that tight clothing and lacing “hindered the proper return of lymph and venous blood from the parts below the chest.” (Berggren, 1918, p. 344)  It is no wonder that women in the late 19^th and early 20^th century would suffer with many ailments that soon characterized them as hysterical.
 
Not only did these women suffer wearing these ‘barbaric and inhuman forms of dress’, but their children also inherited ill health as well.  “The pelvic congestion, as well as pressure on these organs, aids powerfully in predisposing to, if not, indeed, actually causing disease of these organs not only for the individuals themselves, but also for future generations.” (Berggren, 1918, p. 345)  Lust noted that young women having children at a young age was detrimental to creating healthy children.  In his view, if “government should prohibit marriage between too young people, we would have less distorted conditions, less nervous women and more healthy children.”  (Lust, 1908, p. 6)
 
The treatment of chlorosis, in any case, followed sound nature cure principles, and most particularly, address the cause and the symptoms will take care of themselves. Recognizing that a sedentary lifestyle indoors contributed to chlorosis in young women, Lust prescribed “much exercise and no sedentary occupation [were] essential” (Lust, 1908, p. 6) to remedy chlorosis.   Seibert also affirms Lust’s counsel, “all young girls, without any exception at all, from the princess down to the lowest girl of the people should assist a housekeeper in all that work done by servant girls.”  (Seibert, 1908, p. 79).  He continues, “Work, physical and intellectual culture of the most simple kind, is the best remedy against chlorosis and bodily and mental weakness.” (Seibert, 1908, p. 80)
 
Kneipp and his followers achieved great success treating patients with chlorosis who presented with pale skin and were thin and lacked vital heat.  This was diagnosed as poor blood and “the first object then was to stimulate their appetite and circulation which [Kneipp] accomplished for the most part by partial washings or affusions.” (Bilz, 1898, p. 734) Kneipp recommended plenty of fresh air and to be “in the open air as much as possible and if they are in the room, this should be but sparingly heated.”  (Kneipp, 1891, p. 234)  We could certainly heed Kneipp’s advice as our current generation frets about Vitamin D deficiencies while spending increasingly more time indoors engaged in sedentary work.
 
The Kneipp cure for chlorosis of a strong constitution consisted of cold sitz baths which corrected “weak digestion and regulate the circulation of the blood.” (Kneipp, p. 48)  The duration of the cold sitz bath was one to two minutes and the best time to be taken was at night which helped sleep.  For those who were very weak and had very little vital heat, “the water applications should be gentle at first; in some cases, where cold feet are one of the symptoms, warm foot baths with salt and wood ashes.”  (Bilz, 1898, p. 754) Kneipp recommended anemic women to walk “barefooted in the house and in the open air during summer and autumn.” (Kneipp, 1902, p. 186)
 
Another Kneipp treatment which was employed by Bilz at his sanitarium were the hot compresses.  Bilz states,
 

the first thing is to produce perspiration. If that can be done, the patient is saved.  A coarse cloth, folded several times, dipped in hot water and well wrung out, is laid as hot as possible on the stomach, and well covered up.  In twenty minutes perspiration will generally take place.  The cloth should then at once be again wrung out in hot water, and applied as before, in order to increase the perspiration.  The whole body now perspires, the spasms cease and the patient feels better.   (Bilz, 1898, p. 754)

 
 
Kneipp taught that “Good and sufficient blood is the first condition of health.” Healthy menses, in his view, did “not last longer than four or five days. … If the ‘flooding’ lasts over four days, a sitz bath must be taken on the fifth day of 79°F for ten minutes.  During this time the body must be massaged or cooled by a douche.” (Wagner, 1909, p. 14)   If the loss of blood was excessive, rather than cold sitz baths, “hot sitz baths of 96-104°F must be taken.” (Wagner, 1909, p. 14) For the treatment of dysmenorrhea, sitz bathing was recommended. “At first using water at about 80°F, gradually using cooler water until 60°F is found comfortable.” (Stretch, 1916, p. 101)
 
Fresh Vegetables
 
‘The regulars’ used chalybeate or iron in various forms, or quinine to treat chlorosis.  The early naturopaths condemned the use of “artificial preparations for the purpose of ‘feeding up’ the patient “(Kuhne, 1899, p. 234) and advocated “a non-stimulating diet … [of] fresh vegetables, especially spinach and peas, rich in nutritive salts which strengthen bones and nerves, lettuce prepared with lemon instead of with vinegar.” (Wagner, 1909, p. 13)  To build up the blood, Kneipp advised “powdered chalk or bone meal should be taken internally in water or vinegar and water twice a day, morning and evening. … Coffee, tea, beer and wine are as much to be eschewed as the wretched powdered iron which ruins the stomach and often also the teeth.” (Kneipp, 1902, p. 186)  Kuhne, like many of his colleagues felt that chlorosis could “be cured only by expelling the foreign matter from the system, but never by medicaments”. (Kuhne, 1918, p. 356)
 
Dr Bilz’s sanitarium in Radebeul, Germany had a specific protocol for girls with chlorosis and anemia.  The day began early in the morning with a barefooted walk in the fresh air, followed by the customary ablution [ranging 72°-84°F].   After this, breakfast was served consisting of crushed wheat. For those who did not eat this cereal breakfast, alternative options included a cup of cacao or sour milk. Lunch would include vegetables, some meat and fruit with a glass of wine taken a half hour before lunch.  The afternoon snack consisted of cocoa or milk and the evening meal consisted of porridge, lettuce and fruit. (Wagner, 1909, pp. 13-14)
 
Today, anemia and its related lassitude, weakness and debility are replaced with obesity, rampant Vitamin D deficiencies and long hours sitting in front of computers or TV indoors.  In too many ways so familiar to naturopathic doctors aware of the long traditions of nature cure and the conditions patients bring forward, we have not moved very far along the continuum of health and exhibit presenting conditions which are similar to those who came before us, albeit for new reasons.
 
Go out, take off your shoes and take a walk outside, just as Father Kneipp would have recommended.
 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND does historical research in the NCNM archive collection in the rare books room.  She has just finished editing In Their Words: Vaccination, A Naturopathic Historical Perspective.  She is a qualified trainer currently teaching naturopathic doctors interested in Buteyko breathing. She can be reached at buteykond@gmail.com.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
References
 
Berggren, T (1918). Chest Expansion, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXIII, #4, pp. 343-348.
 
Bilz, FE (1898). Bilz, The Natural Method of Healing, F E Bilz Publishing, Leipzig, Volume I, pp. 1-1056.
 
Bilz, FE (1898). Bilz, The Natural Method of Healing, F E Bilz Publishing, Leipzig, Volume II, pp. 1056-2011.
 
Gleason, RB (1869).  Common Sense vs. Tight Dressing, The Herald of Health and Physical Culture, Miller, Wood and Co. Publishing, New York, Vol. 13, #4, pp. 156-158.
 
Hoegen, JA (1916). Hydrotherapy-Various Applications, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXI, #7, pp. 468-469.
 
Kneipp, S (1891). My Water Cure, translated from the 62^nd German Edition, Jos. Koesel Publisher, pp. 395.
 
Kneipp, S (1902).  Diseases, Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. III, #4, pp. 185-187.
 
Kuhne, L (1899). The New Science of Healing, Louis Kuhne Publishing, Leipsic, Germany, 460 pp.
 
Kuhne, L (1918). Poverty of the Blood, Chlorosis, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XVIII, #4, pp. 352 – 357.
 
Kuhne, L (1918). Diseases of Women, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XVIII, #7, pp. 635 – 641.
 
Lust, B (1908). Some Remarks about Chlorosis, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. IX, #1, p. 6.
 
Lust, B (1920). Green Sickness or Chlorosis, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXV, #5, p. 235.
 
Neff, JH (1910). The Corset, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XV, #3, p. 149.
 
Seibert, E (1908). Prevention and Cure of Female Diseases by a Natural Method, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. IX, #3, pp. 79-81.
 
Stretch, EK (1916). Gynecology: Minus the Knife, Herald of Health and the Naturopath, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. XXI, #2, pp. 101 – 102.
 
Wagner, O (1909). Lectures About Female Troubles, Held in the Kneipp Association in Bruenn, The Naturopath and the Herald of Health, Benedict Lust Publishing, New York, Vol. X,
 
 
 
 

The Benefits of Water
Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE

Diseases traditionally treated with the Nauheim Baths
• Arteriosclerosis
• Hypertension
• Angina
• Chronic nephritis
• Cardiac weakness (Endocarditis, Mitral insufficiency, Cardiac Hypertrophy, Aortic and Mitral Stenosis)
• Rheumatism

In a CO2 bath the body is covered by a net or jacket of gas bubbles or pearls, which are warmed by the water.
Simon Baruch (1917, p. 599)

I am confident, however, that there is more to be accomplished by the use of carbonated brine baths and resistance exercises than can be accounted for by mental effort. I am sure that these measures produce definite physical benefit in persons who have serious organic heart disease.
John Swan (1911, pp. 29-30)

Today, the almost-fabled carbon dioxide bath is not known by many in America; yet, there was a time when a simulated Nauheim bath of German fame was central to the treatment of many conditions, especially cardiovascular diseases, on American soil.

The carbon dioxide bath originated in Nauheim, Germany, at the site of a mineral water spring with a high concentration of carbon dioxide “varying from 1.8 to as high as 3.9%” (Bovaird, 1909, p. 75). This carbon-dioxide−rich water was found to be efficacious for several conditions. The Nauheim bath became synonymous with carbon dioxide bathing and had many names, such as “effervescent bath” and “carbonic acid bath.” The Nauheim, or carbon dioxide bath, continues to be used in several European countries as part of a flourishing network of medical balneotherapy clinics. Here in North America, this remarkable modality has simply vanished into thin air.

