Founders – The founders of what today is known as naturopathic medicine were Benedict Lust and Henry Lindlahr. Lust adopted the term naturopathy in 1902 to advance a philosophy of healthy living, nature cure, chiropractic adjustment and drugless therapeutics. He launched monthly publications – most often titled The Naturopath and Herald of Health – that he published until his death in 1945. In 1919 he chartered the American Naturopathic Association in Washington, D.C., and he operated the American College of Naturopathy from 1910 through 1935. He also established and operated two nature cure sanitariums he called “Yungborn,” one in New Jersey and the other in Florida (near Tampa).
Lindlahr graduated and was licensed in Illinois as a medical doctor (MD) in 1902. In 1913 he published his first volume on a complete therapeutic philosophy, Nature Cure. In 1914 he established the Lindlahr Sanitarium in Elmhurst, Illinois and established with the sanitarium the Lindlahr College of Natural Therapeutics. Nature Cure became a foundational text in naturopathy, followed by the additional 5 volumes of Lindlahr’s work grouped under the general title Philosophy of Natural Therapeutics published between 1918 and 1923. Henry Lindlahr died in 1924.
Advancers – The advancement of an identifiable profession based on the early work of Lust and Lindlahr began when William Charles Schulze, MD, the founder of the National College of Chiropractic (1919) purchased Lindlahr’s school about 6 months after Lindahr’s death (1924) and merged it into the National College, creating the National College of Drugless Therapeutics. Schulze had recently elevated a 1923 graduate of National to college Dean, appointing W.A. (Alfred) Budden as Dean of both schools and in charge of physically accomplishing the merger of the two schools. Dr. Schulze was the founding President of national until his death in 1936. Budden moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1929, and purchased the existing Pacific College of Chiropractic and Naturopathy. In 1934 Budden changed the name to Western States College of Chiropractic and Naturopathy and took over Schulze’s mantle as the leading educator in naturopathy.
By the early 1930s Lust’s efforts to create a naturopathic profession had stalled out for various reasons, including the failure to get legal recognition in New York where Lust’s publishing house was based, or in New Jersey where his primary sanitarium was located. Legal recognition was achieved in Florida in 1927.
From 1935 forward until his death in 1951, the organization of naturopathic physicians into a profession of clinical practitioners was undertaken and accomplished by Robert V. Carroll, Sr. of Seattle, Washington. He was succeeded in these efforts by Henry J. Schlichting, Jr. of Midland, Texas, and A.R. Hedges of Medford, Oregon in the 1950s, John Noble of Portland, Oregon, John Bastyr of Seattle and Joseph Boucher of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. John Bastyr was brought into the naturopathic profession by Robert Carroll in 1935; John Noble (1937) and Joseph Boucher (1953) were graduates of Budden’s Western States College.
In the 1970s NDs Joseph Pizzorno, Lester Griffith, William Mitchell and educator Sheila Quinn founded the John Bastyr College of Naturopathic Medicine in Seattle, Washington. Though the founders did not have this realization, the vision behind JBCNM made it the school that first successfully integrated Carroll’s vision of a scientific research-based naturopathy with Budden’s 4-year residency educational model in a modern setting.
Core concepts–A belief in the concept of a vital force became a core concept of all naturopaths by WW II, especially following the publication of the work of Walter Cannon, MD in physiology. With this came a resistance to the use of suppressive drugs:
“Yet, we must ever keep in mind that there is no disease to be cured; there are only sick people to be healed…
The physician must support the inherent nature of the patient by whatever means…By supporting the inherent power–the vital force–we re-establish a harmonious functioning of the disordered parts or functions.
It it not the physician that cures, but the indwelling vital force that heals.
Since it is the vital force that heals, we must seek those methods and do for the patient those things which will best support the natural healing powers of the particular person; we must be careful to do nothing that would interfere with that healing force.
If we are not to interfere with the workings of the vital force in its attempt to heal, then we must carry on our practice in conformity with … the laws of nature.
The mere use of a naturopathic method or modality does not mean you are practicing Naturopathy in conformity with its principles and philosophy. If such methods are used as a suppressive treatment, the physician is practicing Allopathic and not Naturopathic medicine.
As naturopathic physicians we must work…in accordance with natural law.” (“Editorial” by A.R. Hedges, DC, ND, Journal of the A.N.A., Inc., May, 1950)
Lindlahr described the dichotomy between natural therapeutics and conventional practice as the difference between the combative and the preventive methods of treating illness and disease; one seeks to use hygienic and healthy living, and natural methods of treatment if needed, to maintain a “normal, healthy condition” as much as possible, the other to “fight” the disease once developed. This natural method has translated over the 20th century into a therapeutic emphasis on healthy living, food and nutritional therapy, detoxification, exercise and other methods of treatment that are being addressed in other essays in this collection.,
Regulatory status–Naturopathic physicians are currently licensed in 22 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (territories) and 5 Canadian provinces.