What is nature-cure?

'Nature-cure' is the overriding principle behind naturopathic medicine maintaining that all disease is a result of violating the laws of nature. Each individual has an inherent ability to restore and maintain health and balance under the right circumstances. This is referred to as Vis medicatrix naturae, the healing power of nature. It is the job of a naturopath to assist in providing the ideal conditions for health to allow the body to function at it's optimum.

The word 'cure' is sometimes taken to mean that the individual is healed by the application of some treatment or substance that has been applied to them. In this case it is not the actual treatment or substance itself that does the healing, but the action of the body's innate self-healing capacity that restores correct function. Originally from the Latin curare, ‘take care of.’

The origin of the word 'cure' in nature-cure comes from the German word Kur, where people who were unwell were sent to a health spa, Kurorte, for an extended period to recover. This system was built in to the legal and social framework of Germany. However not all Kurorte are spa towns; there are also Kurorte which are visited for their pure air (Luftkurorte, for example).

The History of Naturopathic Medicine, Part I: The Emergence of an American School of Healing, by George Wm. Cody JD, MA. Textbook of Natural Medicine, p.41.