Since 1835, the Nauheim mineral spring has attracted many people drawn by the therapeutic benefits this water offers. One famous visitor, President Theodore Roosevelt, came to Nauheim as a young boy with his father, who was suffering from heart disease. He and thousands of others have benefited from the effervescent carbonic acid baths that were used in the treatment of neurasthenic conditions and insomnia (Hoegen, 1916, p. 61), as well as anemia, loss of appetite, impotence, old age, circulatory disturbances, hemorrhoids, inflammation of the female reproductive system (menstrual irregularities), functional and organic heart diseases, rheumatism, gout, and skin diseases (Baruch, 1920; Hoegen, 1916; Kellogg, 1903).

The term “Nauheim bath” meant “a cold brine bath in which free carbon dioxide gas is liberated” (Swan, 1911, p. 30). The utilization and specifications of such a water therapy were not well-known, even among naturopaths. The temperature of “the Nauheim bath was rarely given higher than 95 F, nor lower than 86 F” (Baruch, 1917, p. 182), which initially may have felt a bit chilly to the patient. However, this chilliness was quickly replaced by “warmth and well-being” (Harveian, 1903, p. 6) as soon as the bubbles of carbon dioxide gas began to accumulate on the skin. As Hoegen (1916) pointed out, “The skin shows decided hyperemia wherever it is in contact with the gas bubbles” (p. 534). Dr. Swan, who studied the Nauheim bath literature in 1911, concluded that “the most important effect is the equalization of the distribution of the blood in the skin and the viscera by the vasodilation produced in the vessels of the former organ, the skin” (Swan, 1911, p. 31), a contention also supported by his colleagues, Colebeck (1904), Hare (1907), Bishop (1909), Anders (1905), and Merklen (1908), and explicated variously among doctors in the first decade of the last century.

Having personally experienced these baths, the sensation is like bathing in a tub of champagne. The body becomes covered with a film of tiny bubbles, and despite the coolness of the water, the body feels very warm due to vasodilation of the capillaries.
Whatever the patient’s experience of the waters is, the Nauheim bath became famous for the treatment of heart disease and was considered by some as the panacea for all cardiac ailments. Swan (1911), though, cautioned against the “promiscuous use of these carbogaseous baths” (p. 44). In his view, the therapeutic indications of the different cardiopathies needed to be considered, and the Nauheim practitioners needed to be prudent in their prescription. “The best cases for the Nauheim treatment are those with myocardial weakness from whatever cause. For valvular heart disease in the stage of broken compensation with dropsy, it is not suitable” (Swan, 1911, p. 44).

Harveian (1903) reported that physiological effects included “heart sounds [that became] clearer and stronger” and “respiration [that became] easy and slower and deeper” (p. 6). The physicians who worked at Nauheim “ascribe[d] the effects of the baths to mechanical stimulation to the skin, with a reflex effect upon the heart or upon the circulatory system” (Bovaird, 1907, p. 76). The Nauheim physicians found that the baths “raise[d] a low blood pressure and lower[ed] a high blood pressure” (Swan, 1911, p. 29). In fact, Beneke’s very early 18-month study of patients utilizing these rich carbon dioxide waters, published in 1859, concluded:

The cases of organic cardiac disease which have resulted from rheumatism or endocarditis furnish no contra-indication to the use of the saline bath . . . should not hesitate an instant to bathe persons who in consequence of rheumatism have become afflicted with cardiac disorder. (Beneke, 1859, as cited in Harveian, 1903, pp. 1-2)

Dr. Brown found that “the cases peculiarly fitted for Nauheim treatment are cases in which the heart muscle acts insufficiently, either from dilation, poor blood supply from anemias or arteriosclerosis with changes in the muscle, poisoning, acute or chronic and notably tobacco poisoning and fatty changes of moderate degree” (Brown, 1906, p. 92). Baruch (1917) later reported, “The principal guide to a prescription of the Nauheim method, whether natural or artificial, is adaptation of the bath in duration, temperature and gas and mineral contents to each case, and a careful watching of the response of the heart” (p. 182).

Doctors who used this therapeutic tool then and those who use it now recommend rest as essential before and after the Nauheim bath. Patients would “not leave the bath house without resting at least an hour” (Baruch, 1917, p. 180). Indeed, the carbon dioxide baths were sometimes augmented by exercise that was introduced by the Schott brothers and subsequently used by many patients. “These baths are given methodically, according to the indications of each case and the effect of each bath, and they are accompanied or followed by certain passive or resisting movements, which offer a systematic but mild exercise of the principal voluntary muscles of the body” (Hoegen, 1916, p. 532)

Treatment Protocol

In Nauheim, the standard protocol for Nauheim baths consisted of a series of 18 baths, with a maximum of 24. European doctors, such as Baruch and Hoegen, counseled their fellow colleagues in North America, who were in the habit of prescribing fewer baths, to abide by the standards and protocols established at Nauheim. However, the fewer number of treatments and the way in which the baths were delivered came under criticism in America.

In Europe, volcanic mountains were abundantly available and necessary for carbon dioxide-rich mineral waters. In America, this was not the case, and the number of hot springs rich with carbon dioxide was limited to very few cities, such as Saratoga, New York, and some in California. To make the Nauheim bath available in America, doctors devised formulas to simulate the carbonated waters. To generate the carbon dioxide found naturally, doctors would create formulas such as the one used by Kellogg (1903) at his Battle Creek Sanitarium: sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, sodium chloride, and sodium bisulphate. Although the effect was similar to naturally occurring carbon dioxide, discussions and debates about whether these simulated treatments deviated too far from the original Nauheim bath persisted.

Replicating the medicinal properties of the Nauheim baths was also attempted at Saratoga. Baruch calculated that adding sodium chloride and calcium chloride to each bath would enhance the effects of carbon dioxide. It was agreed that the waters at Nauheim also had a distinct mineral composition that also enhanced carbonic acid delivery into the body. The formulas that were created tried to replicate the minerals at Nauheim.

Natural Versus Artificial

The natural carbonated waters were considered to contain finer bubbles and more dissolved carbon dioxide than artificial waters. “The artificial, on the contrary, contains more free CO2 gas which escapes more easily” (Baruch, 1917, p. 599).
Here in America, Dr. Simon Baruch was determined to understand the effects of carbon dioxide baths. In a scientific manner, he investigated whether there was a difference between the artificial baths and those found naturally. There was little choice for American doctors who wanted to include carbon dioxide baths in their practices. The naturally occurring carbon dioxide springs also had the therapeutic addition of minerals or “salines.” The early doctors were engaged in determining the actions of the minerals versus the carbon dioxide on the body. Studies initiated by Baruch showed that “absorption of CO2 is furthered by [minerals] and escape of CO2 [is] prevented by [minerals]” (Baruch, 1917, p. 111) when minerals were added to a carbon dioxide bath.

Today, there is renewed research interest in the merits of carbon dioxide baths (Delahaye, Cheynel, Verny, & Vidil, 1993; Fabry et al., 1992; Falagas, Zarkadoulia, & Rafailidis, 2009). The carbonated waters of the Nauheim are among the rich heritage of modalities and nature-cure resources in our tradition. It behooves us to know these roots and to sustain them in our eclectic repertoire.

 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE is a licensed naturopath in Ontario and Oregon. She is currently a faculty member in the Advancement Department at NCNM conducting historical research in its rare books room. She is applying these studies to the creation and delivery of an ongoing curriculum centered on nature cure, including balneotherapy and Buteyko, a Russian breathing therapy. She is a faculty member working as the rare books curator at National College of Natural Medicine. She is currently compiling several books based on the journals published by Benedict Lust. In addition to her work in balneotherapy, she is the founder of The Buteyko Academy, a training program for NDs to incorporate a scientific model of breathing therapy called Buteyko into their repertoire.

 

 

 

References

Anders, J. M. (1905). XX. Proceedings of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, XX, XX-XX.

Baruch, S. (1917a). The Nauheim bath. Herald of Health and the Naturopath, 22(2), 110-112.

Baruch, S. (1917b). The Nauheim bath. Herald of Health and the Naturopath, 22(3), 179-182.

Baruch, S. (1917c). The Nauheim bath. Herald of Health and the Naturopath, 22(1), 599-600.

Baruch, S. (1920). An epitome of hydrotherapy: For physicians, architects and nurses. Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders.

Bishop, L. F., (1909). Heart disease, blood pressure and the Nauheim Schott treatment (3rd ed.). New York, NY: E. B. Treat.

Bovaird, D. (1907). The Nauheim treatment. Medical Times, A Monthly Journal of Medicine, Surgery and the Collateral Sciences, 37, XX-XX.

Brown, P. K. (1906). Artificial Nauheim baths in chronic heart cases. Transactions of the American Climatologic Clinical Association, 22, 108–116.

Colebeck, E. H. (1905). Diseases of the heart (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: W. T. Keener & Co.

Delahaye, R., Cheynel, S. E., Verny, C., &Vidil, J. (1993). Place de la Crénotherapie dans la prise en charge et la reeducation des artériopathes. Pathologie Vasculaire de Membres, XX, 115-128.

Fabry, R., et al., (1992). The effects of CO2 gas therapy in stage 3 artherosclerosis obliterans of lower limbs. European Journal of Physical Medicine, 1, XX-XX.

Falagas, M. E., Zarkadoulia, E., & Rafailidis, P. I. (2009). Meta-analysis. The therapeutic effect of balneotherapy: Evaluation of the evidence from randomized controlled trials. International Journal of Clinical Practice, 63, 1068-1084.

Hare, H. A. (1907). A text-book of the practice of medicine for students and practitioners (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lea Brothers.

Hoegen, J. A. (1916a). The Nauheim bath. Herald of Health and the Naturopath, 21(8), 532-536.

Hoegen, J. A. (1916b). Nauheim treatment. Herald of Health and the Naturopath, 21(1), 61-62.

Kellogg, J. H. (1903). Rational hydrotherapy (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis.

Merklen, P. (1908). Lecons sur les troubles fonctionnels du coeur. Paris, France: Masson Publishers.

Swan, J. M. (1911). A résumé of the opinions upon the Nauheim treatment of chronic disease of the heart. Transactions of the American Climatologic Clinical Association, 27, 28-59.

