Anthroposophical medicine is an extension of orthodox medical practice and is based on a comprehensive view of the human being provided by anthroposophical spiritual science. This view, as it applies to medicine, is encompassing and very detailed, so that no more than a few brush strokes will be painted here to suggest something of its nature. To begin with we can describe man as a fourfold being, then when we lock at the physical body itself we can distinguish three fundamental functional systems, and finally we can indicate how these conceptions are applied to pathology and treatment.

The anthroposophical doctor is a fully trained and qualified doctor in the conventional sense, who wishes to work out of a more extensive picture of man. For in any age the cultural, scientific and social forms and professions arise out of the prevalent picture of the human being, and although the widespread modern conceptions increasingly tend towards the mechanistic view of man and his physiology as determined by physical and chemical processes alone, more and more people are feeling the need to transcend them. The work of Rudolf Steiner is a major contribution in fulfilling this need that retains in its approach to things spiritual the clarity and exactness of scientific thinking that are the justified hallmark of our present age. For a start it is possible to experience that: 

• Each human being is a unique individual and needs to be treated accordingly.
• Scientific, artistic and spiritual insights may need to be applied together in restoring health. 
• Life has meaning and purpose. The loss of this sense is often reflected in a deterioration of general health.
• Illness may provide opportunities for positive change and new balance in our lives.

For clarity, it may be pointed out that anthroposophic medicine is not identical with natural medicine (naturopathy) although it uses medicines that have been produced from natural as opposed to synthetic substances. Nor is if herbal medicine, despite the fact that medicinal plants provide raw material for many of its medicines. In fact medicines prepared from natural mineral substances are more widely used in this field and are generally considered more important than those made from plant materials. Finally, anthroposophic medicine is not simply some form of homeopathic medicine. Two things however, it has adopted from that discipline are the method of potentization and the notation used for potencies.

Four Fold Man

The anthroposophic picture of man as a fourfold organism is essentially a practical, working picture that is widely used by those who work with people and choose to work out of Anthroposophy. It is used in child education, adult education, business consultancy, industrial training and, of course, medicine. For anyone working with people the use of this model can ensure that the whole person is involved in the process. A basic premise is that we have a shared evolution with the three kingdoms of nature and therefore a direct relationship with them. In addition man has a fourth higher member of his being which places him in a kingdom of his own.

• Man has a physical body for which the laws of chemistry and physics are valid as for any other lifeless object from the mineral kingdom.
• This physical body would actually disintegrate if an organisation of opposing forces did not keep it together. Anthroposophy calls this organisation of formative forces the life-body, or etheric body. We find the physical body and the life-body exclusively together in living nature in the plant kingdom. They sustain life in all its forms, including processes of growth, reproduction and repair.
• Animals, like man, have feelings, urges, desires, experiences - all of which are lacking in plants. The organ that makes this consciousness possible is, like the life-body, supersensible, that is we can only see its manifestation, not its innate being. This living organisation we call the feeling-body - Anthroposophy talks of the soul-body or astral-body.
• The human being with his self-consciousness goes beyond the animal. He can think, he can imagine, can voluntarily remember, act freely, can be creatively active, etc. Through the little word 'I' man distinguishes himself from animals. The human being has an Ego as the fourth, supersensible member of his being.

Thus, man with his one visible and three supersensible bodies is a citizen also of four realms that is the realms of spirit, soul, life and physical/material. The supersensible bodies intimately penetrate the processes and organs of the physical body during life. Moreover, because these four members of man's being are especially related to the four traditional elements, respectively to Earth, Water, Air and Fire, we can influence the balance between these bodies through the balance of the four elements interweaving in the physical body.

The four-fold picture of man can be summarised as follows

Three-Fold Man

Now if we look at the human body we can distinguish three functional systems, of which two can be seen as diametrically opposed, polar opposite energy centres, with a third unifying force that balances them. Each system permeates the whole body but has its main centre of activity in a particular region. Thus we have:

The nerve-sense system with its main concentration at the head pole, though its functions extend right to the tips of the fingers and toes.

The metabolic-limb system mainly working in the lower part of man at the abdominal pole.

The rhythmic system in the middle, concentrated in the lung-heart area, but extending throughout the body via the circulation of the blood.

