Modern Naturopathy History: A Legacy of Chiropractic

Modern Naturopathy History: A Legacy of Chiropractic

Dr. Benedict Lust (MD, DC, ND), a German physician and chiropractor who emigrated to the United States in 1892, was America's first naturopathic doctor. Although ridiculed by the establishment for his "revolutionary" ideas about exercise, vegetarianism and healthy living, Benedict Lust founded the first health food store as we know it and crystallized naturopathy's emphasis on nutrition as the primary path to health. He also founded the country's health spa in Butler, New Jersey, and founded the first naturopathic college, the American School of Naturopathy and Chiropractic, in New York in 1902.

"Where there is no official recognition and regulation, you find conspirators, thieves, charlatans, working on the same basis as the conscientious practitioners...Frankly, such conditions cannot be remedied until appropriate safeguards are put in place by law or the profession itself, around the practice of naturopathy."

– Benedict Lust, around 1902, the founding father of naturopathy.

Naturopathic medicine grew in the 1910s and 1920s, but in the 1930s and 1940s, pressure from pharmaceutical companies, political leaders, the rise of antibiotics, and numerous other factors caused a sharp decline: in 1910, when the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published the Flexner Report, which examined many aspects of medical education in various (natural and conventional) facilities were criticized. It was seen primarily as an attack on inferior natural medicine education. Many of these programs were discontinued, contributing to the popularity of conventional medicine. Schools were closed, sanatoriums closed and doctors' privileges revoked. Because chiropractic colleges exceeded the educational standards imposed by the medical establishment's "Flexner" reform, most of them remained open and thrived. But naturopathy, with its herbs, naturopathy and holistic view of the body, was considered unscientific and based on an unproven folk tradition. It was therefore almost lost.

However, naturopathic medicine did not disappear. It was kept alive by chiropractors in Portland, Oregon, where graduates of Western States Chiropractic College could enroll in two years of graduate study and receive a degree in naturopathy. This lasted until 1956 when the program was discontinued. To keep the practice of naturopathic medicine going, several naturopaths and chiropractors founded the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon in 1956. It briefly moved to Seattle and then returned to Portland, where it is today. Very slowly, naturopathy began to rise.

CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS LEADING TO THE BIRTH OF MODERN NATUROPATHY

Chiropractic training was introduced in Portland as early as 1904 when Dr. John and Eva Marsh opened Marshes' School and Cure. In 1909 the college changed its name to the Pacific College of Chiropractic.

The institution took over the Lindlahr College of Naturopathy in 1926 and introduced one of the first four-year courses in the profession in 1928.

The Pacific College of Chiropractic entered a new phase in January 1929 when the college was purchased by former dean of the National College of Chiropractic in Chicago, William Alfred Budden, DC, ND (chiropractor and naturopath), for $20,000. The timing was terrible, with the US stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression only nine months away. Dr. Budden would struggle for years to keep the school afloat, eventually relaunching the institution as a nonprofit Western States College, including classes that led to degrees in chiropractic and naturopathy. During his tenure at the helm of the institution (he died "in the saddle" in 1954), Western States College, the School of Chiropractic and the School of Naturopathy exerted a profound influence on the career trajectory, both through Budden's activities within the Council on Education of the National Chiropractic Association (now CCE) and through the various extraordinary Doctors he trained.

In 1932, the Pacific Chiropractic College was reorganized and became Western States College and Drugless Physicians (1932 – 1956). The college also offered a degree in naturopathy from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s. Now called Western States Chiropractic College (1956 – present).

Western States College has thrived in the decades since Budden's death. The school eventually separated itself from naturopathic training, as the NCA had demanded since 1939, but maintained a very broad teaching program. Chiropractic and naturopathy were taught together until about 1955, when the National Chiropractic Association stopped accrediting schools that also taught naturopathy.

In the mid-1950s, when Western States Chiropractic College in Portland decided to discontinue naturopathic training, Dr. Bastyr decided it was time to take action, so he and some colleagues decided to open a school in Seattle. In 1956 the National College of Naturopathic Medicine was born and Dr. Bastyr and other practitioners became teachers. Dr. John Bastyr, the naturopathic doctor after whom Bastyr University in Seattle is named.

A chiropractor, Dr. John Bartholomew Bastyr, ND, DC (1912-1995), is considered the father of modern naturopathy. Because of Bastyr's influence, naturopaths have been at the forefront of the rebirth of homeopathy in this country. He ensured that homeopathy has the same status in naturopathic training as nutrition, hydrotherapy and botanical medicine. Dr. Bastyr considered manipulation to be the most important therapy in his practice.

He immediately pursued his studies of choice, earning doctorates in naturopathy and chiropractic from Northwest Drugless Institute and Seattle Chiropractic College, respectively. In 1936 he received admission to naturopathic medicine.

The National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) is the oldest programmatically accredited naturopathic medical school in North America. NCNM began in the early 1950s in response to the termination of the naturopathic program at Western States Chiropractic College. Professionals from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia planned to found the college and in May 1956 in Portland, Oregon.