Past Pearls
Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE

Dear mother, experiment with regular meal hours without permitting anything to be eaten between.

Laurette Kress (1925)

If the school nurse examines your child and tells you [his/her] tonsils and adenoids must be taken out, stop and think. If [their] ears, nose or fingers were swollen and inflamed would they tell you to have them cut off?

Martha B. Opland, ND (1920)

The pioneers of nature cure risked years of persecution to preach “the gospel of good health through right living” (Clements, 1925a, p. 23). That “right living” vision, about the raising of healthy children for “the realization of the dream of a better world” (Clements, 1925a, p. 23) was a pivotal emphasis by the early naturopaths. Indeed, as Clements reports, “the old dictum that a child was to be seen and not heard has had its day. The new order is that the future of the race lies in the life of the child; and the intelligent care of children is the first step towards the realization of the dream of a better world” (Clements, 1925a, p. 23). Clements continues, “We are beginning to see that rigid standards of conduct and learning cannot be applied indiscriminately, and that to understand the individual child is of more importance than anything else” (Clements, 1925a, p. 23).

As we review the writings left by elders of a century ago, we might well wonder where our own parents were in terms of that vision. The vision of some of these naturopathic doctors was so utopian, egalitarian and liberating that one could easily lament the non-actualizing of that worldview up into our own era, celebrating the potential of the child. Today, we are seeing a continuous increase in chronic diseases that we know are preventable, particularly if healthy lifestyles and practices are begun early, modeled and supported by parents committed to building that kind of future. This same view that “the seed[s] of chronic disease is planted in badly handled cases of childhood sickness” (Clements, 1926, p. 135).

Hardening Children

The origins of current naturopathy derive in part from the miraculous recovery of Benedict Lust himself from tuberculosis, treated successfully by Sebastian Kneipp. Kneipp’s methods, though, may not readily appeal to our modern sentiments of comfort and warmth. In his lecture, “How to Harden Children,” Kneipp viewed warm water bathing as “the first crime that parents can commit against their children” (Kneipp, 1904, p. 158). He instructed mothers of babies who did not thrive to “take [their] baby and put [him/her] into a tub of cold water up to the neck, and do not put [him/her] down too slowly; and then say, ‘one – two – three – now quick into the warm bed” (Kneipp, 1904, p. 158). A mother who had taken Father Sebastian’s advice, joyfully reported: “Oh, how my baby is thriving! [He] looks so fresh and healthy and sleeps all night and also during the day” (Kneipp, 1904, p. 158). Kneipp recommended not only cold water bathing, but also clothing that should be loose fitting, “allowing the body to perspire freely and giving [him/her] plenty of air … Air strengthens the skin; pure air promotes even circulation of the blood” (Kneipp, 1903, p. 364).

Nursing Babies

The early naturopaths wanted new mothers to begin immediately with a regimen of health promotion for their children. Clements writes, for example, “the nursing mother should not make the mistake of overfeeding her baby” (Clements, 1925b, p. 185). Pasteurized milk was the bane of naturopaths who favored unpasteurized milk as the substitute for small children. Breastfeeding was encouraged and recommended. “If the mother is strong and healthy she may with great advantage nurse her child for the first twelve months and eliminate the problems of bottle feeding, and the possibility of stale milk and pasteurizing” (Clement, 1925b, p 184). Opland continued this thread of advice: “Uncooked milk, fruit and vegetables should be the chief foods the first two years of a child’s life” (Opland, 1920a, p. 70).

Don’t Let Children Nibble

Speaking about the impulse to feed children to quiet them, Kress commented, “It is common with mothers to interpret a child’s wailing as an invitation to feed [him/her], and thus an unnatural habit is formed in infancy, to continue throughout life” (Kress, 1925, p. 134). His contention was that children that eat in between meals would lose their appetite at mealtime and “the mother will resort to some fancy food for the purpose of stimulating [the child]. … No child who has been treated to dainties between meals will be able to eat nourishing food at the regular time of mealtimes” (Kress, 1925, p. 134).

The introduction of refined foods in the early-20th century was immediately condemned by the early ”Naturocurists.” Oatmeal was “replaced by ‘breakfast foods’ of dextrinized, devitalized, overcooked food” (Lust, 1913a, p. 8). Considered as ‘starvation food,’ when they were “mixed with milk and sugar, a most unwholesome combination, which is sure to cause fermentation in the stomach” (Lust, 1913a, p. 8). Otto Carque, a well-known food expert, spoke at a school in Los Angeles and warned parents and teachers of “the use of artificial sweets and white flour products [as] one of the most pernicious customs of the day” (Lust, 1913a, p. 9).

In 1913, “statistics show that the average American [consumed] half of its own weight or over 82 pounds of sugar every year” (Lust, 1913a, p. 9). Imagine the shock of today’s sugar consumption! A national health survey has shown that Americans are swallowing 22 teaspoons of sugar each day and kids ages 14-18 consume an eye-popping 34 teaspoons of added sugar a day (Associated Press, 2009).

A suggestion to sweeten food was to “take [a quarter] pound of seedless raisins, wash well and run through a food chopper” or food processor (Opland, 1920b, p. 449).

Not only were the early naturopaths worried about processed food and sugar consumption, they were concerned about the impact on children of constipation arising from overfeeding. In babies, “milk curds will be found in the stools” and the treatment includes “orange juice, scraped apple or pear, figs and prunes” (Clements, 1925c, p. 229).

Yuck!

The intelligence of these naturopaths speaks volumes. The sage advice given to parents of that day concerned with their child’s eating habits is relevant even today:

Question: Should a parent force a child to eat food that is good for the child but which the child dislikes? With my child, spinach is a good example.

Answer: If you do any such thing, you may do your child much harm. If, for one reason or the other, the child dislikes a food, that food is not good for that child, no matter what may be the value of its contents for other human beings. Physiologists know that the mouth waters at the sight of food and the stomach does also. And therefore to force food into the stomach when there is a mental disinclination is physiologically wrong, to say nothing of the psychological factors. Usually a child will show a preference for some other equally good food even if it does turn another one down. … A child should now and then be allowed to experience real hunger and then he will show less likes and dislikes for foods (Clements, 1925a, p. 24).

Fruits and Vegetables

The early naturopaths counseled for adults and their children eating a diet of fresh fruits and vegetables rather than the excess of bread, breakfast foods, refined sugar, pie, cakes, doughnuts, ice cream, canned fruit, fried foods, tea and coffee and potatoes three times a day (Lust, 1913a, p. 9). Fruits were best eaten alone or with a small amount of nuts (Lust, 1913a, p. 10). Vegetables were steamed in the least amount of water or eaten raw (Lindlahr, 1931, pp. 85-89).

A vegetarian diet was recommended for treatment of scrofula, which was considered “the first sign of undeveloped tuberculosis” (Lust, 1913b, p. 500).

The Tonsils, the ‘Policemen of the Throat’

Enlarged tonsils in children were treated with healthy dietary changes. Removal was not condoned by the nature cure doctors, or by some of the allopathic ones. “Removal of enlarged tonsils represents the height of its bacticidal energy and is a vital mistake. The line of defense against microbic invasion is thereby broken” (Faulkner, 1913, p. 26). Rather, the advice given was to “cut out all candies, cakes, and sugars. Make fruit and vegetables the main diet for a few weeks. Then adopt the wholesome diet as advocated by Nature Cure” (Clements, 1925c, p. 229).

The early naturopaths were prolific in their advice to parents about nutrition for their children. As well, these early naturopathic doctors did not overlook the necessity of play to even further enhance the development of children. “One of the best ways to conserve the welfare of boys and girls and keep them out of courts, prisons, hospitals and reform schools is to show them how to play and help them do it right. … The money we spend on prisons should be spent mostly on playgrounds” (Purinton, 1925, p. 213). “Play, being the one supreme exerciser of mind, muscle and emotion together provides the natural outlet of self expression for children of all ages” (Purinton, 1925, p. 214).

Their recommendations for supporting a healthy lifestyle start for children was often accompanied by actual food recipes, the products of which were aimed very specifically at happy, healthy kids with growing appetites.

Fruit and Nut Treat

½ lb unbleached seedless raisins

¼ lb black figs

¼ lb dates or prunes, or both

2 oz finely chopped or coarsely broken nuts, or

2 oz fresh grated coconut

Wash fruit well then put through food chopper. Add nuts, then form into large or individual cakes. Roll in coconut or finely chopped nuts if desired.

Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE is a licensed naturopath in Ontario and Oregon. She is currently a faculty member in the Advancement Department at NCNM conducting historical research in its rare books room. She is applying these studies to the creation and delivery of an ongoing curriculum centered on nature cure, including balneotherapy and Buteyko, a Russian breathing therapy. She is a faculty member working as the rare books curator at National College of Natural Medicine. She is currently compiling several books based on the journals published by Benedict Lust. In addition to her work in balneotherapy, she is the founder of The Buteyko Academy, a training program for NDs to incorporate a scientific model of breathing therapy called Buteyko into their repertoire.

 

 

References

Associated Press (2009). Cut back, way back, on sugar, says heart group. MSNBC.com [News Bulletin]. Aug 24, 2009, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32543288/

Clements, H. (1925a). Intelligent care of children. Nature’s Path, 1(1), 23-24.

Clements, H. (1925b). Natural diet for children. Nature’s Path, 1(4), 184-185.

Clements, H. (1925c). Natural diet for children. Nature’s Path, 1(5), 228-229.

Clements, H. (1925d). Natural diet for children. Nature’s Path, 1(6), 289-290.

Clements, H. (1926). Natural diet for children. Nature’s Path, 1(3), 135-137.

Faulkner, R. B. (1913). Tonsils and the Voice in Science, Surgery, Speech and Song. New York: Blanchard.

Kneipp, S. (1903). Clothing for small children. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 4(12), 364-366.

Kneipp, S. (1904). How to harden children. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 5(7), 158.

Kress, L. (1925). Don’t let children nibble. Nature’s Path, 1(3), 134.

