Naturopathy's Vitalism and Wet Socks Treatment: From a Sectarian Premise, a Nonsense Therapeutic

here, a truly naturopathic point of view:

001. at dailyevergreen.com, Maggie Quinlan writes in "Wet Socks Might Cure Your Cold This Flu Season" (2018-11-28; 2018 archived):

"Kathleen Ojeda [a Bastyr ND graduate], co-owner of the Nest Birth & Wellness Center in Pullman, said the fundamental differences between naturopathic and conventional doctors allow naturopaths to treat a wider variety of illnesses [...]";

and what could those differences be?  By the way, to be fundamentally different is to not be 'like' or 'equivalent'.

"'in a conventional model, if something doesn’t feel good, we get rid of it,' Ojeda said. 'In the naturopathic model, we recognize those powerful forces of the body and support them so they can do even better and clear us out into a resolution' [...]";

so, I think the mischaracterization here of modern medicine is this: if it feels bad, remove it.  That's crazy, and not true.  But here we have a naturopath claiming basically that modern medicine is incompetent and naturopaths have some kind of different, better knowledge and ways.  And "powerful forces of the body" is a coding of naturopathy's vitalistic premise.

"in response to my early symptoms, I tried Ojeda's suggested 'warming socks' technique. To do this, Ojeda said to take a hot bath with Epsom salt, sauna or soak your feet in hot water to raise your body’s temperature. As soon as you dry off, place a pair of wet, wool socks on your feet. Then you’ll cover those up with thick, dry socks and go to bed. 'Let’s kick the vital force into gear,' Ojeda said [...]";

ah, and now we get the Full Monty.

"vital force, Ojeda said, is a concept in naturopathy of an abstract life force energy that organizes our body and drives healing [...]";

and there you go, that sectarian premise at the heart of naturopathy. Now, this is science-ejected and therein to still pose it as existent is, in my view, an article of faith.  Isn't it polite to call such "abstract."  How polite.

"if we have a cut, the body knows to how to reorganize and heal it. If we have an infection in the body, a foreign invader, the body knows how to spike a fever to get rid of the infection. 'It’s this beautifully orchestrated process to get everything into balance,' Ojeda said [...] the 'warming socks' technique supports a natural fever response and stimulates vital force, Ojeda said [...] the cold and wetness on your feet is a little push on your vital force [...] Ojeda said [...]";

well, the argument isn't that the body has mechanisms of healing.  It's HOW it heals.  For naturopathy, it's based upon a sectarian premise that has been science-ejected.  Biologically, there are mechanisms, but since naturopaths are dualists, they need an inhabiting ghost as an explanation because biological physicalism is not enough for them.  Oh, sorry, I'm not being polite: an inhabiting abstraction.  That is induced, supposedly.  Quite the shamanistic.  Quite the immanent.