What is Naturopathic Medicine?
Naturopathic medicine is an all-encompassing, holistic form of medicine. The main goals of naturopathic medicine are to determine the actual cause of symptoms that are present, optimize health, and prevent future illness. If you go to your medical doctor with headaches or constipation there is a good chance they’ll prescribe anti-inflammatories or laxatives, respectively. If you go to a naturopathic doctor (ND), the ND will sit down with you and try to determine what’s causing the headaches or constipation, as there are usually several different possible causes for each condition. With this approach you’ll be able to find resolution for your ailment rather than have to depend on a medication and suffer the side effects.
Visits with a naturopathic doctor are usually 30 to 60 minutes long. With this extended amount of time ND's have the ability to do a thorough health history, physical exam and run the proper blood work to help determine the cause of your condition. As medical doctors are forced to shorten visits due to high demand, they are able to spend less time with their patients. This means some medications, which should be used temporarily as a crutch, are being used long-term and depended on indefinitely.
Just like most professions, all naturopathic doctors practice differently. Some will focus strictly on specific modalities like acupuncture or herbal medicine, while others will use a little bit of each modality as needed. My practice is more traditional and based on investigating, blood work, nutrition and lifestyle counselling.
Naturopathic medicine is commonly referred to as alternative medicine but a better term would be adjunctive or complimentary medicine. Most ND's prefer their patients to have an MD and it is common for ND’s to work with MD’s to provide the best of both worlds. Both medical doctors and naturopathic doctors have limitations but in working together these limitations are reduced significantly.
It’s important to know that some provinces and states are not regulated, so anyone, without any training could call themselves a naturopath. If a province or state is regulated it’s most likely naturopathic doctors will have title protection and will have had to complete a 4-year undergraduate university degree and then another 4 years at an AANMC-accredited school.
To check out more information on which areas are regulated click here.
To check out more information on what schools are accredited click here.
To check out the type of intensive education naturopaths have click here or here
Naturopathic doctors must complete 2 rigorous sets of exams called NPLEX1 and NPLEX2 after 2nd and 4th year respectively and OSCE’s are done throughout the program to ensure clinical skills are up to par.
All NDs are held accountable by the regulatory board of their province. Ontario’s regulatory board is call the College of Naturopaths of Ontario (CONO). Naturopaths must keep current by completing an extensive amount of continued education hours as well.
Visits with a naturopathic doctor are usually 30 to 60 minutes long. With this extended amount of time ND's have the ability to do a thorough health history, physical exam and run the proper blood work to help determine the cause of your condition. As medical doctors are forced to shorten visits due to high demand, they are able to spend less time with their patients. This means some medications, which should be used temporarily as a crutch, are being used long-term and depended on indefinitely.
Just like most professions, all naturopathic doctors practice differently. Some will focus strictly on specific modalities like acupuncture or herbal medicine, while others will use a little bit of each modality as needed. My practice is more traditional and based on investigating, blood work, nutrition and lifestyle counselling.
Naturopathic medicine is commonly referred to as alternative medicine but a better term would be adjunctive or complimentary medicine. Most ND's prefer their patients to have an MD and it is common for ND’s to work with MD’s to provide the best of both worlds. Both medical doctors and naturopathic doctors have limitations but in working together these limitations are reduced significantly.
It’s important to know that some provinces and states are not regulated, so anyone, without any training could call themselves a naturopath. If a province or state is regulated it’s most likely naturopathic doctors will have title protection and will have had to complete a 4-year undergraduate university degree and then another 4 years at an AANMC-accredited school.
To check out more information on which areas are regulated click here.
To check out more information on what schools are accredited click here.
To check out the type of intensive education naturopaths have click here or here
Naturopathic doctors must complete 2 rigorous sets of exams called NPLEX1 and NPLEX2 after 2nd and 4th year respectively and OSCE’s are done throughout the program to ensure clinical skills are up to par.
All NDs are held accountable by the regulatory board of their province. Ontario’s regulatory board is call the College of Naturopaths of Ontario (CONO). Naturopaths must keep current by completing an extensive amount of continued education hours as well.
A Brief Summary by the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors
Naturopathic medicine is a distinct primary health care system that combines modern scientific knowledge with traditional and natural forms of medicine. The naturopathic philosophy is to stimulate the healing power of the body. In order to do this you must identify and treat the underlying cause of disease. Symptoms are seen as warning signals of improper functioning of the body, and unfavourable lifestyle habits. Naturopathic Medicine emphasizes disease as an imbalance rather than as an entity.
Treating both acute and chronic conditions, naturopathic treatments are chosen based on the individual patient – their physiological, structural, psychological, social, spiritual, environment and lifestyle factors. In addition to diet and lifestyle changes, natural therapies including botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, hydrotherapy, homeopathy, naturopathic manipulation and traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture, may also be used during treatments.
In Canada, the naturopathic medical profession’s infrastructure includes accredited educational institutions, professional licensing, national standards of practice, participation in many federal health committee initiatives, and a commitment to state-of-the-art scientific research.
An Ant Analogy
Take for instance you have a house that is infested with Ants.
Most medications are similar to just stomping on the ants that you see and replacing the parts of the house that are chewed.
This process as we know is redundant, you'll just have to keep coming back to stomp those ants and replace parts.
Naturopathic medicine takes the time to find out their source, why and how they are entering and make sure they can't get in anymore.
This process takes much longer but the problem would actually be gone in the end.
Most medications are similar to just stomping on the ants that you see and replacing the parts of the house that are chewed.
This process as we know is redundant, you'll just have to keep coming back to stomp those ants and replace parts.
Naturopathic medicine takes the time to find out their source, why and how they are entering and make sure they can't get in anymore.
This process takes much longer but the problem would actually be gone in the end.