Lindlahr, H. (1931). The Practice of Nature Cure (27th ed.). New York: Nature Cure Library.

Lust, B. (1913a). Feeding children. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 18(1), 8-10.

Lust, B. (1913b). The scrofula of children and its treatment. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 18(8), 500-502.

Opland, M. B. (1920a). For mothers and children. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 25(2), 70-71.

Opland, M. B. (1920b). For mothers and children. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 25(9), 449.

Purinton, E. E. (1925). Play that saves children. Nature’s Path, 1(5), 213-214.

Returning to Nature
Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE

It is my experience that a mud poultice applied to the head, relieves headache in most cases. I have tried it in hundreds of cases. Headache may be due to several causes, but whatever the cause, as a general rule, an application of mud poultice relieves it. – Mahatma Gandhi (1954, p. 8 )

Since the remotest ancient time till today there always rose men who taught the return to nature as the only safe remedy from all suffering and adversities. Today, in our age of the great discoveries and inventions, the highest culture and science, there has instead of the greatest happiness which was expected a general consumption set in and more than ever grave nervous diseases, which fret on the marrow of our people and drive it to the edge of perfect exhaustion. – Adolf Just (1910a)

WE DO NOT CURE DISEASE. We teach you how to remove its causes – Nature will do the curing. – FA Neuburger, ND (1910)

The earth story is indeed a rich one and begins in the naturopathic literature with Adolf Just, his book Return to Nature and the Yungborn sanitarium that he built. The book gained many followers including Mahatma Gandhi and the American naturopaths, such as Benedict Lust and Henry Lindlahr. Originally written in 1896 in Leipsig, Germany, the book was translated by Benedict Lust and H. Nesbitt into a best selling book around the world. Just’s Yungborn was a healing sanctuary built in nature that became the model for others.

In his book, which he dedicates to the sacred domain of nature, he describes the habits of animals. The fox, the badger, the wild boar will “always clear away wood, leaves and even snow to make a clear space on the ground to lie down and rest upon, wallowing on the bare earth” (Just, 1912, p. 75). Animals, who have been injured by gunshot, and poisonous bites, will cover the injury with earth. Just shares the personal accounts of Dr. Zell who witnessed “animals shot in the upper part of the body, the shot sometimes having passed right through, stand for a long time, half a day or even a whole day, up to the neck in mud and then come out completely healed. Just asks, “Why do the animals fear no bacilli and why does blood poisoning never ensue?” (Just, 1912, p. 82).

Just was fearless to the application of earth to the human body and viewed the contamination by microbes and bacilli as “an example of the pernicious error of human science” (Just, 1912, p. 80). Bacilli were everywhere in the material world. Medicine focusing on the bacilli were erroneously pinpointing the cause of disease on the microbes rather than the “consequences of a false mode of life” or poor lifestyle habits. This reasoning reminds us of the theories that viewed the terrain as more decisive in disease manifestation.

Lust seems to chastise his readers for becoming “so civilized that we hear no more the voice of conscience, the language of Nature” (Lust, 1910, p. 232). Just continues the admonishment: “No attention is paid to the powerful influence of the earth in regard to wounds and [dissolution] of diseased matter, for alleviating pain” (Just, 1910a, p. 642). Just recommended direct applications of earth to local inflammation, fevers, blood poisoning and open wounds (Just, 1912, p. 79). The accounts of miraculous cures overflow in Return to Nature leaving the reader convinced if not curious of the possibilities of ‘earth cure.’

One anecdotal letter that Just (1912) received from a reader in South Africa compares the healing of two people and their broken arms. The reader and his driver had an accident where their carriage overturned and each broke their arm. The reader went to his doctor and the arm was casted and after 6 weeks was healed; yet after 25 years, the arm continues to be stiff. His driver went to a local medicine man and was put into a hole in the ground and covered with earth. “In about five days the arm was perfectly cured and not the slightest trace of lameness remained” (Just, 1912, p. 83). The confidence that Adolf Just had in the healing powers of earth helped galvanize many to try and use the various applications that Just used.

The famed story of the Return to Nature spread far and wide. Just’s (1912) book made a lasting impact on Gandhi who became a devout advocate of the nature cure therapies that Adolf Just championed and employed them in his Indian ashram that was modeled after Just’s Yungborn. Gandhi (1954) was not afraid of applying earth poultices to typhoid fever, wasp stings, scorpion bites, boils, and discharging abscesses. He used earth poultices and compresses to his followers and family.

A doctor practicing Nature Cure in Australia writes to Just: “I have set up nature-beds. … These are boxes a foot high, filled with earth and strewn with a soft kind of grass. These beds are made every day by watering the grass and the patients assure me that they sleep as if they were in Paradise” (Just, 1912, p. 77).

The Abdominal Earth Compress

The abdomen was considered by the early naturopaths as the seat of all diseases (Lust, 1910). The dangers of toxemia and morbid matter dominated the writings of the early 20th-century naturopaths. Tilden (1926, p. 27) proclaimed that “without toxemia there can be no disease.” “The origin of all diseases have but one cause, ‘an unnatural mode of life,’ causing impure blood” (Neuburger, 1910, p. 88). Lust writes of the virtues of applying damp earth or clay in removing all morbid matter. “… All the common diseases and ailments, as cutaneous eruptions of various kinds, ulcers, ear and eye complaints, pulmonary and abdominal affections, diphtheria, diseases of the throat, of the sexual organs, female troubles, tumors, paralysis, gout, and all kinds of pain are really cured and healed by applying earth” (Lust, 1910, p. 232).

“Nothing can so much cause our admiration than the earth in its healing power” (Just, 1910b, pp. 713-714). The earth compresses applied to the abdomen were heralded as a cure for reducing fevers, acute diseases, typhoid fever, scarlet fever, measles, influenza and the surest remedy for soothing PAIN. Just, being a pacifist and interested in the betterment of people, believed that the earth bandage would be “the greatest use in war” (Just, 1912, p. 85). Using the earth bandage would result in less pain and less suffering because “when a warrior is wounded he has always earth close at hand” (Just, 1912, p. 86).

Making an Earth Bandage

The guidelines to making an earth bandage involve pieces of gauze and clean earth. Just strictly advises that “the earth bandage is made by placing earth … immediately upon the wound and placing a bandage on it to keep it in its place. There should be no linen rag placed first on the wound to prevent the earth from coming into direct contact with it” (Just, 1912, p. 86). The earth application can be renewed “at first every few hours especially in inflamed wounds and lesions of the skin. Afterwards it may remain longer, perhaps for a whole night or day” (Just, 1912, p. 86).

The recycling of the earth compress was practiced by Mahatma Gandhi. “Mud used as a poultice on a clean surface need not be thrown away after use. It can be used again and again after drying it in the sun or on the fire and pounding and sieving it. … I have myself used it in this way and did not find it any the less efficacious for repeated use” (Gandhi, 1954, p. 10).

For constipation, Gandhi followed Adolf Just’s prescription of “applying to the abdomen a bandage of clean earth moistened with cold water and spread like a poultice on fine linen. This I applied at bedtime, removing it during the night or in the morning, whenever I happened to wake up. It proved a radical cure” (Gandhi, 1954, p. 27).

I have personally witnessed the magic of earth bandages. A male patient, age 64, had called my office in distress and shock. He had accidentally sawed three of his fingers and on examination the cuts were very deep. Earth [obtained from Heviz, Hungary] was applied directly to the severe cuts and bound by gauze. On examining the fingers the following day, the fingers made remarkable recovery but what truly was remarkable when I examined the fingers two weeks later, was that there were no scars. In fact, the patient forgot which hand sustained the injuries.

The stories that I could share of the miraculous healings that I have experienced have made me quite enamored with Adolf Just’s story and his passionate contributions to naturopathic medicine. Earth therapies in the form of peat, moor and mud continue to have a dominant place in the medical tool bag in European countries. Peat baths and wraps are used for rheumatic diseases and skin diseases such as acne, psoriasis, eczema, ulcers, cellulitis, etc. (Uosukainen, 2006). Peat vaginal suppositories and baths are used to treat cervical dysplasia and cancers. Peat therapies treat a wide range of complaints such as HIV. It’s time for us to return to nature to feel the earth beneath our feet and listen to her secrets.

 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE is a licensed naturopath in Ontario and Oregon. She is currently a faculty member in the Advancement Department at NCNM conducting historical research in its rare books room. She is applying these studies to the creation and delivery of an ongoing curriculum centered on nature cure, including balneotherapy and Buteyko, a Russian breathing therapy. She is a faculty member working as the rare books curator at National College of Natural Medicine. She is currently compiling several books based on the journals published by Benedict Lust. In addition to her work in balneotherapy, she is the founder of The Buteyko Academy, a training program for NDs to incorporate a scientific model of breathing therapy called Buteyko into their repertoire.

 

 

 

References

Gandhi, M. K., and Kumarappa, B., ed. (1954). Nature Cure. Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Publishing.

Just, A. (1910a). The new paradise of health: The only true natural method, part I. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 15(11).

Just, A. (1910b). The new paradise of health: The only true natural method, part III. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 15(12).

Just, A. (1912). Return to Nature (H. A. Nesbitt, Trans.). London: Routledge.

Lust, B. (1910). The Earth as Curative. The Naturopath and Herald of Health. New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Neuburger, F. A. (1910). Return to Nature. The Naturopath and Herald of Health. New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Tilden, J. H. (1926). Toxemia Explained. Denver, CO: J. H. Tilden.

Uosukainen, H., and Pihlaja, K. (2006). Peat in Balneology and Therapy. Kempele, Finland: Terraviva Oy Publishing.

Importance of Color in Therapy
Sussanna Czeranko, ND

In 1672 Sir Isaac Newton published his theory that the ordinary white light of the sun consists of different colors, each possessing a different degree of refrangibility.

W. J. Colville, 1914, p. 24

Color is Life – Life is Color, the vibrating, vitalic, vitaminic energy manifest in all animal, mineral and vegetable nature. When a fruit or vegetable has lost its Color, it has lost its efficacy.

