Michalsen Andreas - The nature cure: a doctors guide to the science of natural medicine

Fasting, yoga, Ayurveda, herbal medicine, meditation, mindfulness, a vegetarian dietthe subjects of naturopathy are more topical than ever before. But its difficult to find scientifically-founded guidance on naturopathy. Some things that have long been recommended in the world of natural medicine should be questioned critically. On the other hand, effective methods of naturopathy are often too quickly dismissed by conventional physicians. Yet its become increasingly clear that many people are interested in exploring naturopathy and integrative medicine. It is high time, then, for an evaluation that takes experience, practice, and research into consideration in equal measure.

Medicine needs naturopathynow more urgently than ever before. An increasing number of chronic diseases is becoming widespread, and conventional medicines method of treating these illnesses in the same highly technologized manner as emergency caseswith surgeries, interventions, and new medicationsleads to more and more side effects and unaffordable costs.

The traditional treatment methods of naturopathy have kept people alive throughout the centuries and have addressed various illnesses with astonishing efficacyeven though the methods were based solely on practical experience. Then modern medicine came along with its scientific approach and its extraordinary possibilities for diagnosis and therapy, and a lot of ancient knowledge was left by the wayside because it was considered outdated or even wrong.

Yet today, the latest research methods of modern biology and medicine show that naturopathy is not a thing of the past, but highly relevant. In the crisis of medicine were now facingwith its increasing costs and rising proportion of chronic illnessnaturopathy offers solutions, showing us new ways of preventing and treating diseases. The central focus is not on the illness, but on the individual.

As professor of Clinical Naturopathy at the Charit Berlin, the largest university hospital in Europe, with about three thousand inpatient beds and more than twelve thousand health professionals and scientists working there, I hope to share the enormous potential of naturopathy with the public and to close the gaps that continually seem to open between high-tech medicine and practical knowledge. At the Charit, our focus is not on setting divisions between different ways of medical practice, but on integration and combinationon a scientific basis. Employing this concept, we treat thousands of patients to great success every year.

I was born in a small village in the southern part of Germany, on the border of Austria and Switzerland, near the Alps. My father and grandfather were both MDs who specialized in internal medicine. As a child, listening to my father talk about his workday at the dinner table, I realized that there was something special about his medical practice. Following in the tradition of my grandfather, my father treated his patients not only with conventional medication and surgery, but also with naturopathic and integrative medicine. He often advised lifestyle and diet changes for his patients, such as fasting or reducing stress. He didnt just prescribe conventional drugs, but also herbs and supplements. Growing up I was accustomed to seeing his patients stop by our home to express their gratitude and sometimes to drop off a presentusually something nice to eat. On the other hand, I also grew up hearing my father talk about the suspicion with which his colleagues regarded his approach to medicine.