The Process of Healing:

A Unifying
Theory of Naturopathic Medicine
Jared L. Zeff, N.D.

Introduction

Why do well-selected remedies or medicines not always work? How many of us feel
confident that we can truly cure a patient who suffers from arthritis, cancer, chronic fatigue, or
endometriosis? Do we understand how to bring about cure?
Our medicine is based upon the observation of innate healing. From this observation we
have extracted six principles by which we define ourselves. These principles also instruct us that
our role is not to direct healing but to help it emerge.
This article explores the process of healing as the origin of naturopathic philosophy. The
primary intention is to set forth a clarification and expansion of naturopathic philosophy, and
model the practice, which naturally arises from it. If this philosophy were better understood, and
applied in a consistent and artful manner, we would know how to bring about cure and would
approach our patients with a strong confidence.

Models of Medical Thought

Mainstream medicine is based upon a simple and elegant model: the diagnosis and
treatment of disease. In brief, the doctor is expected to determine the specific nature and name of
the disease process (diagnosis), and then apply the various tools or weapons which science and
experience have provided to eliminate the disease (treatment).
This is taken as self-evident and unquestioned. Upon analysis it contains at least three
assumptions:
1. that there are distinct disease entities which exist separate from the patient;
2. that these disease entities can be identified;
3. that these disease entities can be removed from the patient’s body.
In this conventional system, the doctor identifies the disease and then “does battle” with it, almost
as if the patient were a neutral field upon which this battle takes place. The principal tools in this
battle are drugs and surgery.

The Naturopathic Model

Naturopathic Medicine embraces different assumptions. In our medicine, the emphasis is
upon health restoration rather than disease treatment. The first of these naturopathic assumptions
is contained within Vis Medicatrix Naturae.
The naturopathic physician does not do battle with a disease entity. Instead, we rely upon
the healing wisdom, vital energies and intelligence of the organism to restore normal and healthy
function. The work of the naturopathic physician is to elicit healing by helping the patients to
create or recreate conditions for health to exist within them. Health will occur where the
conditions for health exist. Disease is the product of conditions, which allow for it.

Copyright 1993: Jared L. Zeff, ND: all rights reserved 1

A Model of Healing
The process of healing can be modeled very generally through a simple diagram. As one
moves downward through this diagram, recognizable pathology appears as if these pathological
events were entities rather than an organism in the process of challenge, reaction, and
degeneration.

The Process of Healing

In this model, we begin with an organism demonstrating normal health. There may be an
optimal health which sits above the normal, but attainment of that is unusual, and most people
begin with a normal degree of health. Something, usually a multiplicity of stressors through time,
disturbs this normal state. This can be any number of things, such as dietary factors, trauma,
exposure of various types, emotional disturbances, etc. If the disturbance is severe enough, tissue
will become irritated. When tissue is irritated, it will generate an inflammatory process.
Inflammation is caused by release of various chemicals from injured or irritated tissues,
such as kinins, leukotrienes, prostaglandins, etc. These chemicals cause several events to occur.
Among these are vasodilatation, increased vascular permeability, chemotaxis, diapedesis, nerve
stimulation, and so forth. These are generally experienced by the patients as the cardinal signs of
inflammation: heat, redness, swelling, and pain.
Upon simple analysis, such physical events can be seen to be intelligent and healing
phenomena. The increased blood flow from vasodilatation, the increased vascular permeability,
the diapedesis of white blood cells and plasma, etc., result in the symptoms of inflammation.
However, the increased blood flow also brings increased oxygen, increased numbers of white
blood cells, and other healing elements into the disturbed area. These are the front line healing
processes, which the body employs. They are obviously intelligent and wise things for the body
to do to heal itself. This is an example of what is meant by Vis Medicatrix Naturae.
If the disturbance is single, or short lived, these processes will bring the body, or the
involved tissues, back to a normal state. The inflammation will be followed by discharge and
then by resolution. This is most easily seen with the common cold. The common cold is not a

Copyright 1993: Jared L. Zeff, ND: all rights reserved 2

disease entity; it is a healing process. The worst thing one could do is suppress the process with
drugs, which interferes with the process of inflammation, discharge, and recovery.

