Significant naturopaths

Latest Edit: Iva 2012-06-15 (EDT)

"Health and disease are related in that they are two phases of one state, and neither can be known without contrasting it with the other". J.H. Tilden (1852 - 1942)

• Heinrich Lahmann (1860-1905) is the considered the first scientific nature doctor and unlike other university-trained doctors who adopted nature cure, Lahmann never denied his indebtedness to lay healers such as Priessnitz, Rikli and Kneipp. . As a practitioner, his main interests were dietetics and disease prevention.

• Dr. John Tilden (1852 - 1942) was an eclectic medical doctor who believed that disease was due to the build up of toxins in the body. He was a strong supporter of preventive medicine and addressing the cause of disease, not just treating it with drugs. Dr. Frederick W. Collins (1873 - 1948) and Dr. Joe Shelby Riley (1889 - 1946) were naturopathic practitioners whe embraced the eclectic aspects of naturopathic medicine. Dr. Riley introduced the field of acupuncture into naturopathy and was also an advocator of zone therapies such as reflexology. The National University of Therapeutics was founded by Dr. Riley, Dr. Hallan Parker and Dr. Collins in 1911 for the teaching of all types of medical and alternative therapies. Dr. Collins was one of the early students of Benedict Lust. Over time he became known as the "consulting drugless Doctor of America." Dr. Collins founded the New Jersey College of Chiropractic and Naturopahy in 1910 and was the first in America to establish a free clinic treating polio victims. A prolific speaker, he helped to form, advance and define the new profession of naturopathic medicine.

• John Harvey Kellogg (1852 - 1943) studied at the Hygieo-Therapeutic College at the Michigan Medical School. He became the editor of Health Reformer in 1874, and in 1879 he changed the magazine's name to Health. He published over 50 books on various aspects of healthy living and advocated vegetarianism, regular exercise, plenty of fresh air and sunshine, drinking eight to ten glasses of water a day, and abstinence from alcohol, tobacco, tea and coffee. He became famous for the cereals that he patented and introduced including Granola and Corn Flakes. His younger brother then built a company to market his cereal creations. Dr. Kellogg also invented peanut butter, artificial milk made from soybeans and other foods.

• Otis Carroll (1879 - 1962) suffered from rheumatic fever and severe arthritis. He found help from Dr. Alex LeDoux, a medical doctor who studied with Father Kneipp. After his cure, he studied herbalism and than later with Dr. LeDoux. It was only after years of informal education that he studied at the Clevland College of Chiropractic, while continuing his informal education with Dr. Lindlahr. Dr. Caroll became a naturopathic doctor and the focus of his practice was on improving his patient's abilities to digest foods and absorb nutrients. To do this, he relied on hydrotherapy, herbs, and diet.

  "Health must at all times come from and be maintained by digested foods. Naturopathic physicians understand this principle and use it to repair the damage done to organs, tissues and cells which have become depleted of the necessary constructive elements. These necessary elements can come only from digested foods. After a food is digested, it goes through a process of assimilation which converts it into nutrition which is carried by the circulation to every organ, tissue and cell. Remember, this process begins first with the digestion of food, and no drug yet offered can rectify damange done by failure of digestion. Henry Lindlahr"

  Dr. Carroll is remembered for originating constitutional hydrotherapy and developing one of the first means for discerning food sensitivities. The clinic that he started in the early 1900s is still in operation today. After Dr. Carroll's death in 1962,his practice was taken over by Dr. Leo Scott and Dr. Harold Dick, one of his preceptorship.

• Arno Rudolph Koegler (1898-1991) was a very prominent Canadian naturopath. Like many of the early nature doctors, he was of German origin and was introduced to the benefits of nature cure due to personal health reasons. Koegler was very active in the naturopathic profession, both in Canada,the United States and around the world. He was President of the International Society of Naturopathic Physicians, served as a board member on provincial and national naturopathic associations and he was involved in and the initial president (Emeritus) of the first naturopathic school in Canada, at that time called, the Ontario College of Naturopathic Medicine. Koegler was a well known naturopathic physician both with patients and within the community itself. Dr. Koegler was one of the naturopathic physicians who kept the flame of naturopathic profession alive and he became a role model and inspiration for the new generation of naturopathic doctors between the late 70s and 80s.

• Joesph A. Boucher (1916-1987) was a highly respected naturopathic physician of the last half of the twentieth century. He was born in Edmonton, Alberta and in 1949 started his training at Western States College of Chiropractic where he earned doctorates both in naturopathic medicine and chiropractic. He not only maintained an active practice, but was influencial and actively involved on all the naturopathic associations and boards, in British Columbia, he served on the Canadian Naturopathic Association and he taught at and was one of the founding members of National College of Naturopathic Medicine. Boucher was a naturopathic idealist and a purist. He believed that treating the cause of disease was of paramount importance and he was overtly critical of suppressive allopathic treatments.

"The essence of disease is the accumulation in the system of waste matter and impurities due to wrong habits of living. The elimination of this toxic matter from the body is what nature is striving for all the time . . . It is through detoxification . . . that the healing latent within all of us can be given a free hand to function." Boucher 1982

• John Bastyr (1919-1995) had been trained at the Seattle College of Chiropractic and the Seattle Drugless Institute. He also interned at Grace Hospital, and underwent extensive training in classical homeopathy. In the 1950s, when Bastyr became involved in establishing and teaching a naturopathic curriculum, his balanced emphasis of homeopathy as a therapeutic modality coequal with nutrition, hydrotherapy and botanical medicine assured its place in the ongoing development of naturopathic science. His influence is credited with naturopathic physicians being in the forefront of the homeopathic revival in North America.

Bastyr was a successful naturopathic doctor and he was also well known for his success as an obstetrian.

References

• Lloyd Iva 2009 The History of Naturopathic Medicine, a Canadian perspective McArthur & Company, Toronto