Naturopathic medicine traces its origins to European Nature Cure, as practiced by Father Sebastian Kniepp. This approach was based on a natural setting, with simple diet, exercise, and hydrotherapy. Herbs to stimulate digestion and elimination were incorporated. This practice evolved as it was transplanted to the United States. Benedict Lust created the fusion of Kniepp cure with some of the natural approaches that were growing as the ferment of imaginative medical practices was taking off in the US in the late 19th century. Of course, hydrotherapy had a longer history, and water cure already existed in the United States. The first designated hydrotherapy center was opened by David Ruggles, an African-American businessman, abolitionist, and healer. The Eclectic school of medicine was composed of MDs who used herbal medicines in very precise ways, with an increasing knowledge of their chemistry and bio-activity. This was not only based on a long European herbal tradition but borrowed heavily from the Materia Medica of indigenous peoples.
Where are your Clinical Trials?
It has proven to be difficult, if not impossible, to proceed to full-scale randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for most of the natural methods that cannot be patented or otherwise monopolized.
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