E. A. Ernest, 1937

Chromopathy is the science of treatment by color, of the many, but not all of the ailments flesh and mind is subject to. The only school of healing that accepted this form of treatment of disease is the Naturopathic school.

W. S. Kipnis, 1929

We cannot ignore the importance of color in therapy, just as we cannot dismiss the positive effect that a colorful bouquet of flowers has on our well-being. Color therapy, or chromotherapy, was seriously embraced by the early naturopaths to treat a wide range of diseases. Color therapy involved prescriptions and considerations so that the practitioner would do no harm. According to our early naturopathic doctors, almost every part of the body or disease condition could benefit from chromotherapy. Many considered chromotherapy to be scientifically superior and more natural than medications, but also capable of harm if applied without knowledgeable expertise (Stevens, 1938, p. 7).

At certain points in those early years, color therapy seemed the new panacea or the new miracle. Numerous books were written on chromotherapy that gave readers the tools to apply it in clinical practice. Colville was confident that knowledge plus continuous clinical experience would “… surely prove that a system of Color Treatment based on fundamental principles discoverable in Nature will prove immeasurably more beneficially effective than any method left to private fancy…” (Colville, 1914, p. 49). The enthusiasm for chromotherapy was well suited for the early 20^th-century naturopaths because of its natural qualities.

One such pioneering author, Dr. E. Babbitt (1828-1905), embodied an eclectic combination of scientist, mystic, physician, artist, and essayist who delved into the mysteries of ancient philosophy and modern science (Birren, 1950, p. 54). He founded his own medical practice “upon startling and novel theories of the efficacy of Light and Color…“ (Colville, 1914, p.14). His first book on the subject, The Principles of Light and Color, initially published in 1878 “had astounding impact, caused a furore in medical circles and established Edwin D. Babbitt as one of the miracle men of his day and for many decades to follow” (Babbitt, 1967, p. vii). His book is still available online as a Google e-book. Another contemporary, Dr. Seth Pancoast, brought out Blue and Red Light in 1877 which influenced Babbitt and all who followed him.

The therapeutic agent that the chromotherapists were interested in was colored light. As Ernest explained, “Light whirls through space with a velocity of about 186,000 miles per second. It is energy measured by octaves. On the 49th octave alone it is visible to the human eye as color. Below and above that octave it manifests as ‘radiant energy’” (Ernest, 1937, p. 109). While modern medicine disdains color therapy, the orthodox allopathic profession has no problem using almost exclusively light frequencies invisible to the eye such as x-rays, radiation, infrared, ultraviolet, etc. Chromotherapy was defined as the treatment of disease using radiant color while heliotherapy was defined as “the sun cure” (Newman Dorland, 1939, p. 404). Today, heliotherapy has a more comprehensive definition that includes any artificial source of ultraviolet, visible, or infrared radiation for therapeutic purposes.

Although chromotherapy was experiencing a renaissance in the mid and late 19th century, the literature shows that early naturopaths did not pay attention until the middle of the first decade of the 20th century. Chromotherapy articles were introduced into Benedict Lust’s journals frequently along with ads of various chromo lamps.

Therapeutic lamps were classified into 3 groups:

• The Arc lamp [had] the same spectral composition as the sun.
• The Finsen lamp produce[d] almost pure ultraviolet rays.
• The Incandescent or Leucodescent lamp produce[d] mostly thermal and luminous rays (Nelson, 1918, p. 470).

The Arc lamp, related to contemporary full-spectrum light sources, was praised for duplicating sunlight, which was considered “not only the best sterilizing, disinfecting and hygienic agent we have, but also one of the best means of restoring functional activity. Combining the Arc light with color enhanced the clinical outcomes” (Nelson, 1918, p. 470).

Silk vs Glass

The materials of the screens or shades used to create color each had its advantages and disadvantages. Colored glass, used as the media through which light was radiated, broke easily and the exact colors were difficult to create. Whereas silks, linens and parchments were considered to be the best materials because they gave a “softness to the light that glass never can” (White, 1921, p. 182).

Another method of prescribing color therapy was using color infused oils. The oils used included mustard, linseed, sesame, and ghee. These oils would be exposed to a particular color for a period of time and rubbed on the body. Waters macerated with herbs such as cumin, cardamom and basil were also infused with color lights (Kipnis, 1929, p. 239). Babbitt delved into the esoteric realm of alchemy and attributed color qualities to medicinal plants and medicaments. With his deep interest in alchemy, Babbitt classified medicinal plants according to their associated color.

The Octave of Color Wave

Ernest reminds us that “color is a property of light, just as pitch is a property of sound” (Ernest, 1937, p. 109). The colors used in treatments consisted of many shades of colors and their application involved often more than one color, such as a few for severe illnesses such as a fractured bone. The colors that resulted in the greatest “relief of pain were the yellow and green, though, at times, the blue relieved tensions and headaches.” (Stevens, 1938, p. 70) The green energy helped to knit fractures. (Stevens, 1938, p. 70)

Red

Pancoast had outlined in the late 19th century that “the Red ray awakens all the dormant Vitality in the Nervous System…” (Pancoast, 1883, p. 271). He went on to explain that “…if applied in excess, either as to amount or time, the Red Light over-excites the Nervous System and may produce dangerous Fevers or other disorders.…We seldom employ Red Light to the exclusion of the other rays…it may be well at first to try alternate panes of Red and plain glass;…the bath should not extend beyond a couple of hours” (Pancoast, 1883, p. 271).

DeJarnette built on these recommendations a half-century later. He wrote, “Red is a sensory nerve stimulant; caustic; brain excitant; blood builder in extreme anemias” (DeJarnette, 1941, p. 19). Earlier, Nelson had pointed out, “smallpox patients put in rooms with red windows and red wallpaper [and] light treatments prevented pus formation and scarring” (Nelson, 1918, p. 473). Babbit, a contemporary of DeJarnette, wrote that “Red light…prove[s] valuable in paralysis and other dormant and chronic conditions” (Babbitt, 1896, p. 282). In fact, red was used by Babbitt “for very hard tumors, though red-purple is generally best” and this color combination was applied for chronic rheumatism (Babbitt, 1896, p. 349).

Dr. George Starr White used red to treat “tuberculosis, paralysis, [physical] exhaustion, anemia and all debilitated conditions. A melancholic person requires red light” (White, 1924, p. 544). However, early naturopaths were well aware of the admonition that red was injurious when there was too much inflammation (Babbitt, 1896, p. 284).

Orange and Yellow

Babbitt writes, “yellow is the central principle of nerve stimulus as well as the exciting principle of the brain…” (1896, p. 286). He goes on to say, “Yellow is especially predominant in laxatives and purgatives, and combined with a fair amount of red or orange, forms the leading element in Cerebral Stimulants, Emetics, Diuretics, Diaphoretics, Tonics, Rubefacients, Emmenagogues, etc…” (1896, p. 375). White later contended, “yellow and orange are nerve stimulants and are valuable in constipation, impaired digestion and many pelvic conditions peculiar to women” (1924, pp. 545-546), and yellow is not indicated for “Delirium, Diarrhea, Sleeplessness, etc.,…” (Babbitt, 1896, p. 375). Stevens valued orange-yellow to help “remove congestions of the bowels” (Stevens, 1938, p. 58).

Green

The shade of green determined its specific therapeutic outcomes. The naturopaths of the early 20th century had decided that dark greens tended to depress, but that true green had a quieting and soothing effect upon the nerves and body and that some greens acted as stimulants (White, 1924, p. 547). DeJarnette saw green as harmonizing and producing “the phenomena of PHYSICALOGICAL STABILIZATION” (DeJarnette, 1941, p. 21).

Blue and Violet

Pancoast wrote that the action of blue was “as pronounced in reducing, as that of Red is in producing, Nervous excitement. If administered in small doses, say through a proportion of one Blue to four plain panes, it acts as a gentle sedative, creating a disposition to sleep, but as soon as this effect is reached the [blue light] bath should cease” (Pancoast, 1883, p. 272). Babbitt described blue and violet as nervines, astringents, refrigerents, febrifuges and sedatives” (Babbitt, 1896, p. 298). He also wrote of blue that it was “very soothing to all systems in which inflammatory and nervous conditions predominate” (Babbitt, 1896, p. 298). Dr. Pancoast says that administering blue light in small doses acts as a sedative and stimulates sleep (Babbitt, 1896, p. 321). Purple was good for indigestion, while blue-purple was indicated for “too much heat and fermentation or gases in the stomach”, and red-purple was best for a dormant stomach (Babbitt, 1896, p. 349).

Babbitt’s second edition of The Principles of Light and Color used “paper made with a bluish white including a violet tinge.” “This lavender tint”, he stated, was “soothing to the nerves of the eye without having a cold appearance” (Babbitt, 1896, p. viii). “Blue and Violet are contra-indicated in dormant, cold conditions, such as paralysis and many chronic diseases” (Babbitt, 1896, p. 375).

Pure sunlight as nature gives it to us, is of course far more desirable for human beings than any one color of sunlight, for in this we get all colors and all potencies combined. Our early naturopathic doctors generally felt that the use of individual or combination colors added range and depth to the mysteries of chromotherapy. In this regard, Babbitt’s book is overflowing with scientific and mathematical calculations, plus impressive cures described in hundreds of case studies that Babbitt had collected. Dr. Pancoast’s contributions to chromotherapy were best seen in his thorough exegesis on blue and red light. His books set the essential protocols, which endured for decades.

The following case illustrates the curative power of chromotherapy:

Pancoast advocated enthusiastically for chromotherapy, writing “In closing this chapter, we must reiterate our declaration that we firmly believe and earnestly hope that SUNLIGHT and its rays are destined to become the UNIVERSAL MEDICINE” (Pancoast, 1883, p. 282).

