I was eighteen years old in 1967 when my dentist gave me the book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Dr. Westin Price. It was the first book I ever read on physical health. He suggested I read the book because what I was eating was influencing my energy levels. The book put me on the right track for understanding natural health.

After reading Dr. Price’s book, I found more health books like Professor Arnold Ehret’s “Rational Fasting” and “The Mucusless Diet Healing System.” Even though these two books were published in the 1920’s, the information was pure common sense because health is not rocket science.

In Greek classical literature, the writings of Hippocrates, who is known as the father of modern medicine, has the same common sense information. In fact Hippocrates is known to have said, “Food is your best medicine.”

There are a lot of classic books on natural health that are constantly being reprinted. “Toxemia Explained” by John Tilden MD published in 1926 is a great book for understanding how your body works.

Edward Howell MD has a classic book titled “Enzyme Nutrition” last published in 1988. Dr. Howell observed in the 1930’s and 1940’s, working at a health sanitarian, that patients who ate raw foods had greater vitality and wellness than those who consumed cooked foods, even with vitamin supplementation. He concluded there was something present in the raw food other than vitamins and minerals, which played a vital role in maintaining human health. His passionate research for this vital element led him to discover the presence of food enzymes.

Max Gerson MD in 1958 published his book “A Cancer Therapy” and the Gerson Method is still being used today. This therapy is about giving massive amounts of energy and nutrients in the form of uncooked vegetable juices to nourish the body's own healing processes. The immune system needs energy and nutrients to run properly and strengthening the immune system, by removing its stress and feeding it to function, is the most important stradegy for healing any bodily disease.

Norman Walker PhD has many health books and “The Natural Way To Vibrant Health” published in 1972 is my favorite.

“The Hippocrates Diet and Health Program” by Ann Wigmore D.D. published in 1983 is a very popular source for Nature’s methods on natural healing.

Henry Bieler MD in 1965 published his book “Food Is Your Best Medicine,” which is a compilation of over fifty years of work treating disease by diet. This book was a best seller and has been translated into many other languages. The book was controversial at the time because he refused to include any "diets" or “recipes” in the text. He believed that every person has different body chemistry and therefore different needs. Bieler's reputation of success, using diet to treat disease, attracted numerous celebrity patients. People like Gloria Swanson, Jeanette MacDonald, Anthony Quinn, Greer Garson, Hedda Hopper, Greta Garbo, and Lucille Ball to name a few were his patients. Hedda Hopper, whom he treated for exhaustion, is quoted on the back cover of the 1st edition of  “Food Is Your Best Medicine” saying, "I’ve known him for twenty-five years and if I’d always taken his advice, I’d never have had a sick day during all that time."

Orthopathy is a natural philosophy from the 1800’s and the word is etymologically derived from the Greek language. It means “ortho”- right and “pathos”- suffering.

Orthopathy is an alternative natural philosophy. Orthopathy advocates a vegetarian raw food diet with periods of intermitted fasting, especially when you have the signs and symptoms of a disease.

According to “Quackwatch,” "Orthopathy or Natural Hygiene is dangerous because it encourages prolonged fasting and discourages proven medical interventions.”

Dr. Herbert Shelton explains Orthopathy as: “Disease action, no less than health action, is right action; yet it occasions suffering because of adverse conditions, which have been imposed upon the body. So by the term Orthopathy, we mean, right suffering.”

The Orthopathy movement originated in the early 1800’s with Dr. Isaac Jennings, who after practicing traditional medicine for 20 years in Derby, Connecticut, began formulating his ideas about health in 1822. Several other mostly later thinkers, including Dr. Sylvester Graham, likewise from Connecticut, influenced the movement. During the 1880’s, Dr. Thomas Allinson, a British doctor, developed his theory of medicine, which he called “Hygienic Medicine.”

In the 1900’s the founder of Natural Hygiene, Dr. Herbert Shelton, became a major writer on the topic of Orthopathy. His book “The Hygienic System: Orthopathy” published in 1939, bestowed a new name on this discipline of Nature’s way to heal.

Dr. Shelton distinguished the method of “Nature’s Cure” from other medical schools of thought, including Naturopathy, Heliopathy, Homeopathy and what Shelton called Allopathy, which is mainstream drug medicine.

The Nature’s Cure movement and Dr. Shelton’s Natural Hygiene cite the evidence ignored or underutilized by mainstream medical physicians. This evidence is the observation that ill animals will rest and fast, except for water, when they are sick.

The year 1939 was a great year for published health books, not only did Dr. Herbert Shelton published his corner stone for the health movement, Dr. Westin Price, a dentist, published his corner stone for the health movement. “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Dr. Westin Price is also a classic book in the health literature.

Interest in Natural Hygiene was renewed in the 1980’s, following the publications of “Fit For Life” and “Living Health” by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond.

Natural life knows how to be healthy, just look at any plant or animal of our planet's biological natural evolution.  All we need to do to be healthy is to understand you are a natural part of our Father God's  family. Understand this belonging by accepting and obeying our Mother Nature, like all the rest of natural life here on planet Earth.