When does Natural Health NOT Work?

There are several areas in which natural remedies are ineffective, inappropriate and are best treated by conventional medicine.

Any acute or life threatening condition (such as injuries; infectious diseases; and all other forms of immediately life threatening illnesses) where time is of the essence.
1. Being in a car accident is an example of a life threatening condition where surgery and other conventional medical treatments are required.
  1. All natural remedies require a lot of time to work. Hence, your body cannot heal itself when sufficient time for the healing process is not available.
  2. Nor can natural therapy put your body back together again after experiencing severe trauma. That requires outside assistance, often in the form of surgery.
Any condition which involves a degree of irreversible tissue damage or abnormal tissue growth; whether from a disease, genetic cause or injury.
1. A permanently damaged heart caused by a heart attack (myocardial infarction) comes under the irreversible tissue damage exclusion. While the human body as a whole possesses amazing recuperative powers, the human heart muscle possesses very limited recuperative powers when damaged.
  1. Natural Health is good for preventing heart disease. It is not effective, however, as a quick fix treatment for heart disease.
  2. Yet, can often be used to help manage heart disease (i.e, tertiary prevention).
2. Spinal cord injuries are another example of irreversible tissue damage.
3. Tumors are an example of abnormal tissue growth. Surgery and other conventional medical treatments are recommended for abnormal tissue growth.

Some diseases are the result of mother nature's plan being imperfectly carried out in a particular individual; whether from a disease process, genetic cause or injury.
1. The end result of an untreated constitutional imbalance, or underlying disease process, is often irreversible tissue damage.
  1. Natural therapy cannot cure these kinds of diseases.
  2. Yet, can often be used to help manage them (i.e, tertiary prevention).
2. Adult onset diabetes is an example of this type of non-curable disease, that resulted from an untreated underlying disease process.
Any disorder which interferes with the body's nutrient delivery system, from digestion and absorption down through transport into cells and mitochondria.
1. Receiving nutrients through the normal digestive process is a requirement for all natural health programs. Hence, whenever, digestion is interfered with to some degree, the full effectiveness of a natural health program cannot be expected until the digestive process has been returned to normal.
  1. A stomach ulcer is an example of a digestive problem.

"It is not what one eats that nourishes him, but what he digests."

-- The Simple Life in a Nutshell by John Harvey Kellogg

"The fault here generally lies in the cooking. It is not his 'appetite' which requires 'tempting,' it is his digestion which requires sparing. And good sick cookery will save the digestion half its work."

-- Notes on Nursing by Florence Nightingale, 1859

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