About the author Joseph Goodman is a naturopath, osteopath and acupuncturist practising in London. He is also on the Board of Trustees of the Tyringham Naturopathic Clinic and is an Executive Council Member of the British Naturopathic Association. It will stress the important role of Naturopathy in health maintenance and the avoidance of ill health. A radical rethinking by the patient of the meaning of health and disease and a radical change of lifestyle may often be called for, which makes it implicit that the practitioner is a re-educator as well as a therapist. 1 Naturopathy is applied physiology and common sense.
Common sense means normal understanding and good practical sense in everyday affairs.
3 Sound practical judgement, natural sagacity and social awareness are ideals devoutly to be wished for but then so are the attainment and preservation of individual health. Health is consistent with observation and adherence to the laws of nature. Disease is the result of flouting those laws. Barring accidental or surgical injury to the human organism and surroundings hostile to human life, the primary cause of disease according to Lindlahr is violation of nature's laws. The laws of nature are evident to those who acknowledge them.