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| and Physiomedicalism, which, like all forms of traditional medicine, sought to promote healing and restore health by strengthening the body's vital force. In his book, The Philosophy of Natural Therapeutics, published in 1919, Henry Lindlahr described the principles underlying these systems particularly wellprinciples that I, too, apply in my practice. For example, he wrote that every living cell is endowed with an instinct for self-preservation that is sustained by the vital life force, and that any illness is activated by that force to cleanse the body when it is affected by harmful influences such as bacteria, viruses, stress, or air pollution. The healer, therefore, according to Lindlahr, should not eliminate such symptoms as diarrhea, fever, or sneezing, but rather assist the body's inborn quest for wholeness. |
| Natural Approaches to Healing Cancer |
| Another individual who has influenced my philosophy of healing is Eli Jones, an American Eclectic Physiomedical physician who practiced from the late nineteenth century into the twentieth century. In my opinion, the doctor most successful in treating cancer, Jones maintained that even cancer is only a local manifestation of a constitutional (or blood) disease affecting the whole organism. Therefore, the patient's general health must be restored before the cancer can begin to improve. |
| Jones took a holistic approach to healing cancer. "Worriment of the mind," he felt, was one of the leading causes of cancer and topped his list of impediments to healing. He believed good blood, which he equated with a strong constitution, could only be produced by good digestion (essential for the proper assimilation of nutrients and the elimination of toxins), pure food, pure water, and pure air. Jones used herbs, homeopathic remedies, hydrotherapy, and nutrition to improve his patients' digestion and their overall vitality while they were under treatment. No matter how sick his cancer patients were, he insisted that they go outside every day for air and exercise. |
| Jones was firmly against surgery, claiming that the knife irritates cancer and makes it grow faster; that surgery shocks the system and weakens vitality; and that surgery only removes a local problem and does not address the constitutional disorder. Jones had similar reservations about radiation treatments and recognized the hazards of giving poisonous remedies or highly toxic doses of |
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