GOOD
HEALTH---THE NATURAL WAY
The Principles of Natural Health
Care are actually quite simple.
- Good health is the normal
state.
- The body
will tend towards a state of good health.
- Healing will take place
if it is possible.
- Acute illness
is a sign that the body is trying to heal itself
- Chronic illness is the
result of failure or suppression of the healing process.
This is actually a positive viewpoint
and believes that our health is in our own hands.
Conventional medicine by comparison
expects problems to develop, considers illnesses to be random
and indiscriminate, something over which we have little control.
Natural Health Care does, however
require us to accept the responsibility for health and wellbeing,
but this is not difficult when these principles are applied.
If we can put in place the correct
conditions the body will do the rest. Here the "correct
conditions" mean correct lifestyle of which correct diet
is the most important and also the one which is the easiest
to control. This is the essence of Holistic Medicine.
What makes
a correct diet?
 Everyone
would agree that a balanced diet is important. But what does
"balanced" mean?
The common view is that a diet
is balanced if the food contains sufficient quantity of the
various nutrients - proteins, fats, carbohydrates, minerals,
vitamins and water to meet the needs of the body for maintenance,
growth, reproduction and exercise.
This definition
fails to take account of several important factors:
- What if the food has excessive
nutrients e.g. too much protein or fat?
- Is the body able to utilise
the nutrients in the food: i.e. is the food easily digested?
- Does the food contain substances
which are not nutrients e.g. chemical additives, impurities?
- - Does the food suit the animal's system?
- Many pets develop intolerance
to certain foods. Is the body able to eliminate the waste
matter effectively?
Our definition of a balanced
diet is that what goes in equals what comes out! This means
that over a period of time the body will maintain a good state
of health and normal function and that all wastes will be
efficiently eliminated.
In practice, many domestic pets
do not have a balanced diet. In most instances,
INTAKE EXCEEDS OUTPUT
Excess intake can result from
- overfeeding
- incorrect proportions of
nutrients, for example too much protein or fat inclusion
in the diet of non-nutrients e.g. colourings, chemicals
Decreased output
can result from
- insufficient exercise;
- a warm environment reduces
the amount of energy (heat) needed to maintain body temperature
- the organs of elimination
(kidneys, intestines, skin, liver and gall bladder) may
become less efficient as they become clogged.
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