The term natural health implies that a state of well-being has been achieved through natural means. Dr Carl Pfeiffer MD, a physician and biochemist who researched schizophrenia, allergies and other diseases, stated it in this way “for every drug that benefits a patient there is a natural substance that can achieve the same effect.” Natural healing is not just a reaction against modern medical practices but really a reaction against modern illness.

There are 3 types of health care practices that have evolved over time:

1. Allopathic – focuses on the elimination of physical symptoms, emphasizing the part rather than the whole. Canada’s Health Care System is based on this.

2. Alternative or Complementary care such as Chiropractic, massage, relaxation techniques, naturopaths, homeopaths, osteopaths and herbalist- these can and have been integrated into an allopathic health care and can run tandem.

3. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or Ayurvedic medicine both are the [art of the world’s oldest holistic healing systems developed more than 3000 years ago.

There are so many Natural health Products (NHPs) a stat I read was 75% of Canadians use NHP’s regularly. Most of which has some good sound research to back the statement credibility.

The point of this conversation is to identify two thoughts, ever wonder why we need so many vitamins these days and ever thought about how genetics plays in the role of health? It is wise to know your chemistry before adding in different bits, I agree with that. The reason we need so much more in the way of vitamins and supplements is because of the way we farm; the soil is becoming depleted of vital nutrients that we obtain from our food.

It is no different for mental health, we need to know our individual bio to understand what influences we need to change or add that will normalize our function. Dr Pfeiffer through his research found that biochemical imbalances in the body were the blame for many psychological problems, Pfeiffer discovered that nutrients could achieve the same thing a drug can without side-effects. His many books include Healing Nutrients and his writings on orthomolecular medicine live on.