To use an illustration:  Suppose a wagon full of freight requires the combined strength of six horses to move it and suppose that number of horses is available, would it not be foolish to try to move the load with one, two, three, four or even five horses?  Would not common sense suggest the saving of time and effort by putting all six horses to work at once?

In Natural Therapeutics every one of the various methods of treatment is supplemented and assisted by all the others.

The manipulative schools of healing maintain that practically all disease is caused by mechanical abnormalities of the spinal column or of muscles, ligaments and other connective tissues, due to abnormal strain or injury.  The philosophy of Natural Therapeutics, on the other hand, points out that a large percentage of such spinal and other mechanical lesions are secondary manifestations of disease, not primary causes; that acute or subacute inflammatory conditions in the interior of the body may cause nervous irritation and thereby contraction of muscles and ligaments and, as a result of these, subluxations of vertebrae or of other bony structures.

The naprapathic theory of disease postulates that it is the shrinkage and contraction of the connective tissues, which serve as a support and protection for the nerve matter contained in the nerve trunks and filaments, that cause interference with the normal nerve supply of cells and tissues and thereby abnormal function and disease.

The philosophy of Natural Therapeutics points to the fact that this shrinkage and contraction of the connective tissues surrounding and permeating the nerve trunks and filaments is caused by certain acids and other pathogenic materials which are produced by faulty diet and defective elimination and that the same causes produce accumulation of waste and morbid matter in the tissues of the body which, all through the system, interfere just as effectually with nutrition, drainage and innervation of the cells and tissue as do spinal lesions and ligatights.

While the other systems of manipulative treatment confine themselves almost entirely to the correction of bony and other connective tissue lesions, to “pressing the button,” as it is called, neurotherapy, besides this, aims at other very important results.

In disease the tissues are either in an abnormally tense and contracted or in a weak, relaxed condition.  The functional activities are either hyperactive as in acute inflammation, or sluggish and inactive as in chronic atonic and atrophic conditions.  These extremes can be powerfully influenced and equalized by manipulative inhibition, relaxation or stimulation.

During an acute attack of gastritis, for instance, the neurotherapist would exert strong inhibition on the nerves which supply the stomach.  This is accomplished by deep and persistent pressure on the nerves where they emerge from the spinal openings (foramina).  This diminishes the rush of blood and nerve currents to the inflamed organ and thereby eases but does not suppress the inflammatory process and the attending congestion and pain.