 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE is a licensed naturopath in Ontario and Oregon. She is currently a faculty member in the Advancement Department at NCNM conducting historical research in its rare books room. She is applying these studies to the creation and delivery of an ongoing curriculum centered on nature cure, including balneotherapy and Buteyko, a Russian breathing therapy. She is a faculty member working as the rare books curator at National College of Natural Medicine. She is currently compiling several books based on the journals published by Benedict Lust. In addition to her work in balneotherapy, she is the founder of The Buteyko Academy, a training program for NDs to incorporate a scientific model of breathing therapy called Buteyko into their repertoire.

 

 

 

Reference

Babbitt, E. D. (1896). The Principles of Light and Color (2nd ed.). East Orange, NJ: Edwin Babbitt.

Babbit, E. D. (1967). The Principles of Light and Color. Secaucus, NJ: The Citadel Press.

Birren, F. (1950). Color Psychology and Color Therapy. New York, NY: University Books.

Colville, W. J. (1914). Light and Colors. New York, NY: Macoy Publishing & Masonic Supply Co.

DeJarnette, M. B. (1941). Chromotherapy, Nebraska City, NE: DeJarnette.

Ernest, E. A. (1937). Chromo-Therapy. Naturopath and Herald of Health. 42(4), 109.

Kipnis, W. S. (1929). Chromopathy of the Hindoos. Nature’s Path. 34(5).

Nelson, P. (1918). Radiant Light in Naturopathic Practice. The Naturopath and Herald of Health. 23(5).

Newman Dorland, W. A. (1939). American Pocket Medical Dictionary (16th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: W. B. Saunders.

Pancoast, S. (1883). The Kabbala: or, the True Science of Light. New York, NY: R. Worthington.

Stevens, E. J. (1938). True Chromotherapy. San Francisco, CA: The Rainbow Publishers.

White, G. S. (1921). Chromo-Therapy. The Naturopath and Herald of Health. (4).

White, G. S. (1924). The Natural Way; or, My Work. Los Angeles, CA: George Starr White.

Window on Health, or What the Elders Knew
Sussanna Czeranko, ND

There is nothing more beautiful or attractive than a skin glowing with the magnetism of health. Those who unfortunately do not possess it endeavor in vain to beautify their skin by using salves and ointments, not realizing that the seat of the trouble is internal and that they have to remove the cause, before they can expect the removal of the effect.
Benedict Lust (1929, p. 254)

We should never allow ourselves to forget that the skin is an organ of sensation, respiration, absorption, excretion and stimulation, and that like every other organ in the body its health depends upon exercise of its several functions to a normal degree.
Dr. Pringle (De Quer, 1921)

The early naturopaths knew the miraculous, versatile, waterproof, self-regenerating power of the skin, the ultimate body garment that contains, protects, excretes and secretes. The early NDs knew that our average fifteen square feet of skin, cell layers, nerves and glands were a virtual window on our health and a barometer of everything inside. They valued the skin not only for its topographical diversity, protecting the body from nasty pathogens, but also for its astonishing diagnostic potential.
Those same early naturopathic doctors counted on the versatility, resilience and reliability of the skin as our window on health. They saw a healthy complexion as the most obvious indication of the quality of health in their patients. The skin was viewed as having many functions in the body and ignoring the skin was an invitation for trouble. Lust insisted, “Without a daily culture of the skin a lasting health is inconceivable.” (Lust, 1909, p. 238) It was not much of a mystery to our elders as to why we had problems with skin, nor were the remedies difficult to ascertain and administer. In fact, from the perspective of the early twentieth century ND, returning to nature and its healing elements of water, sun and air could bring complete resolution to skin disorders.

At the turn of the last century, Metcalfe, for example, described the skin as “a delicate integument, which envelops and protects the wonderful and complex organism … and in an adult it has an extent equivalent to about 15 square feet.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 275) Dr. Handshuh viewed the skin as much more than a simple protective covering of the body. The skin was “a living, sensitive, breathing, exhaling, absorbing, excreting, eliminating membrane.” (Handshuh, 1929, p. 456) Lust went further, saying that if ‘the culture of the skin’ was neglected, illness would “gradually [penetrate] into more tender organs, and generate diseases which in most cases are deadly.” (Lust, 1909, p. 239)

Metcalfe contended that these 15 square feet of surface area had three primary functions: absorptive, secretive, and excretive. (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 276) The absorptive function permitted “medicaments, when rubbed into the skin, [to] produce their known effects the same as when introduced into the stomach or directly into the blood.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 276) He added, “the surface of the skin is studded over with an amazing number of minute pores, forming … the ducts of the sudoriforous glands and sebaceous follicles situated in or below the skin.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 276) He further described, “these little glandular organs [as] continually secreting and excreting fluids, the one watery, the other oily, which lubricate the surface and impart pliancy and softness to the skin. (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 276) With regards to this key function of the skin, Spitler reminds us: “keep in mind that the skin eliminates about as much water in a day as do the kidneys.” (Spitler, 1948, p. 39)

Perspiration

Indeed, the chief excretion by the skin is perspiration which is “to move the gases from the interior of the body through the fine gland channels to the surface and there to discharge them.” (Lust, 1905, p. 65) Perspiration was divided into two types: “sensible perspiration which is excreted after severe exercise; and insensible perspiration, or transpiration, an invisible vapour which is continually being given off by the skin.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 276)

Modern naturopaths see the skin as an emunctory organ, a view also held by our elders. “As an excreting organ the skin is of great importance, seeing that about one-fifth of the whole excrementitious matter of our bodies is exuded through it.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 276) When healthy, sweat discharges organic and saline matter, and in disease conditions the discharge becomes poisonous. “All forms of skin eruptions, whether they be a simple case of hives, or a malignant carbuncle, may be regarded as an attempt on the part of nature to eliminate poisonous material from the system.” (Lust, 1927, p. 254) The inactivity of the skin resulted in the accumulation of morbid matter.

Lust lists the sources of poisons “due to scrofula, inherited syphilis, the systemic results of vaccination, an acid condition of the blood due to improper diet, or to toxemia from absorption of poisons in the intestinal canal.” (Lust, 1927, p. 254) Booth added to this list overeating, breathing vitiated air, and muscular inactivity contributing to poor skin. (Booth, 1914, p. 79) The skin’s role in removal of waste was emphasized repeatedly by the early doctors. It is no surprise to read that our elders considered “habitual constipation … fatal to a good complexion.” (Booth, 1914, p. 79)

Skin Vital for Depuration

In any case, as Metcalfe frequently pointed out during this period, “excretion is an all important depurating or purifying process; if the used up materials of the body are not duly removed from the blood and discharged from the system, they rapidly accumulate and act as the deadliest poisons and the worst consequences to health and life often result.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 277) Indeed, the elimination of toxins and waste matter “cause the many changes in the smell, the color, the taste, etc., of the perspiration of the sick person.” (Lust, 1904, p. 67) These observations of discolouration, and malodorous of towels used were often noted by hydrotherapists during treatments.

In the view of our early NDs, any suspension and cessation of secretions from the various excretory glands was indeed a cause for alarm. (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 277) When one organ system becomes diminished or arrested, another organ will overtake its duties until recovery occurs. This balance between skin and the kidneys was illustrated by Metcalfe: “the functions of the skin and kidney stand in so close a relationship that they often assume the place, … of each other, so that when the skin is impaired, the kidneys increase in activity, and vice versa.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 277) He adds, “in cases of disease of the renal functions, the skin relieves the kidneys of their duties, which is witnessed by the fact that the fluid eliminated contains some of the substances common to urine.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 277) In this temporary relationship, the “balance necessary for life is maintained” and is not sustainable permanently. The skin often partially or wholly relieves the lungs, kidneys, intestines and other internal excreting organs of their important duties.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 277)

We are very aware today too of the role of perspiration aiding temperature regulation of our bodies. An example is that of the renal and skin connection in hot weather as perspiration increases and urination decreases; in cold weather this is reversed. If perspiration is suppressed either partially or entirely, the whole body becomes affected. Nowhere is this more acute and possibly fatal than in a fever “causing death in a short time.” (Lust, 1905, p. 66) “In cases of abnormal heat [fever] increasing in our body, … we naturally try to reduce it by proper hydrotherapeutic means, namely by water application in the form of gushes, half-baths, wrappings, etc. We all know that, as soon as perspiration appears at the moment of the crisis, the danger of the acute illness is passed and the patient is on the road to recovery.” (Lust, 1905, p. 67)

The Jacket

The skin as a diagnostic terrain was highly valued by one of the most formidable water cure healers, Father Kneipp. So numerous and startling were his cures that in his Wörishofen church, he administered advice to 400 to 500 people each day. (London Daily Chronicle, 1897)

So important is the function of the skin and so clearly does it indicate the general condition of health, that Father Kneipp, the great water cure apostle, was always careful to examine the skin of his patients. If the ‘jacket’ as he termed it, seemed to be in good condition, he was always emphatic in predicting an early recovery. If the ‘jacket’ was dry and shriveled, lacking in tone and contractile power, he would invariably shake his head and inform the patient that much time and treatment might be necessary before health was restored in him.

The Full Bath

Bathing was the first step used by the early naturopaths as “a curative to the sick and a preventive of disease.” (Handshuh, 1929, p. 455) Taking regular baths was important in cleanliness, but more importantly to keep vital the actions that the skin’s pores served. The temperature of the water and duration of a bath were determined by such factors as age, sensitivity, ‘hardening’, and body composition.

