Abstract
BackgroundA huge growth in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) took place in South Africa in the 1960s which paralleled what was happening in other parts of the western world. Naturopathy has been practised in South Africa for over 60 years, and the history of naturopathy is entwined with the broader history of CAM. No laws existed at that stage to regulate the curriculum, education and training of CAM practitioners. With the passage of time, various statutes were introduced which eventually led to changes in legislation and the establishment of a recognised training programme. Naturopathy became a legally regulated profession, the full history of which has never been documented.ObjectiveThis article explores the history of naturopathy in South Africa.MethodA two-phase qualitative research design was used, consisting of a document search and semi-structured interviews with key informants who were identified through a process of snowballing. Information collected from the naturopaths who participated in the interviews was triangulated with documentation uncovered in the archives of the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA) and other literature available.ResultsThe result is a history of events which took place and reveals the effect of various legislations on the profession.ConclusionChanges in the political system paved the way for changes in legislation which allowed for the registration and training of naturopathic practitioners. However, the lack of a functioning association and the small number of naturopathic graduates have hampered the growth of the profession, preventing it from becoming a significant contributor to the health care system.
Highlights
The emerging trend is to use the term ‘traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM)’ as it encompasses the practices, practitioners and products of both traditional and complementary medicine (WHO 2013)
It allowed for the registration of Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) practitioners who were already in practice, provided that they could show proof of their training in the form of a certificate issued by a training institution
The findings show that the history of naturopathy is closely aligned with the history of CAM in this country
Summary
The emerging trend is to use the term ‘traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM)’ as it encompasses the practices, practitioners and products of both traditional and complementary medicine (WHO 2013). The last few decades have seen exponential growth in the use of CAM products and therapies, with Fischer et al (2014) suggesting that CAM will play an important role in addressing the rise in chronic diseases because of ageing in Europe. The reasons for this shift towards CAM have been proposed as growing disillusionment with the biomedical model of medicine (Reilly 2001), over-prescription of drugs and the impersonal approach to patients within western medicine, together with the inability of the mainstream biomedical model to successfully treat chronic diseases (Chitindingu, George & Gow 2014). Naturopathy became a legally regulated profession, the full history of which has never been documented
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