Frequently Asked Questions
(TMALSS = To make a long story short)
Is Naturopathic Medicine covered by OHIP?
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me via the contact section above or the email below.
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- TMALSS: No
- Naturopathic Medicine is not covered by OHIP but most employee benefit plans cover Naturopathic Medicine to a certain extent (usually ~$500 per year).
- TMALSS: Most benefit packages cover Naturopathic Medicine services.
- Most benefit companies will cover Naturopathic Services. Some companies will cover supplements and diagnostics but the majority only cover services. You can check your booklet that was provided by your insurance company or give them a call to find out. I do direct billing for most insurance companies so you don't have to pay out of pocket.
- TMALSS: Yes
- CONO is the regulatory board for Ontario. Naturopathic Doctors are regulated under the Registered Health Practitioners Act as of July 1st, 2015. This means only licensed ND's can practice Naturopathic Medicine and no one else can call themselves a Naturopathic Doctor. Naturopathic Doctors are also regulated in BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Other provinces are in the process of being regulated.
- TMALSS: Yes and No
- I can't say everything that we do is evidence-based. A large part of Naturopathic Medicine is evidence-based (lifestyle counseling, pathology/diagnosis, nutrition, supplementation, pharmacology, acupuncture, some herbs, to name a few). Some aspects of Naturopathic Medicine are experience-based. If I see patterns clinically like the removal dairy curing constipation, I'm not going to ignore that because there aren't any research papers backing it. While it is nice to have evidence and research behind everything, it's not always necessary. Research requires a lot of money for the most part and researchers can easily get their studies to say whatever they would like or discard the studies that didn't produce favourable results. If there isn't an enormous company funding a research project there is a high chance the research will not meet the required standards in order to be published. Also, if you can't put a patent on something the chances of research studies being done on it are slim to nil. In summary, ND's do practice evidence-based medicine for the most part but some therapies lack "evidence" and have been passed on anecdotally. Please watch this video for more detail on "evidence-based medicine"
- Also check this article out
- TMALSS: It's up to you
- There lays a large spectrum from MD's who became ND's to MD's who have never heard of Naturopathic Medicine. As time goes by MD's seem to be getting more and more comfortable with Naturopathic Medicine. I would attribute this rise of comfort to MD's learning more about Naturopathic Medicine and possibly anecdotes of their patients returning to them after visiting an ND. Some patients choose to not tell their Family Doctor that they are seeing a Naturopath but I prefer when the MD knows their patient is seeing an ND and even further I appreciate being in communication with my patients' Family Doctors so we can provide joint care. The more connected ND's and MD's become and cooperate with each other the better care patients will receive and the less MD's will feel like ND's are competing with them or stepping on their toes.
- No
- All MD's practice differently from each other just as all ND's practice differently from each other so I have to generalize a bit. This answer could go on forever but to sum it up ND's treat the whole person while MD's usually only treat one symptom at a time. ND's try to find the cause of symptoms while MD's give medications to suppress the symptoms (except for infections and cancer). Regular visits with an ND are approximately an hour long while MD visits average from 7-15 minutes. MD's learn a lot more pharmacology than ND's while ND's learn more about nutrition and other therapies. MD's focus more on acute or emergent conditions while ND's focus more on chronic disease and prevention (ND's do treat acute conditions but sometimes natural therapies will take longer than conventional therapies). MD's are able to do minor surgery in Ontario while ND's are not. Feel free to ask me more about this topic since the breadth of it is quite extensive. ND's focus more on quality of life, where MD's focus more on making sure you're not going to die anytime soon.
- TMALSS: Homeopathy is one modality that some Naturopaths use
- Homeopathy is a specific type of energetic medicine. Naturopaths learn about homeopathy but Homeopaths do not learn about naturopathic medicine necessarily, unless they attend naturopathic college. A homeopathic remedy is a sugar pellet with the energy of certain substances. There is a lot of skepticism regarding homeopathy and it is commonly mistaken for naturopathy. Before I actually used homeopathy in practice I regretted having to learn it and I had a very negative opinion towards it. Once I started seeing the benefits of homeopathy in practice I gained a lot of respect for the effects it can have physically, mentally and emotionally. It's unjust for skeptics to claim it doesn't work by simply swallowing a bunch of pellets. The homeopathic intake on its own can be the most important and therapeutic aspect of homeopathic medicine. I've personally seen homeopathic remedies help babies out with teething, reduce pain to the point where narcotics and NSAIDs could be used less, decrease the size of bartholin gland cysts, remove warts, some pretty cool cases.
- TMALSS: No
- I am able to provide adjunctive care while a patient is going through chemotherapy or radiation but I would never advise a patient against chemotherapy or radiation. Addressing certain side effects of cancer and its treatments along with emotional and psychosocial aspects of individuals who are affected by cancer are main indications of adjunctive care. There are several things we can do to lessen the risks of getting cancer but no promises can be made, some individuals have genetic predispositions that make them more susceptible to cancer. ND's are also educated in what treatments would interact with chemotherapy agents.
- TMALSS: No
- Fortunately as time goes by I'm beginning to hear this question less and less. The common denominator between people who claim this and people who ask it is that they have no clue what Naturopathic Medicine is. I think I'm hearing this question less and less because more people are educating themselves and Naturopathy is growing rapidly. In the past skeptics have spent a lot of time confusing Naturopathy with Homeopathy as well as claiming Naturopathy does not work but as time goes by and people are seeing positive results and encouraging open-mindedness. I encourage anyone with doubt to come see me to actually experience Naturopathic Medicine rather than rejecting what they don't understand.
- TMALSS: No ND should ever tell their patient to stop taking a medication. If necessary, the ND will work in concert with the patient's MD to assist the patient in weaning their medication down. Otherwise the ND should be reported.
- ND's are trained in Pharmacology and are aware of the terrible effects of coming off of medications. If the ND thinks the patient is ready to reduce the dose of certain medications the ND will communicate this to the patient's MD (with the patient's permission). The ND and MD will then come up with a weaning schedule and will support the patient accordingly. I have had a couple of people tell me this and after discussing this, the person always realizes it wasn't actually an ND their friend was seeing.
If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me via the contact section above or the email below.
Thanks for reading!