The Origin of Chronic Disease

If any process of acute, restorative inflammation is suppressed, usually by drugs, the
disturbing factors will persist. Toxemia accumulates. Function is increasingly disturbed and
inflammation becomes more persistent and recurrent. This is the origin of chronic disease. As
disturbing factors continue and are suppressed, the disturbance penetrates more deeply into the
organism, and chronic inflammation ensues. Which tissues become involved will depend upon
inherited weakness, acquired weakness, mechanical stresses, the nature of the specific toxins, and
so forth.
Arthritis is a perfect example of this. Arthritis in general is an idiopathic inflammatory
disease characterized by pain and degeneration. Cause is not conventionally understood, and
conventional treatment is directed at reducing the pain and inflammation, which is partially
successful, but the various treatments (drugs) generally create their own pathology, which may
become devastating, including immune suppression, osteoporosis, ulceration of the stomach, etc.
Following the naturopathic model presented above, the physician would work with the
patient to identify and remove the causes of disturbance, primarily found in diet, substance abuse
and life stresses. We help the patient establish more healthful habits, improve digestion,
stimulate the self-healing potential, or overcome the obstacles to health through a variety of
therapeutic modalities. According to the inclination of the patient, or skill of the physician we
might choose hydrotherapy, homeopathy, acupuncture, manipulation, botanical medicine, specific
nutrition, and so forth. When we apply these therapies judiciously, and in the right order, we can
expect to see rapid decrease in pain and inflammation.
When I began in practice I did not know how to treat arthritis. I used a variety of “anti-
inflammatory” herbs or other substances, elimination of the “nightshades”, homeopathic remedies
as indicated, physiotherapy, and whatever else I could recall, discover, or think of. But, nothing I
did in this regard resulted in a permanent cure. When I later came to understand the naturopathic
model for restoring health, through the tutelage of Dr. Harold Dick, my rate of success as well as
my confidence began to increase.

Toxemia
Toxemia is the inappropriately high level of metabolic waste products and exogenous
toxins in the blood. Most of it is due to the bacterial production of such toxins generated by the
metabolism of poorly digested dietary elements in the large intestine. Some simple examples of
this are the inappropriate bacterial degradation of tyrosine into phenol, tryptophan into toxic
anthrenes, or cholesterol into estrogens. Hundreds of these reactions can occur, generating
hundreds of different toxins. These products are absorbed into the blood, become a cause of
tissue irritations and thereby the physical basis of most chronic inflammation, which ultimately
will increase one’s susceptibility to acute disease. Dietary indiscretion is the most common
“disturbance” in the model outlined above.
Mal-digestion, the origin of toxemia, is caused by eating foods which are not well
digested by a particular body, by inappropriate food selection or preparation, by overeating or
other inappropriate eating patterns, and by stress. Excess or unmanaged stress causes increased
adrenal activity, which decreases circulation to the digestive system through the mediation of
cortisol and adrenaline. The digestive processes are heavily dependent upon free and appropriate
circulation of blood to function properly. Adrenaline and cortisol, intrinsic or extrinsic, will
reduce this circulation to the gut and thereby reduce the effective functioning of digestion. As
poorly digested food passes through the digestive tract, it is subject to the bacterial actions of
fermentation and putrefaction.

Copyright 1993: Jared L. Zeff, ND: all rights reserved 3

The Process of Disease
Stress and dietary choices determine toxemia. Toxemia disturbs cellular function and
results in irritation. Other factors may also disturb normal function: exogenous toxins, climactic
or other exposures including pathologic bacteria or viruses, physical injury, traumatic family
history, etc. Cellular irritation results in inflammation. If the disturbance is singular and short-
lived, the inflammation will return the body to a normal state. If the disturbance persists, the
inflammation too becomes persistent, and over time may cause degenerative changes.
Suppression of inflammation will result in a deepening of the effect of disturbing factors,
resulting in the development of disease deeper in the organism, that is, affecting more centrally
important systems or organs. The classic example is that of suppressed eczema becoming
asthma.
To reverse the decline towards degeneration, the disturbing factors must be removed or
ameliorated. If suppression has occurred, or if the disease has deeply penetrated or damaged the
organism, there will be a return of acute inflammation as the organism moves back toward health.
This is called a healing reaction or healing crisis. The process of healing is the reverse of the
process of disease. It is the inherent nature of living beings to display this phenomenon, which
has been observed and reported upon over many centuries, beginning at least with Hippocrates in
the West, and proceeding through Galen, Paracelsus, Ibn Senna, Sydenham, Preissnitz, etc. The
tendency of self-healing is the theoretical basis of naturopathic medicine.

