Frequently Asked Questions

Is Naturopathic Medicine covered by OHIP? 
  • Naturopathic Medicine is not covered by OHIP but most employee benefit plans cover Naturopathic Medicine to a certain extent (usually ~$500 per year) and I do direct billing for most of those companies. 
Do my benefits cover Naturopathic Medicine? 
  • Most benefit companies will cover Naturopathic Services. Some companies will cover blood work 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. 
Is Naturopathic Medicine regulated in Ontario? 
  • 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. Problems can occur in non-regulated provinces/states, since anyone can call themselves a naturopathic doctor without accredited (4 years plus licensing exams) training. 
Is Naturopathy evidence-based medicine? 
  • 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, acupuncture, some herbs, to name a few). Some aspects of Naturopathic Medicine are experience-based. If I see patterns clinically like the removal dairy helping 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
Should I tell my Doctor that I'm going to see you?
  • It's up to you! There is 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. 
Do I need a referral from my medical doctor?
  • No
How is a Naturopathic Doctor different than a Medical Doctor?
  • 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 treat 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. 
*If you've ever heard anything bad about naturopathic medicine I encourage you to talk to people who have experience with it, and experience it for yourself. There are a lot of skeptics out there who have it out for Naturopathic Doctors. We could go over case after case that have shown health improvements but these skeptics have their minds made up. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it gets frustrating when people do not seek out naturopathic medicine because of these people. Because of these skeptics, so many people are suffering from their chronic disease and not working with an ND to investigate and eliminate the cause of their condition. 
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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!