Attributes of the three regions

The Nerve-sense system:  Looked at in very simple terms, the head region is cold, still, quiet and hard when compared with the rest of the body. Through this area we take in the outer world. The environment predominantly acts upon the nerve-sense system. Nerve tissue does not regenerate, and real growth as an expression of life hardly exists in this area; it is the most dead part of the human body. This system is the basis of conscious working life that continually erodes the life and vitality of the physical body. Should this region predominate we have hardening, sclerotic illnesses, conditions of old age.

The Metabolic-Limb System:  Here we see the opposite of the above. This region exhibits warmth and movement. Movement is, of course, characteristic of muscle that is a part of the metabolic-limb system, but we must take into account non-visible movement, the transformation of substances (metabolism) that is part of it. Rather than passively take in, as with the nerves and senses, this system actively transforms and eliminates. It also acts on the environment. It is very much alive. It rebuilds and replenishes during sleep what the nerve-sense system destroys when awake. Should the metabolic-limb system predominate we have inflammatory illnesses, conditions more associated with childhood.

The Rhythmic system:  In the two polar opposites we see morbid tendencies, towards hardening and sclerosis on the one hand, and towards dissolution and inflammation on the other. The mediator, which brings balance and harmony to the potentially warlike situation, is the rhythmic system, the heart and the lungs. The heart links the whole through circulation and the lungs through the breathing.

Health is a balance of the two polarities, the 'tendency' for illness is there, but kept in balance. Health is not an absence of inflammation or sclerosis - but a delicate balance. The treatments attempt to restore the balance.

Pathology

In pathology two opposite kinds of illnesses are distinguished. When physical and etheric forces working in the metabolism gain the upper hand, inflammatory or feverish conditions occur. Illnesses of this kind are characteristic of childhood - for example measles and chickenpox - and are regarded as having an important influence in protecting the body from the hardening effects of the nerve-sense system, as well as strengthening the immune system. In contrast, degenerative or sclerotic conditions are characteristic of the second part of life. These are seen to occur when the waking activity of the nerve-sense system has been the dominant one over a long period of time. These illnesses, which are often accompanied by sleeplessness, anxiety and a subnormal temperature, belong to our western culture and are considered to be connected to the general intellectual culture of the present age, especially when this has been introduced too scan into a child's education.

The two main types of Illness:

Treatment

Anthroposophic medicine seeks to understand a patient's illness in terms of the interrelationships between the ego, astral body, etheric body and the physical body. The therapeutic aim is to influence the activity of one or more of these elements in order to regain a healthy balance. It has developed many new forms of treatment. The most intensive area of work and research has been cancer, for which a number of medicinal preparations have been developed from the plant mistletoe (Viscum album). Of these, lscador is the most well known and widely used in this country. If has been shown to have an immunostimulant effect and cytostatic effect on the cancer cells. Research is showing that lscador may reduce the rate of tumour growth and the likelihood of metastatic spread. Medicines are prepared from substances taken from the mineral, plant or animal kingdom in which forces that counter-balance those of the particular illness may be found, In order to strengthen these forces in the direction of one of the body's main functional systems, many anthroposophically developed pharmaceutical processes are used, in addition to those which are used in homeopathic and herbal medicine.

Within anthroposophic medicine a number of schools of artistic therapy have developed including sculpture, painting, music and speech. In addition there is a form of movement therapy called eurythmy that Rudolf Steiner was himself instrumental in creating. While most forms of artistic therapy emphasise the need to bring unconscious feelings to outward expression, the anthroposophically trained artistic therapist will also guide and direct the patient into specific exercises based upon a deep understanding of the physiological effects of colour, form, sound and movement. Artistic therapies also help the patient to participate actively in the process of restoring his or her own health.

There is too a special form of rhythmic massage that was developed by Dr lta Wegman based on an understanding of the relationship between the nerve-sense and metabolic systems. It has a harmonising and integrating effect on many bodily functions, including breathing, circulation, digestion and muscle tone. Another development has been special forms of hydrotherapy - oil dispersion baths, footbaths, baths with movement and rising temperature arm and footbaths. Oils and other plant substances such as mustard are added to the water for specific effects.

In conclusion, one can say that anthroposophic medicine involves the collaboration of professionally trained doctors, nurses, therapists and pharmacists. Nurses, for instance should have completed their conventional nurse training (just as doctors need the normal state recognised qualification) before undertaking a specifically anthroposophic nurses training, and such a three year course is currently based in Hawke's Bay. Further articles in this web cover some of these aspects.

Dr Simon Bednarek