The Hierarchy of Therapeutics

In facilitating the process of healing, the naturopathic physician seeks to use those
therapies which are most efficient in stimulating the self-healing mechanisms and which have the
least potential to harm the patient. The concept of harm includes suppression of the natural
healing process, such as inflammation and fever. These precepts, coupled to an understanding of
the process of healing, result in a therapeutic hierarchy. This hierarchy is a natural consequence
of how the organism heals. Therapeutic modalities are applied in a rational order, determined by
the nature of the healing process.
If we examine the process discussed above, we can come to an understanding of
appropriate therapeutic intervention and its natural order. Restoration of health can be defined by
four principles:
1. Re-establishing the basis for health;
2. Stimulation of the Vis Medicatrix Naturae;
3. Tonification and nourishment of weakened systems;
4. Correction of structural integrity.
First, the physician must identify the nature and causes of whatever is disturbing the
patient, which results in the presenting symptoms. The physician will then advise or otherwise
work with the patient to remove or reduce the disturbing factors. The first intervention will
usually include at least three therapeutic elements:
a. talking with the patient;
b. dietary and nutritional assessment and modification;
c. stress assessment and modification.
These three elements generally manifest as counseling about life style modification, including
exercise prescription. They may also require specific attention to psycho-spiritual dysfunction.
The second part of therapeutic intervention is that which seeks to move the process
“upward”, using therapies designed to stimulate the healing process. First use those therapies
which most generally, most gently, and most effectively stimulate the healing process. Then, if
needed, proceed with therapies that are more specific, more invasive, more potentially harmful,
and more potentially suppressive. A natural hierarchy results from an examination of potential
therapies via the naturopathic model. Such a hierarchy may present as follows:

Copyright 1993: Jared L. Zeff, ND: all rights reserved 4

1. General stimulation of the vital force. This is most efficiently accomplished through
constitutional hydrotherapy: a method designed to stimulate circulation to the digestive and
eliminative organs, stimulate the nervous system, stimulate the function of the digestive organs,
and stimulate the “vital force”. This treatment is applied similarly to everyone, that is, it is not
specific, and constitutes the most pure form of general stimulation of the Vis Medicatrix Naturae.
2. Specific stimulation of the vital force. This is accomplished through:
 homeopathy, a patient-specific system of stimulation of the vital force, which works
through bioenergetics, and
 acupuncture, a patient -specific system of stimulation and balancing, more invasive than
homeopathy.
3. Tonification and nourishment of weakened systems, using:
 glandular and protomorphogen supplementation to provide specific nutrition and
stimulation to the various organs and tissues;
 botanical medicine to stimulate or normalize the function of specific organ systems, but
with a potential for suppression or toxic reactions;
 therapeutic exercise prescriptions designed to strengthen weakness or enhance
circulation and mobility;
 physiotherapy to stimulate specific organ systems through the application of
electromagnetic or mechanical force;
 specific nutrition through vitamin, mineral or other nutrient supplementation, a form of
biologic pharmacology;
 pharmacology, natural or synthetic, to control functions, but generally with toxic
manifestations and great suppressive potential.
4. Correction of structural integrity through:
 manipulation: specific systems of force applied to re-integrate structure, primarily but
not exclusively to spinal vertebrae, or
 surgery, the most invasive therapy and with the highest potential for irreversible harm,
reserved for emergency repair, or as a last resort.