Today, the temperature of bathing water that we choose is generally hot and definitely much warmer than waters used by our predecessors. “Under normal circumstances one ought never to bathe in water that is hotter than his blood, … and for most people whose vitality is not impaired, a bath from 85 to 90 is better still.” (De Quer, 1921, p. 582) We seem to have lost the capacity to endure cold baths. Hardening was embraced by Father Kneipp in his treatment plans. “By ‘hardening’ the constitution we mean making it capable of resistance, especially to cold, and of remaining unaffected by unfavorable weather. (Lust, 1905, p. 19)
Lust felt that “the best means of hardening the system [were] however, short, cold ablutions and baths of no longer than a minute’s duration.” (Lust, 1905, p. 19) The best treatment recommended was a full bath with swimming. The temperature of the water was between 65°–77°F and the duration was not to exceed 10 minutes. After swimming, the person is rubbed hard with dry flannels. (Lust, 1904, p. 73) “This [bath] produces a deep-red skin and a comfortable glow certainly takes the place of the previous shivering.” (Lust, 1904, p. 73) By using cold water, capillaries would contract “forcing the blood to the interior…” Baumgarten, a physician working in Father Kneipp’s Wörishofen water cure sanitarium in Germany, contended that “the reaction so much spoken of in the water cure [was] nothing more than a rush of blood to and from the inner organs which in coming to the skin gives it the peculiar red coloration.” (Baumgarten, 1903, pp. 124-125)

Lust assures his readers that after the fifth or sixth such bath, the unpleasant sensations would be replaced with “a comfortable feeling.” (Lust, 1904, p. 74) The number one commandment of Father Kneipp’s cold water treatments states that cold water is only used “if the body is warm.” (Bauergmund, 1908, p. 69) By using cold water, and plenty of friction with a coarse towel after each bath, the skin could remain active and healthy. In any case, we know that warm and cold water temperatures were highly prized by the early naturopaths. The habitual use of hot water caused skin atrophy resulting in the skin becoming “hypersensitive to cold and hyposensitive to heat.” (De Quer, 1921, p. 582)

For those unaccustomed to such low temperatures, Lust made adjustments to have a bath in waters 91°F-93°F. Directions for the bath required that the patient completely submerge in the water “the sole exception of the tip of his nose, rubs himself and lie down again. … After a couple of minutes gets out of the bath, takes some kind of exercise in the bathroom and gets into the water again, after having reduced the temperature by four degrees.” (Lust, 1904, p. 74)

In the words of a newly converted cold bather, Hashnu Hara in 1903 writes, “ I plunged with my eyes shut. I thought someone had knocked me over at first, but found my breath in a short time, and when I came out I was glowing.” (Hara, 1903, p. 207)

Friction and Rubbing

Rubbing and vigorous friction was an important aspect of the full bath, both during and after. Rubbing helped warm the body and aid circulation. “In bathing, most colds are contracted by exposing the bare body to the air before the bath, when the draught closes the pores. They should close in the water, and will speedily open again after it, as soon as the body is exercised.” (Lust, 1904, p. 75)

Animate the Limbs with Exercise

Exercise was also an essential part of the bathing formula. Baumgarten advised, “before any [cold water bath] make it your business to be thoroughly warm, and after the application also do not stand idle but exercise, or walk until normal warmth has again set in.” (Baumgarten, 1903, p. 126) Vigorous exercise also helped the “hardening and strengthening of the body.” (Lust, 1905, p. 20)

Most importantly, our elders advised that vigorous exercise and activity led to perspiration and the elimination of morbid matter. “The skin is the most important of all the organs liberating the body from superfluous matter.” (Lust, 1909, p. 238) Today, as our society lulls itself into sedentary states, other than an hour at the gym we do not expend much physical effort. A recent study identified that young people spend about 7 hours and 38 minutes consuming some form of entertainment media each day. (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010) Adults fare no better as we lead sedentary lives in front of our computers, averaging about 2 hours at physical activity. Metcalfe counseled “the man who follows an employment entailing great physical exertion in the open air is rarely a diseased man. His labor excites the skin, and what would otherwise become poisonous and productive of disease is eliminated from the system.” (Metcalfe, 1904, p. 278)

Lust was not ambiguous about where to take baths. “A bath in the open air, especially in the sunshine is the most conducive to health.” (Lust, 1904, p. 74) “The fresh air in the country does not cost one cent …” Jaquemin (1908, p. 136) continues, “fresh air is the chief factor in … natural healing.” Lindlahr also was a strong proponent of the air bath and cold water baths and rubs. “The cold spray or sponge bath taken during exposure to the sun and air will increase skin action. Let the body dry in the air, rubbing it with the hands to increase its magnetism.” (Lindlahr, 1919 p. 21) Pringle recommends this kind of regimen daily. In view of the current frenzy of Vitamin D research and administrations of liquid sunshine, the advice of the early naturopaths exposing the skin to open air and sun seems prudent advice. “If I were to give the public advice I would say, expose the whole body to the air and sunlight at least once a day for a period of a few minutes, and once a week for an hour or more.” (De Quer, 1921, p. 583) The skin was considered an organ of respiration and “needs to breathe.” (Wallian, 1904, p. 77) The air baths were best “done after a cool bath, shower … and exposing the naked [body] to the air before dressing in the morning or before retiring at night.” (Wallian, 1904, p. 77)

The founders of our medicine believed deeply in the simple elements of water, air and earth as factors in well being and health care. They saw the skin as probably the most elegant of the body’s organs, recommending many natural therapies to sustain its health, utility and beauty. They recognized the unparalleled utility of the skin as diagnostic terrain, but also as a window on health and a catalyst aided by the right treatments for abundant health.

 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE is a licensed naturopath in Ontario and Oregon. She is currently a faculty member in the Advancement Department at NCNM conducting historical research in its rare books room. She is applying these studies to the creation and delivery of an ongoing curriculum centered on nature cure, including balneotherapy and Buteyko, a Russian breathing therapy. She is a faculty member working as the rare books curator at National College of Natural Medicine. She is currently compiling several books based on the journals published by Benedict Lust. In addition to her work in balneotherapy, she is the founder of The Buteyko Academy, a training program for NDs to incorporate a scientific model of breathing therapy called Buteyko into their repertoire.

 

 

 

References

Baumgarten, A. (1903). Water applications. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 4(5). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Bauergmund, A. (1908). How should Kneipp’s treatment be taken? The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 9(3). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Booth, E. (1914). The value of a good complexion. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 19(2). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

De Quer, J. H. (1921). Doctor Pringle discusses the skin. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 26(12). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing. John De Quer was a patient of Dr. Pringle and wrote this article quoting Dr. Pringle’s view of the skin and its treatments.

Handshuh, M. L. (1929). Air and water. Nature’s Path. New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Hara, H. O. (1903). On my table: The Kneipp cure. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 4(7). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Jaquemin, T. (1908). Cold air and cold water. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 9(5). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Kaiser Family Foundation. (January 20, 2010). Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. Retrieved from http://www.kff.org/entmedia/mh012010pkg.cfm

Lindlahr, H. (1919). The Practice of Natural Therapeutics, 5th ed. Chicago, IL: The Lindlahr Publishing Co.

London Daily Chronicle (1897, May 22). Father Kneipp dead: A priest known throughout the world for his water cure passes away in Suabia.

Lust, B. (1904). Bathing and attention to the skin. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 5(4). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Lust, B. (1905). Hardening. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 6(1). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Lust, B. (1905). The importance of perspiration for the health. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 6(1). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Lust, B. (1909). Culture of the skin as a curative. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 14(4). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Lust, B. (1921). Beautifying the complexion. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 26(3). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Lust, B. (1927). Ulcers, boils and skin diseases. Nature’s Path, 6. New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Metcalfe, R. (1904). Essays and notes on hydrotherapeutics: The functions of the skin. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 5(11). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

Spitler, H. R. (1948). Basic naturopathy: A textbook. New York, NY: American Naturopathic Association.

Wallian S. S. (1904). Air-baths will make good blood. The Naturopath and Herald of Health, 5(4). New York, NY: Benedict Lust Publishing.

A Symptom of Toxemia | Part 2 of 2
Sussanna Czeranko, ND

“Purgery is the Great American Sin”¹

It is quite safe to assert that chronic bowel stagnation inflicts upon mankind vastly more misery, suffering and deaths than any of the great dramatic ‘killing diseases’, such as cancer, tuberculosis, heart disease, etc., which are largely caused by that trouble.²

J. Ellis Barker, 1927

Last month, we had a look at the extensive dialogue occurring among our early 20th century naturopathic elders on the subject of constipation. It remains for us to survey how our forebears treated constipation. Their approaches ranged from fasting to poisonous purgatives.

Poisonous Purgatives

Tilden suggested in 1924, “to cure constipation … means to restore the nervous system and blood to normal.”³ When asked whether the use of “castor oil, cascara sagrada, calomel, compound cathartic pills or any other laxatives, purgatives or cathartics [could] ever ‘cure’ chronic constipation”, Tilden himself and other naturopathic doctors confessed that these measures were either constipating or deadly.⁴ Yet, despite the toxicity of the drugs used to relieve constipation 100 years ago, more than $75 million [almost $1 billion in contemporary currency] was spent annually on them.⁴

The effects of these purgatives on children were not overlooked. Louise Lust, for example, declared that all purgatives caused constipation and that “castor oil forced down infants [was] one great cause of their subsequent alimentary difficulties.”⁵ Alternatively, her sage advice for the treatment of diarrhea and ‘feverish states’ included cold wet bandages … plus bilberry tea and boiled mullein root to be taken as an astringent. Her counsel for mothers was to get to know simple teas, to trust Nature, and to “regulate the bowels by foods instead of medicine.”⁵

Tilden had a somewhat different focus. He warned mothers, “don’t over feed children,” especially when they are sick. In fact, his recommendation was no food until they regained health. “The enlarged tonsils, adenoids, and constipation will gradually disappear under this treatment,” he said, adding, “and the Toxemia will subside, leaving the children with normal resistance and full physical and mental efficiency.”⁶ “A child that is given meat and eggs and an excess of milk is liable to develop putrefactive diseases.”⁷

Poise or Self-Discipline

In Tilden’s view, diet was not all that was necessary for remedying constipation. “The mind and the body must be poised,” he urged.⁸ By ‘poise’ he meant ‘equanimity’ and, in a sense, ‘composure and calm’. “General nervousness, indigestion, constipation, coated tongue, anxiety” were linked with toxemia and its associated unpoised state of mind.⁹ He explained further, “All attention to food and fasting will fail in those of unpoised minds, in those who are irritable and apprehensive. Many people have no self-control and are food drunkards; they are childish enough to resent restrictions.”⁸

As long ago as 1920, Lust wrote familiar sounding admonitions: “In this age of rush people eat too much and eat it too rapidly.”¹⁰ Added to the urgency and excess of such a lifestyle were concerns then and now that continuously ignoring the body’s signals to evacuate could lead to constipation and subsequent health issues. Macfadden counseled his patients in 1932, “answer all calls to stool, even the slightest; never postpone or neglect a call.”¹¹ Nevertheless, poor waste elimination sometimes prompted other remedial interventions such as enemas and colonics.

