**History and Founders of Orthopathy:**
– Orthopathy movement originated with Isaac Jennings in the 1820s.
– Sylvester Graham, Joel Shew, George H. Taylor, and Mary Gove Nichols were key figures in promoting natural hygiene practices.
– Herbert M. Shelton played a significant role in renaming orthopathy as Natural Hygiene and defining its principles.
**Organizations and Associations:**
– American Natural Hygiene Society (ANHS) was founded in 1948 by Herbert Shelton and others, later becoming the National Health Association in 1998.
– The British Natural Hygiene Society (BNHS) was established in 1956.
– The International Association of Hygienic Physicians was founded in 1978 to promote natural hygiene practices globally.
**Orthopathy Principles and Practices:**
– Founded by Herbert M. Shelton, orthopathy emphasizes natural living, self-healing, fasting, and vegetarianism.
– Practices include promoting clean air, water, and food, regular exercise, rest, emotional balance, and mental well-being.
– Advocates fasting for detoxification and a plant-based diet for optimal health.
**Criticism and Concerns:**
– Natural hygiene practices like anti-vaccination, fasting, and food combining are considered quackery by medical experts.
– Prolonged fasting may lead to various health issues, and claims of fasting curing cancer lack scientific evidence.
– There are concerns about meeting nutritional needs on a strict vegetarian diet and the limited acceptance of orthopathy in the medical community.
**Impact and Advocates of Orthopathy:**
– Orthopathy has influenced natural health movements, contributed to the popularity of fasting and vegetarianism, and inspired alternative medicine practitioners.
– Advocates such as T. C. Fry, Joel Fuhrman, Alan Goldhamer, and John Tilden continue to promote orthopathy principles and practices.
– Despite controversy within the medical field, orthopathy continues to attract followers seeking holistic health approaches.
Orthopathy (from the Greek ὀρθός orthos 'right' and πάθος pathos 'suffering') or natural hygiene (NH) is a set of alternative medical beliefs and practices originating from the Nature Cure movement. Proponents claim that fasting, dieting, and other lifestyle measures are all that is necessary to prevent and treat disease.
Natural hygiene is an offshoot of naturopathy that advocates a philosophy of 'natural living' that was developed in the early nineteenth century. Natural hygienists oppose drugs, fluoridation, immunization, most medical treatments and endorse fasting, food combining and raw food or vegetarian diets.