There have always been people who understood that healing will occur naturally in the human body, if it is given what it truly needs, that is, proper diet, pure water, fresh air, sunlight, exercise, and rest. For these people, the emphasis has not been on finding disease and killing it, but rather on helping the body establish its own state of good health. Today, these people are known as Traditional Naturopaths. While Traditional Naturopaths recognize that allopathic health care is, at times, necessary, they understand that many accepted allopathic treatments can be harmful.
Allopathic philosophy holds that disease is caused by extrenal agents, chiefly bacteria and viruses.
According to this belief system, a cure will result when these offending agents are eliminated. The Traditional Naturopath, however, sees a symptom as nothing more than a signal that something is wrong. According to Naturopathic belief, when a symptom alone is eliminated, it is most likely being suppressed. Unless the original cause has also been eliminated, the symptom may return later in a chronic form. In determining the root cause of a client's problems, Traditional Naturopaths perform evaluations and analyses, but they DO NOT diagnose disease.