What is Anthroposophic Medicine?
The anthroposophical approach to medicine, developed by Rudolf Steiner, adds spiritual insight to diagnosis and healing. Applied by conventionally-trained medical doctors who combine orthodox medical treatment with complementary practice, this modern holistic paradigm combines European homeopathics, plant medicines, natural remedies and elements of allopathic principles. Anthroposophic medicine takes into account that human beings, nature and the cosmos are interrelated. It recognizes and uses the vast information acquired by modern medicine in the fields of anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and diagnosis. Then it goes one step further, adding knowledge of the laws of the living organism, of the psyche and the spirit derived from a spiritual scientific methodology. Understanding the vital and spiritual forces behind the cosmos, human organism, the substance and the illness is the key to healing. Rudolf Steiner discovered a threefold organization that provides the key to health and disease:
(NSS) — the organs involving the nerves and the senses located in the head region; corresponds to ‘cold’, contraction, inhalation, degeneration, perception and stillness.
(MLS)— mostly located in, the lower body such as the muscles, the kidneys, the liver, the intestines and the blood; corresponds to movement, activity, ‘warmth’, elimination, inflammation, transformation, and regeneration.
(RS)— epitomized by the heart and the lungs; the mediator/ regulator between the N88 and the MLS; corresponds to rhythm, alternation within time, balance between contraction and expansion, inhalation and exhalation.
If the NSS pervades, certain morbid conditions arise. If the centripetal tendency of contraction, stillness and cold predominates, then the premature aging process, hardening, formation of deposits, and stiffness occur. 0n the other hand, if the MLS predominates, the results are inflammatory processes with warmth and dissolution. This revelation of the human being as a threefold organism became the basis for careful research over a 30-year period before Rudolf Steiner spoke publicly about it. The discovery of the polarity and equalizing of the polarity by rhythm, the R5, in the organism laid the basis for understanding the homeopathic process and the potentization process as it takes place in humans. It is out of this understanding that Rudolf Steiner came together with scientists, pharmacists, farmers and physicians to work with natural substances in providing remedies. Many other therapeutic disciplines that have developed within the approach include homeopathic and herbal remedies, homecare, nursing, artistic therapy, music therapy, hydrotherapy, curative eurythmy, individual biography and self- healing, and massage.