Understanding naturopathy and its scope
The patients at the Wellness Hospital in Basbari are all suffering from a variety of ailments. The complaints range from blinding migraines, stress management issues to arthritis and even paralysis. The one thing that the patients do have in common though is that none of them are using oral medication of any kind. They have completely placed their hopes for rehabilitation as well as cure on drugless therapy aka Naturopathy.
Naturopathy is actually recognized as the youngest form of treatment in our country. Compared to India as well as other western countries like USA and Canada, this form of treatment took much longer to catch up in Nepal. In fact, it has only been nine years since Dr Janak Bahadur Basnet founded the Wellness Hospital. Regardless of this late introduction though, Naturopathy is now gaining a lot of momentum by achieving favorable results and in process, gaining people’s confidence. The Week sat down with Dr Basnet to learn more about this drugless therapy.
To clear suspicions, can you tell us how can it is possible to treat diseases without any medication?
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Naturopathy is a research based, scientific treatment. Even though we don’t believe in using any oral medication both allopathic or ayurvedic, we can scientifically explain and justify the mechanisms of all our treatments. We also have been through five and a half years of medical studies and three years of post graduate degree and we too use modern ways to diagnose a patient. Besides the results of the treatment are there for everybody to see.
We have many patients who come to us after visiting ten different hospitals and doctors. Those who can afford it have even travelled to India and Thailand but at the end of the day, they find that allopathic medicines don’t work for them. Often they come to us in a state of utter desperation, looking for alternatives and in many cases, they find it as well.
I’m not saying there is no need to prescribe medicines. But every form of treatment has its strengths and weaknesses. By capitalizing on ours, many patients have been able to benefit.
So what is naturopathy?
The classical definition of Naturopathy is explained as a treatment that utilizes the five natural elements. However, according to the modern definition, any drugless therapy that helps improve the body’s vitality and activate its immune system is called Naturopathy. This isn’t a therapy that is only applied to sick patients since it also emphasizes on diet, exercise, rest and such. Anybody can use the principles to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
The treatment mainly focuses on two areas. First would be detoxification. When morbid matters inside our body accumulate, they attract organisms like bacteria and parasites making it one of the main reasons people become ill. So internal cleaning is highly prioritized and along with it, there is the matter of developing our immunity. Our body’s ability to fight diseases is obviously crucial.
How does it work?
Naturopathy has four aspects: preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitation.
Preventive and promotive refers to the stage where we work on preventing diseases. As I mentioned, this therapy isn’t only for sick patients, we can do wonders for those who want to maintain a healthy lifestyle as well. Further, we don’t only mean physically but mentally and spiritually as well. So as per an individual’s needs, we prescribe certain routines and methods.
Curative is when we aim to cure the diseases. This treatment isn’t recommended for infectious diseases or emergency conditions but Naturopathy has proven to be very effective when it comes to non-communicable, chronic or lifestyle related diseases.
Lastly, we also tend to have many cases where there is no hope for a cure. For instance, take paralysis. In these kinds of cases our objective is not recovery but to help the patient obtain some level of comfort despite their condition. We try and rehabilitate them to make their life easier.
What kind of processes are used for Naturopathy treatment?
When we speak of natural therapy we are often referring to an assortment of therapies. Message therapy, hydro therapy such as steam bath, hip or foot bath, mud therapy, fasting therapy, color therapy can all be included and thus are used as well. Similarly, as per the modern interpretation of Naturopathy, we have also started integrating acupuncture and physiotherapy to our treatment. Both the practices require no drugs and thus adhere with our philosophy as well. Further, we also turn to yoga for various treatment methods. Yoga doesn’t only provide guidelines to exercises or body postures and such but is also a very effective reference to internal body cleaning techniques. Over the years, methods like therapeutic vomiting and nasal irrigation have been very beneficial for many cases.
Most of the times, we prescribe a combination of various treatment methods for a specific amount of time. It tends to depend on the patient’s condition so we make sure to thoroughly evaluate his state beforehand.
What are some of the most common conditions that you come across here at the center?
Actually, majority of our patients tend to have paralysis as a result of a variety of reasons from heart attacks, accidents to brain tumors and there might be slim to no hope of full recovery but they want us to help them rehabilitate. We apply various natural therapies to make their lives more comfortable.
The second most common cases are back pains especially those cause by compressed nerves. In many cases, we see that the doctors have recommended surgery or have simply suggested some painkillers so they come to us for alternatives and in majority of the cases we have been able to help them.
Then there are patients with arthritis or stomach problems from gastritis, piles to constipation. They are very common as well. Similarly we also treat many migraine and sinusitis patients. We actually have a 100 percent recovery rate with those two.