Dr. Kellogg insisted that 3 stools a day were essential so that “the terrible effects which arise from intestinal toxemia or auto-intoxication are not seen.”¹² In his book, Itinerary of a Breakfast, he outlines the rhythmic activity of the digestive tract and in great detail gives an account of the 10 gates that food passes as it traverses the alimentary tract. The ileocecal valve was the 7th gate with its chief function as “a check valve; that is, a gate opening in but one direction.”¹³ Kellogg gives 2 reasons for the ileocecal valve’s duties. “First, to maintain a definite and steady forward movement of the intestinal contents; and second, to prevent the return into the small intestine of waste and excretory matters after they have been rejected by the small intestine and pushed into the colon to be cast out of the body as refuse. The importance of this wise provision of nature grows out of the fact that the waste matters passed into the colon very readily take on putrefactive processes and thus become highly offensive and poisonous.”¹⁴ Should the fecal contents reverse their movement and return to the small intestine, then the small intestine rapidly absorbs this ‘poisonous matter’ and becomes infected by the virulent bacteria. The most common symptoms that arise when contents of the large intestines empty back into the small intestines are “attacks of headache, asthmatic attacks, bilious attacks, a coated tongue, bad breath and chronic diseases of the blood vessels, heart, kidneys and other vital organs.”¹⁵

Mixed Views of Enemas and Colonics

Lindlahr’s views of colonics were mixed, but by and large, he opposed them. “Such enforced, artificial purging may flush the drains and sewers, but does not cleanse the chambers of the house. The cells in the interior tissues remain encumbered with morbid matter.”¹⁶ Another prominent doctor of the period, J.C. Thompson, went on to explain, “when the intestines are constantly flooded with water injected through the rectum, the stimulus to secretion is lacking and the cellular linings and glandular structures of the intestines become less active. Any function of the organism which we do not use, atrophies.”¹⁷

Some viewed colonics as a palliation with no basis or understanding of cause or cure. Tilden reminds us of our principles by pointing out that colonics removed the symptom of constipation, but did not address the causes. “A treatment directed to one of many symptoms is a very primitive method of attempting to cure disease.”¹⁸ He elaborates further on palliation saying,“A logical treatment for overcoming constipation is a treatment directed to the removal of all symptoms. Singling out any one or two or more symptoms and treating them is symptom treatment, and in truth is palliation.”¹⁸

In short, it was his clinical judgment that “the enema is abused by being used too frequently and builds the symptom it is supposed to relieve.”¹⁹ Although Tilden used enemas for dire cases of constipation, he firmly believed that “enemas and [drugs] further enervate and cause [constipation].” He went on to explain, “A cure can be brought about by rest in bed; poise of mind and body; and total abstinence from food until secretions and excretions are established and this resumption will be announced by a moistening of the tongue and mucous membranes, cleaning of the tongue and moving of bowels.”²⁰

Eat Three Meals a Day and No More

Within this abundant literature, a persistent observation was that the leading cause of constipation was the eating of devitalized foods such as cooked starches which favored fermentation and intestinal putrefaction. “The more the patient is starch poisoned, the more [s/he] will be troubled with gas distention,”²¹ Tilden explained. Devitalized food caused the body to become enervated, leading to acidosis. Tilden felt that if uncooked fresh fruits and vegetables were eaten, fermentation and decomposition would be avoided.²²

Some of these early naturopathic doctors, such as Tilden and Macfadden, championed fasting, while others encouraged their patients to eat. Dr. Lust, for example, makes the following diet recommendations to treat constipation which begins in the morning: “After rising, a glass of fresh water should be drunk slowly. For breakfast, a grapefruit or two oranges. One or two soft-boiled eggs, some well-cooked cereal and well-buttered whole wheat bread. Malt coffee or when advisable some milk.”²³

Abstaining from certain beverages such as alcohol, coffee, tea and cocoa was advocated by most of our early 20th century colleagues. In 1915 Shatz urged, “do not drink during your meal, none within half an hour before or an hour after the meal.”²⁴ Lust advised, “with meals, no fluids should be taken; if there is thirst a little wine or water will do. Between meals, water or buttermilk in small doses will help digestion and move the bowels.”²⁵ Tilden recommends eating “three meals a day and no more; no eating nor drinking between meals.”²⁶

Meanwhile, Macfadden “heartily condemn[ed] drug laxatives … but in the case of stubborn constipation” at the beginning of the “radical treatment – the fast – may benefit an effective dose of some saline laxative.” The saline laxatives draw fluid into the intestinal tract from the blood and adjacent tissues, and as Macfadden explains, “this increased fluid in the intestinal tract and the increased peristalsis thereby produced hastens the expulsion of the solid content.”²⁷

A Cold Priessnitz Abdominal Pack

Lust also included Kneipp wet packs in the tool kit of the naturopathic doctor to augment the digestive process. This approach advocates the use of water and vinegar [and the application] applied every 2 days in the morning or in the evening according to the disposition of the patient.”²⁵ Lust’s suggestions were consistent with his abiding faith in water cure and nature cure approaches.

“Wet linen, wrung out well, must cover the whole abdomen. This linen which must reach around the whole body must be covered with a woolen cloth to produce the heat necessary to create that beneficial effect which will cure. The packings will stop the pressure in the abdomen, remove the gas, and help the stool.”²⁸

He rarely missed an opportunity to advocate the age-old techniques of his own mentors. “A cold Priessnitz abdominal pack or bandage applied in the evening and kept on during the night” along with walking, climbing, physical exercise and massage were imperative in curing constipation.²⁹

Abbott, writing at about the same time, noted, “in atonic constipation the cold rubbing sitz is an excellent measure. It should last from two to four minutes and be followed by the alternate douche to the spine and abdomen.”³⁰

Weighing in as part of this accumulating literature, Summers in 1920 reminded naturopathic doctors of the value of exercise and work to keep the bowels regular. “Elimination depends upon activity,” he wrote.³¹ Shatz had already taught his contemporaries that hard physical work, and walking, swimming and friction after water applications were important aspects of a regimen promoting regular and healthy elimination.³² However, the voice that surpasses all others in regards to the benefits of exercise came from the “father of Physical Culture”, Bernarr Macfadden. The muscles of the intestinal tract depended upon “a system of exercise … for the correction of intestinal stasis” he insisted, as well as the action of the diaphragm upon the intestines.³³ Macfadden advocated walking and running because of its “vibrating effect upon the entire body and stimulation of the circulation and the [metabolism].” Macfadden advised that, if possible, one should devote at least an hour a day to exercise and to walk at least 8 to 10 miles a day.³⁴

Clearly, our naturopathic elders studied, treated, advocated and wrote about healthy elimination as a cornerstone of wellness. Tilden stated often, “Toxemia is … based on the fundamental laws of nature, and it is the only truth concerning the cause and cure of disease and certainly offers the only rational method of disease prevention.”³⁵

 

 

Sussanna Czeranko, ND, BBE is a faculty member working as the rare books curator at National College of Natural Medicine. She is currently compiling several books based on the journals published by Benedict Lust. In addition to her work in balneotherapy, she is the founder of The Buteyko Academy, a training program for NDs to incorporate a scientific model of breathing therapy called Buteyko into their repertoire.

References

1. Montague JF. How to Conquer Constipation. Garden City, NY: Garden City Books; 1938:25.

2. Barker JE. Chronic Constipation, the Most Insidious and the Most Deadly of Diseases, Its Cause, Grave Consequences and Natural Cure. London, England: John Murray Publishing; 1927:13.

3. Tilden JH. Constipation: A New Reading on the Subject. Denver, CO: Tilden Health School Association Publishing; 1923:56.

4. Clements GR. Deadly constipation. The Naturopath. 1923;28(12):767.

5. Lust L. Regulating the bowels. Herald of Health and Naturopath. 1903;4(11):338.

6. Tilden JH. Constipation: A New Reading on the Subject. Denver, CO: Tilden Health School Association Publishing; 1923:47.

7. Tilden JH. Toxemia Explained. 8th ed. Denver, CO: The World Press, Inc.; 1946:96.

8. Tilden JH. Constipation: A New Reading on the Subject. Denver, CO: Tilden Health School Association Publishing; 1923:99.

9. Tilden JH. Toxemia Explained. 8th ed. Denver, CO: The World Press, Inc.; 1946:85.

10. The Ether Wave. Chewing. Herald of Health and Naturopath. 1920;25(8):397.

11. Macfadden B. Digestive Troubles: How Caused and Cured. New York: NY: Macfadden Publications, Inc.; 1928:265.

12. Kellogg JH. Itinerary of a Breakfast, Funk & Wagnalls Company; 1918:23.

13. Kellogg JH. Itinerary of a Breakfast, Funk & Wagnalls Company; 1918:62.

14. Kellogg JH. Itinerary of a Breakfast, Funk & Wagnalls Company; 1918:62-63.

15.Kellogg JH. Itinerary of a Breakfast, Funk & Wagnalls Company; 1918:64.

16. Lindlahr H. Nature Cure, Philosophy and Practice Based on the Unity of Disease and Cure. Chicago, IL: The Nature Cure Publishing Co.; 1924:220.

17. Thomson JC. Constipation and Our Civilization. London, England: Thorsons Publishers Ltd.; 1954:181-182.

18.Tilden JH. Constipation: A New Reading on the Subject. Denver, CO: Tilden Health School Association Publishing; 1923:115.

19.Tilden JH. Constipation: A New Reading on the Subject. Denver, CO: Tilden Health School Association Publishing; 1923:87.

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