In my search for answers to use alternative medicine in place of modern drugs and pharmacy I ran across the story of colorful naturopath Henry Lindlair (1862-1924). As a young man Lindlair accumulated a fortune. Although rich he was sick at 35. Diagnosed with diabetes and given just a few months to live he changed his lifestyle to nature cure. Ten years later he owned a successful drug free nature cure clinic in Chicago. Over the next 20 years became the leading scientific naturopath in America.

Lindlair’s story is common in the annals of nature cure. His cure was not found in drugs, but located in nature. His first touch was reading Louis Kuhne’s The New Science of Healing which introduced him to the concept that disease is caused by violating nature’s laws. After applying the Kuhns suggestion he eventually became cured of diabetes. The experience gave him the drive to embark on a lifelong journey into natural cures.

Before that Lindlair had believed that life, death, and disease were largely a matter of being in the wrong place and disease was caught by chance. He felt betrayed by a medical community that should have explained that as simple a thing as diet and that he was cured by what medical doctors called a “Quack.”

Lindlair believed that if he became a medical doctor he could correct the wrong thinking conveyed by the medical profession. He learned osteopathy and nutrition, then later received his medical license and started his Chicago practice. He consistently railed against the rich American diet and felt good blood did not need large quantities of fats, proteins, meats, and dairy products. He felt that vegetable salts were taxed with heavy foods that nutritional deficiencies would occur. He never became a fanatic about food but was careful about quantity, making vegetables the biggest portions on his plate.

Four core solutions were used in his sanatorium
o Rest and Relaxation
o Water, air, light, electricity
o Hydrotherapy of all sorts, cold, warm, hot
o Controlled diet

Besides those he used homeopathy and occasional herbs. Lindlair was an accomplished naturopath whose light went out too early when he paid no attention to himself. An infection in his toe led to blood poisoning killed him.