Naturopathic Medicine

Credentials: Naturopathic Doctor (ND.)

Naturopathic medicine has its roots in the fields of diet, nutrition, exercise and herbal medicine. The term “naturopathy” was first used by an American, John Scheel, in the 1890s, and the first official naturopathic medical school was opened in New York in 1905. Many of those in North America and abroad who became naturopathic doctors were medical doctors dismayed by the methods, toxic medicines and harmful results that traditional allopathic medical practices had inflicted on patients. Interested in finding safer alternatives and more natural methods, they discovered that correcting the diet, engaging in daily exercise, making certain lifestyle changes and using therapeutic hydrotherapy (hot and cold baths and mineral springs) could lead to a marked improvement in an individual’s health. Naturopathic doctors also utilized herbal botanical medicines, emphasizing the prescription of herbs that grew locally.

Treatment Principles and Methods:

  • Support and encourage the innate healing powers of the body via nature’s own medicines and methods.
  • Utilize the healing power and resources of nutrition and nature
  • Evaluate nutritional status, diet and food choices.
  • Test for toxic buildup of metals, chemicals and other industrial pollutants within the body.
  • Assess function and ecology of the digestive system and intestinal integrity.
  • Screen for emotional, mental or situational stresses that may be contributing to illness.

Consequences:

  • Allows the body to recover naturally in its own way and at its own rate.
  • Establishes healthy dietary and exercise habits that can provide a foundation for good health over a lifetime.
  • Emphasizes maintenance of health and prevention of illness (which should be the focus of every path of medicine).

Pros:

  • Natural healing leads to a stronger body, mind and spirit.
  • Healthy habits and patterns create and sustain health over a lifetime.

Cons:

  • None. If the N.D. is able to prescribe the correct homeopathic “constitutional” remedy, in addition to utilizing the other modalities of diet, nutrition and supplementation, then you have a physician with a very broad and great set of skills and knowledge with no deficiency or downside.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.” — Thomas Edison, 1903