Common errors of Natural Hygienists

Common Errors Of Natural Hygienists

by Paul A. Goldberg, M.P.H., D.C. D.A.C.B.N.


Introduction

Natural Hygienists and other health reformers are some of the most sincere and dedicated people to be found anywhere. Our stakes are high…we seek to improve our health…in some cases from very dire circumstances or we seek to maintain our health knowing how important it is to our enjoyment of every aspect of life. The books we read and the lecturers we listen to are usually devoted to their perception of truth and write and preach with great vigor often mixed in with a dose of dogmatism. All of this is blended in with our prior conceptions of health and disease and our aspirations and fears.

I am a good person to speak on the mistakes made by health reformers since I made many mistakes in my own quest for health. I also labored to present valid information to the college students I taught Clinical Nutrition to for 23 years and to give valid advice to the hundred of patients I have seen over the past 30 years. In all cases I have made clear that I am not infallible and that each patient or student must make the effort to seek the truth in their own right.

Dr. Paul Goldberg “Natural Hygiene is a practical philosophy that seeks to understand the workings of nature and apply these understandings to human beings. Natural Hygiene is not an immutable set of principles. As our comprehension of Nature progresses, our application of Hygienic Principles needs to be modified both collectively and individually. Nature's laws are fixed and unchangeable…our understanding of them is not.

My initial experience in Natural Hygiene occurred almost thirty years ago when I was in my twenties. I developed rheumatoid disease while attempting a joint degree program in Law and Preventive Medicine at Ohio State University. Formerly athletic and physically active, I found myself stiff, fatigued, despondent and rapidly becoming disabled due to the lack of answers /solutions from the medical establishment. Dr. R.J. Cheatham of the Shangri-La Natural Hygiene Institute in Bonita Springs Florida allowed me to work at his beautiful retreat and educational center while learning the essentials of Natural Hygiene. I was entranced with what I learned and observed. I devoured everything I could read or hear on Natural Hygiene. Its simple truths were beautiful and logical. Here seemed to be the answers to all of my problems, indeed to the world's problems! I stayed at the Shangri-la for a year, eventually becoming a health director of the institute and preached Natural Hygiene with enthusiasm.

I came to the Institute at 136 lbs at five feet five inches tall and although fatigued and stiff I was muscular and strong. After a year of eating a raw food vegan diet and periodic fasting I was 108 lbs, weak with little muscle and continued to be stiff (although my eyes were clear and shone like flashlights) Nothing, however, could dissuade me from the path I was on and I would not question anything I was doing for the next several years. Remaining or new symptoms were due to “detoxification” I just needed to continue my raw food vegan diet along with sunbaths, periodic short fasts, etc. In time and with persistence everything would work out, I told myself, as I continued to see myself melt away in the mirror and continued to have ongoing rheumatoid pains throughout my body.

MY ENTRY INTO NATURAL HYGIENE:
My entry into NH was anything but "intellectual fascination"... it was more like" PLEASE HELP ME DESPERATION" as I was severely afflicted with rheumatoid/autoimmune disease at the time.
The value of (my early understanding of) Natural Hygiene was not anything specific like special dietary measures and my health only improved slightly despite fasting, sunbathing, raw food diet, etc. and living it to the hilt for a number of years exactly as it was taught to me. The value of it was that it opened my eyes to health empowerment and to independent thinking. In other words, for me the great benefit was being helped in learning not what to think, but how to think and to see that there was more to health beyond dietary measures alone.
I also found the courage of the early Hygienic Pioneers admirable and something to try to emulate. Surrounded by a sea of ignorance they chose to think for themselves and observe nature in an objective and logical fashion.
Today as a Clinical Epidemiologist, Clinical Nutritionist and as a Hygienic/Biological Practitioner, those lessons learned by my year of living in a Natural Hygiene Institute and my studies of the Hygienic Pioneers, in how to think and gather information from the world were invaluable. That and the observations of humans and nature I have made since, remain central to the manner in which I work with patients.
I have had to learn a great deal else in order to be a worthy practitioner, particularly in terms of patient/biochemical individuality i.e. what makes one person different from the next. It was my early training starting in 1976, however, in Natural Hygiene and with Hygiene Greats Drs. R.J Cheatham and William Esser that allowed me to have a solid foundation on which to learn and build on.

I would continue to have rheumatoid disease, develop inflammatory bowel disease and have life threatening allergies…. yet I remained an ardent "Natural Hygienist".
Today I am muscular at five foot five and 134 lbs. with a physique that earns the envy of other men my age, am active, have good energy, am strong for my size, have three healthy children and have had a successful career as a health care professional. What happened? Why did “Natural Hygiene” not work better for me? What errors did I make along the way? With the lack of results my application of “Natural Hygiene” produced why do I still consider myself a Hygienist and promote this philosophy and way of thinking that we call Natural Hygiene?

I have had ample opportunity to examine my beliefs. I taught clinical nutrition to over 15,000 students for over 23 years at a Chiropractic College. I encouraged my students to think for themselves, avoid dogma and presented them a variety of views all of which were questioned by the more inquisitive (or in some cases hostile) students I had. I have interacted with many hundreds of other health care professionals in the Chiropractic, Medical and Naturopathic Professions as teacher and colleague. I have observed numerous Natural Hygienists who have come to my clinic for assistance. I have learned from both successes and errors in my thinking and that of others.

In the following discourses which will be reaching you every few days you will find presented twenty of the most common errors I have seen committed by Natural Hygienists and others attempting health reform. I hope in sharing these that you the reader may be able to benefit in some small way.


Sincerely,
Paul
1-22-04

http://naturalhygienesociety.org/articles/commonnerrors.html


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Error # 1 : Viewing Natural Hygiene as a set of immutable practices applicable to all persons in an identical fashion

Error # 2 : Viewing Natural Hygiene As A Panacea.

Error #3 : Placing Excessive Emphasis On Diet / Fasting and Ignoring The Other Essentials of Health

Error #4 : Delaying Implementation Of Needed Change

Error #5 : Misusing Statistics to Support Our Beliefs: Using Facts to Fit Our Fancy

Error #6 : Being Unforgiving With Ourselves

Error #7 : Relying Excessively On Authority

Error #8 : The Loss of Our Earth Connections

Error #9 : Ignoring the Infinite Variety of Differences Among Us




About The Author

Dr. Paul Goldberg is a graduate of Bowling Green State University (B.A.), Life University (B.S.) The University of Texas Medical Center, Graduate School of Public Health (M.P.H.), and Life College (D.C.). He is a Certified Natural Hygiene Practitioner and has been awarded Diplomate Status by the American Clinical Board of Nutrition. He became interested in Natural Hygiene due to personal illness with rheumatoid disease and served as a Health Director of The Shangri-La Natural Hygiene Institute as well as completing a Natural Hygiene Internship under his mentor the late Dr. William Esser.

For twenty three years he served as a Professor of Gastroenterology, Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at Life College. Since 1983 he has had an ongoing practice in Clinical Nutrition, Natural Hygiene, Clinical Epidemiology and Biological Medicine as the Director of The Goldberg Clinic in Atlanta Georgia.

Dr. Goldberg's clinical focus in practice, teaching and research has been on chronic disease conditions including systemic arthritic, autoimmune, and gastrointestinal disorders. He is best known for his successful work in the reversal of chronic degenerative diseases by seeking out causal factors utilizing clinical epidemiology and a nutritional/biochemical/hygienic approach.

Dr. Goldberg is a co-founder of the International Natural Hygiene Society.

Further information, related articles, and links can be found at http://www.goldbergclinic.com



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