Modern medicine is built on the concept of disease. The modern medical doctor is taught to observe the patient’s symptoms and run diagnostic tests then compare that information to what diseases are known to create those symptoms. Once he picks out the disease causing those symptoms, he prescribes the currently accepted treatment for that disease and the patient hopefully gets well—meaning the patient no longer has those symptoms.
This method works well for polio, infections, measles, etc. But heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cancer are another matter and a very serious matter because together they were the cause of death for more than half of all the Americans who died in 2006 according to the CDC.
Drinking juice and liquids only and not eating food for 10 days has been criticized by some people as being extreme. I think the death and disease statistics above are extreme. Giving your digestive system a ten-day vacation (the Master Cleanse) while your elimination system (liver, kidneys, colon, lungs and skin) gets a chance to catch up and clean out old wastes makes a lot of sense and is very beneficial.
The medical disease concept is not the only concept of healing. There actually are others: chiropractic, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine and naturopathy. Naturopathic doctors teach their patients to use diet, exercise, lifestyle changes and natural therapies to enhance their bodies’ ability to prevent and combat disease. This definition comes from the American Assn. of Naturopathic Physicians website. (Note the wording “doctors teach their patients …” above. The word “doctor” actually comes from the Latin word docere meaning to teach.) These alternative models of healing base their practices on the fact that the human body will heal itself if given the chance and the patient is taught how to do that. For example, when you cut yourself, the wound heals provided you keep it clean and protected from being reopened again.
Diagnosis is not as important to these other schools of healing because it is recognized that if you give your body enough nutrition and exercise, detoxify it as needed and eliminate negative mental influences and stress, the body will heal itself. This was the foundation of modern medicine as developed by Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, 400 BC.