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Naturopathy

The TVClubHouse: General Discussions ARCHIVES: 2005 Dec. ~ 2006 Feb.: Health Center: Herbal Supplements - Organic Foods - Probiotics: Naturopathy users admin

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Dahli
Member

11-27-2000

Wednesday, February 08, 2006 - 9:41 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Dahli a private message Print Post    
Naturopathy

Naturopathy is essentially an eclectic system of medicine using the most natural and least invasive methods of treating disease. Yet, it is not so much a collection of treatment strategies as it is a philosophy of treating.

"What defines naturopathic physicians is not so much the substances they use, but how they use them," says naturopathic physician Kenneth Proefrock, NMD.

"Naturopathic doctors will even at times prescribe pharmaceuticals if it will help restore some sense of balance so that the patient can then go on to achieve a higher level of health."

The biggest difference with conventional "allopathic" medicine is this approach to the patient. Allo (opposite) pathy (disease) fights symptoms with substances that are opposite in function and suppress those symptoms.

Naturopathic physicians, in contrast, are far more interested in how a person got to feel ill in the first place, and identifying that first cause of disease and correcting it, so the resulting symptoms are then eliminated.

Sometimes, symptom suppression is necessary regardless of the form of medicine, but naturopaths see that as only a means to an end. For example, if a person is in so much pain that they can't function or enjoy life, then pain relief would be appropriate until the underlying cause of the pain is eliminated by other means.

The Golden Rules

The six defining principles of naturopathic medicine further illustrate this philosophy and approach:

First do no harm.
Nature has the power to heal.
Treat the whole person.
Treat the cause.
Prevent disease.
Doctor as teacher.
"First do no harm" was Hippocrates' instruction to physicians and may be thought of as an application of The Golden Rule.

Whatever intervention a doctor can make in a patient's health and life, the only acceptable action is one that will do no further damage to the patient's health. It doesn't get much more sensible than the rule you probably learned first as a toddler: "Don't hurt anybody."

Second, naturopathic doctors rely on the healing power of nature to help restore patients to complete health. The really excellent naturopath is one who knows how to work the modalities.

That is, to be able to draw from the vast materia medica of natural materials as appropriate for specific patients and to be able to apply them to the great variety and complication of illnesses that are common today, and better yet, to offer the patient a choice among multiple effective treatments.

Treating the Whole

Another principle is to treat the whole person. Naturopaths know better than to give you a medication that will calm your arthritis but leave you blind, or that will clear up the skin while skewing your hormones out of balance.

Naturopaths are trained to consider the whole patient, not just the one part of the body with obvious symptoms. The job of the naturopathic doctor is to make sure that what you get is helpful and completely benign for every part of you.

The fourth principle is to treat the cause. For example, you may have chronic inflammation, which has caused joint stiffness and imbalanced immune function.

The naturopath goes to the cause of the problem and treats the inflammation and its cause, because when you remove the cause, the joints move more easily and the immune system improves. That way, you resolve all three problems instead of just one.

To prevent disease is another naturopathic principle. The improved lifestyle of naturopathic patients is what enables the body to regain homeostasis and to better deflect the constant stresses and toxic conditions that a heavily trafficked industrial society imposes.

Our study and practice of environmental medicine teaches the importance of removing toxins from the patient's body and home.

Likewise, naturopathic doctors help their patients find satisfactory ways to include healthy foods in their diets and whole food alternatives to harmful processed foods, so that preventing disease becomes an easy routine as well as a pleasant experience.

Perhaps, the last principle is the most important of all: It is even more important for a doctor to be a teacher than a healer.

In accordance with the idea that if you give someone a fish he may eat that day, but if you teach him to fish he may eat for a lifetime, the doctor must teach patients how to heal, and how to live comfortably long-term with good quality food, sound sleep, stress reduction measures and a fun, feasible exercise program. Ultimately, the most successful patients learn to take responsibility for their own health, with the doctor acting as a resource and tutor toward that goal.

Basic Training

Naturopathic physicians are naturopathic doctors (ND), or naturopathic medical doctors (NMD). After graduation from a four-year college or university, naturopaths are trained in four-year medical colleges just as other physicians are.

The difference is that in naturopathic medical school, in addition to learning such basic medical sciences as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology and immunology, just to name a few, students also attend full courses in specific clinical sciences -- obstetrics, pediatrics, gynecology, urology, geriatrics, neurology, eyes-ears-nose-throat, pulmonology, cardiology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, dermatology, rheumatology and oncology -- over the next two years.

Naturopathic students take courses in standard medical procedures: physical diagnosis, laboratory diagnosis and clinical procedures (three courses of each) as well as emergency medicine and minor surgery.

Of course, naturopaths also learn the naturopathic therapies, including clinical nutrition (that is, nutrition as both a healing therapy and applied biochemistry), botanical medicine (nutritive and therapeutic plants), homeopathy, Oriental Medicine such as acupuncture and herbs, as well as environmental medicine, physical medicine and hydrotherapy.

Naturopaths are trained both in the classroom and in a variety of clinical settings.

Throughout their naturopathic medical curriculum and professional careers, naturopaths are required to take board exams to ensure both the training and skills come up to the standards required across North America for the naturopathic profession.

Just as for medical doctors and osteopathic physicians, naturopathic physicians are required to take continuing education courses periodically in order to stay at peak competence.

Just be sure that you ask for a licensed naturopathic doctor (ND) or naturopathic medical doctor (NMD), because licensed naturopaths are the ones who are both classroom and clinically trained to practice medicine.

There are some health care practitioners who call themselves "naturopaths" or "traditional naturopaths" but who have never enrolled in a medical school. They may have purchased their diploma online and may have never treated anyone before you.

Such people may have good intentions and want to help their fellow humans, but are at a serious loss regarding the necessary knowledge and experience to be trusted with your health.

Licensed naturopathic physicians, on the other hand, have graduated from a four-year, on-site medical school, and have worked with several hundred patients at minimum before graduating.

A naturopathic doctor's license to practice medicine is issued by 14 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, Washington) as well as Washington. D.C., although naturopathic physicians may be found in all 50 states and abroad.

For the most part, naturopathic medicine is still not covered by most medical insurance, although there are exceptions. As many people have happily discovered, however, the out-of-pocket costs to a naturopath's patients are often much less than the out-of-pocket costs (that is deductibles and uncovered services and products) for fully insured people who go to conventional physicians and who need pharmaceuticals and hospital care.

That is, a naturopath's tools, which are basically materials found in nature, often plant materials, are so much less expensive than patented prescription drugs that many people end up paying less even without insurance.

These savings are magnified as time goes on, considering the much greater relative improvement in overall health of the naturopathic patient over the average person.

Herckleperckle
Member

11-20-2003

Friday, February 10, 2006 - 8:10 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Herckleperckle a private message Print Post    
Very helpful, objectively presented info, Dahli!

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Friday, February 10, 2006 - 2:16 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
I didn't even know there are naturopaths in the United States, much less that my state licenses them.