How Naturopathy and Homeopathy Were Mainstream Until the Rockefeller Revolution

It’s hard to imagine now but if you’d visited a doctor’s office in the early 1900s you might have left with a homeopathic remedy, herbal tonic, or hydrotherapy prescription. Back then natural therapies weren’t “alternative” they were the norm. Naturopathy, homeopathy, eclectic medicine, and herbalism all had established colleges, published journals, and thriving clinics across the United States, Europe, and beyond.

The Medical World Before Big Pharma

Early American medical schools were a mixed bag. Some taught conventional “heroic” medicine (think bloodletting) but many focused on natural healing. The Eclectics championed botanical remedies while homeopaths and naturopaths emphasised the body’s

inherent ability to heal itself. Medical pluralism was alive and well; your local pharmacy was just as likely to carry homeopathic tinctures as it was morphine.

Enter the Rockefellers: Oil, Money, and a Grand Plan

This all began to change around the 1910s and the key player? The Rockefeller family. The oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller was already the world’s richest man thanks to his dominance in petroleum with Standard Oil. So what’s oil got to do with medicine? Quite a bit actually. Many of the first pharmaceuticals were synthesized from coal tar and petroleum byproducts. Rockefeller and his partners saw a lucrative future in these patentable, lab-made drugs and they wanted to make sure the world used them.

The Flexner Report: Medicine’s Big Reset Button

In 1910 the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnegie Foundation funded the Flexner Report. This was a scathing review of America’s medical schools led by Abraham Flexner. While some say Flexner genuinely wanted to raise standards the result was the closure of hundreds of “alternative” schools especially those teaching naturopathy, homeopathy, and herbal medicine. Only schools that focused on allopathic (pharmaceutical, surgery-heavy) medicine with curriculums steeped in lab science and pharmaceuticals survived and thrived. Rockefeller money flooded these surviving school while natural therapies were quietly erased or labeled as “quackery.”

Building a Pharma Empire

Rockefeller didn’t just stop at changing what was taught he funded medical research, endowed new hospitals, and promoted the “magic bullet” idea: single drugs for single diseases. With pharmaceutical companies now churning out products synthesized from petroleum (think aspirin, originally derived from coal tar), the new industry raked in profits while natural remedies faded from the spotlight.

The Legacy: Why Does This Matter Today?

Today only a tiny fraction of US medical schools teach nutrition, herbalism, or homeopathy. The dominance of pharmaceuticals is so complete, most people don’t realize the “alternative” therapies of today were the foundation of yesterday’s mainstream medicine.

But thankfully times are changing. Chronic illness, antibiotic resistance, and a thirst for real healing are leading millions back to natural medicine. Ironically, the “future” of medicine may look a lot like its past.

Personal opinion; It's sad to look back and see just how much power a few individuals can have that affect our bodies, our choice and our very definitions of health. I say we should keep questioning and reclaim as much history and truth as we can.

References & Further Reading

• Harris L. Coulter, Divided Legacy: The Conflict Between Homeopathy and the American Medical Association(North Atlantic Books, 1973)

• Medicalization of Society: Conrad, P. The Medicalization of Society (Johns Hopkins, 2007)

• Flexner, Abraham. Medical Education in the United States and Canada (Carnegie Foundation, 1910) — Full Text PDF

• Whorton, James C. Nature Cures: The History of Alternative Medicine in America (Oxford University Press, 2002)

• Swanson, Ana. “Why Are Doctors Still Prescribing So Many Drugs?” Washington Post, 2015

• Smith, J. (2012). Rockefeller Medicine Men: Medicine and Capitalism in America. (University of California Press)

• Cummings, R. (2010). “The Strange History of Aspirin.” Smithsonian Magazine