Mahatma Gandhi, India’s "Father of Naturopathy"

Michael Cronin, ND
AANP President 

The entrance to S-VYASA's Prashanti Kutiram Campus

I am writing this from the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthanain University (S-VYASA) near Bangalore, India in the state of Karnataka. I was invited (with 4 weeks notice) to give a presentation on the evolution of the naturopathic profession and naturopathic education in North America at the first International Conference on Yoga, Naturopathy and Arogya (ICYN) in Bangalore, known as the Silicon Valley of India. Naturopathy as a healthcare profession is considered to include Yoga, and there are 12 universities across the country offering a degree in Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences, as well as numerous inpatient facilities. Mohandas (often referred to as Mahatma, meaning “great soul”) Gandhi revived naturopathy in India and is often referred to as the "Father of Naturopathy." Gandhi's birthday, October 2nd, is to be celebrated here by the profession as Yoga and Naturopathy Day.

Carnage of Symptoms

Photo by D'Arcy Norman via Flickr, used
under the Creative Commons License.

By Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO
AANP Past-President (2008-2009)

If you were to walk into my study, you might think that an enormous massacre had taken place. A duck lays across a chair, its beak dangling over the edge of the seat. Below the duck, a monkey can be found sprawled on its back with a rooster, a look of alarm on its face, oddly resting its head on the monkey’s belly. Across the room, there is a red bird unceremoniously toppled to its side. A few feet away lies a giraffe, long legs tangled helplessly. And then, towards the back of the room sprawls the hunter, exhausted after this convincing display of prowess, legs and ears all comfortably splayed on the ground.

New Year's Day for Trees

Jacob Schor ND, FABNO

Photo by Gilabrand via Wikipedia, used
under the Creative Commons License.

The 15^th day of the Jewish month of Shevat, or Tu B’Shevat, begins at sunset on February 7^th this year and marks the Jewish New Year for trees. In Biblical times, knowing the age of a tree was important because the fruit from a tree less than three years of age was considered inedible. This date was set to approximate when the earliest blooming trees in Israel ended their winter dormancy, but during the Middle Ages, Tu B’shvat grew to be an esoteric holiday.

In the middle of the 16^th century, the renowned Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzchak Luria of Safed and his disciples began to celebrate the day with a ritual meal. Each of the fruits of Israel was assigned symbolic meanings to represent concepts from the Kabbalah (the image of a tree is often used to represent the spiritual realms of the universe) and they were eaten in a ritualized order with the appropriate blessings and with adequate quantities of wine. It was believed that this would bring human beings and the world closer to spiritual perfection.

2012: Be here now.

By Michael Cronin, ND
AANP President 

I invite you to ‘take a deep breath’ and appreciate our Naturopathic profession for a moment with me. We are a relatively small profession with strong institutions and deep roots, we have: nearly 4,000 ND licenses in the U.S., five U.S. colleges, legal recognition in 16 states (plus D.C., Puerto Rico and The U.S. Virgin Islands) and full scope in eight of those states. Meanwhile, the profession in Canada includes another nearly 2,000 NDs and an international Naturopathic community is taking form in India, England, Australia and New Zealand. Our community in America is growing and we have a distinct professional identity.

As people recognize that they must take more personal responsibility for their health, they will come to understand the advantages of our medicine. Our patients appreciate our expertise and clinical work: our doctors are in demand with successful practices and innovative approaches. There is a growing body of work that supports the methods we use and we are working to increase the amount of evidence of ND effectiveness.

Here's An Easy Tip For Curing Cancer

By Shiva Barton, ND, LAc
2011 AANP Physician of the Year

Photo by esmtll via Flickr, used
under the Creative Commons License.

So now that I have your attention, you hopefully know that there are no natural cures that have been researched well enough to state that they can cure cancer of any kind. Yes, isn't it interesting that there are no known natural cures for ANY TYPE OF CANCER! Is this because there is nothing out there that works or because the scientific/medical community hasn't put the resources into finding the cure? I don't know the answer to that. Time will tell.

However, there are definitely things that you can do to improve the outcomes and help the survival of cancer patients. I am focusing on one of those treatments, below. If you are like me, you probably see many patients who have cancer. Some of you choose to treat people with cancer and some of you don't. I encourage all of you to treat these patients because there is so much that we can do to help these patients have better outcomes. Sometimes EXTREMELY better outcomes. That is what I want to share with you now.