Whereas the specific placement of therapies in this “hierarchy” may be debatable, it is

based upon potential for harm, the depth at which the treatments work (more general toward more
specific), and their potential for stimulation of the Vis Medicatrix Naturae (the more invasive, the
lower the potential).
This is offered as a summation of our philosophy, and as a guide to our newer
practitioners. Two principal concepts deserve reiteration. First, success will often be based upon
the order of the therapeutic intervention. For example, appropriate dietary change comes before
specific stimulating therapies. This will allow the therapies to work in an improved “terrain” and
therefore produce more lasting results. If the cause of the disturbance, usually improper diet,
continues to be fed into the system, therapeutic intervention at a lower level in the hierarchy will
rarely be curative and may even exacerbate the body’s inflammatory response. Second, therapy
must attempt to stimulate the vital responses of the body and not be directed against pathology.
Naturopathic medicine is vitalistic, relying upon the wisdom and intelligence of the body
rather than that of the doctor. Those therapies toward the top of this therapeutic hierarchy have
the greatest potential to return the organism to normal unsupported function, that is, permanent
cure. To send your patient out the door with a box full of supplements, without first having
plumbed the causative elements of dietetics, digestion and stress, and acted to correct them, will
generally not result in permanent nor efficient cure.

Conclusion

Copyright 1993: Jared L. Zeff, ND: all rights reserved 5

 Naturopathic medicine is defined by a philosophy of healing, which is focused upon
destroying disease. This is accomplished through a system of therapeutics, which is the natural
result of the philosophy. The therapeutics function best, and fulfill the philosophy, when they are
applied in a rational order as defined by the natural healing process. The hierarchy of
therapeutics is a further refinement of the definition and philosophy of naturopathic medicine.
When naturopathic medicine is thus applied consistently in health care situations, the
positive outcome should be predictable, observable, and reproducible. The naturopathic model
for healing therefore presents a scientific basis for evaluation, in both teaching settings and
clinical practice.

Bibliography

Basic Naturopathy, H.R. Spilter, American Naturopathic Association, 1948

Divided Legacy, vol I, II, II, Harris Coulter, Wehawken Book Company, 1977.

Food is Your Best Medicine, Bieler, Henry, M.D., Random House, 1965.

Harper Review of Biochemistry, Martin, David W., Jr., et.al., 20th ed., Lange Medical
Publications, 1985.

History of Medicine, Garrison, Fielding H., MD, 4th ed., W.B.Saunders, 1929.

How to Treat the Sick Without Medicine, Jackson, James, C., Austin, Jackson, & Co., 1874.

Human Intestinal Flora, Drasar, B.S., and Hill M.J., Academic Press, 1974.

Natural Therapeutics, vol 1 Philosophy, Henry Lindahr, M.D., Lindlahr Publishing, 1919.

The Practice of Nature Cure, Lindlahr, Henry, M.D., 27th ed., Nature Cure Library, Inc., 1931

Numerous conversations with Dr. Harold Dick of Spokane, Washington, between 1981 and 1995.

“On Ancient Medicine,” Hippocrates, from The Genuine Works of Hippocrates, translated by
Francis Asams, LL.D., Williams & Wilkins Co., 1939.

“On Fever,” Dr. Thomas Sydenham – His Life and Original Writings, Dewhurst, Kenneth,
University of California Press, 1966.

Standardized Naturopathy, Wendel, Paul, R. Paul Wendel, 1951.

Textbook of Natural Medicine: Chapter, “Philosophy of Naturopathic Medicine,” Pizzorno,

Murray, Cody, Bastyr College, 1987.

“The Doctrine of the Healing Power of Nature Throughout the Course of Time,” Neuberger,
Max, M.D., Ph.D., (Journal of the American Institute of Homeopathy,) August, September,
October, November, and December, 1932.

The Growth of Medical Thought, King, Lester, University of Chicago Press, 1963.

Copyright 1993: Jared L. Zeff, ND: all rights reserved 6

The Organon of Medicine; Samuel Hahnemann, M.D., 1810, 5th & 6th ed., Dudgeon (tr.)

The True Healing Art; Trall, Russell; Fowler & Wells, 1880.

Toxemia Explained; Tilden, J.H., M.D.; Frank J. Wolf Co., 1926.

Copyright 1993: Jared L. Zeff, ND: all rights reserved 7