In short, naturopathic doctors or NDs design treatments that work with your vital force. Our patients’ mental, physical, and spiritual wellnesses are considered to create true healing systems that stimulate, increase, and support your body’s natural restorative abilities.

Naturopathic doctors are trained at accredited, four-year, post-graduate, residential medical programs. There, anatomy, cardiology, gastroenterology, gynecology, immunology, microbiology, physiology, pathology, clinical and physical diagnosis, and laboratory diagnosis, etc. are studied in academic and clinical settings. NDs are trained to perform diagnosis through physical exams, laboratory testing, gynecological exams, nutritional and dietary assessments, allergy testing, imaging, and other means. Naturopaths refer patients to other specialists and healthcare providers for diagnosis and treatment if and when needed.

NDs are experts in natural therapies and offer a wide range of treatment options including clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, counseling, and additional disciplines or modalities like acupuncture and clinical hypnosis. NDs are aware of drug/nutrient and drug/herb interactions and ensure that natural treatments do not counter-act or cause harm
when combined with conventional treatments.

The Healing Power of Nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae)
This principal of Naturopathic Medicine refers to not only your body’s natural ability to heal itself, but also to natural remedies used to restore balance. Naturopathic medicine regards your body’s order and intelligence as a guide, and these do not exist in a vacuum. Herbs, Yoga, and even simple conversation are powerful, natural tools for healing.

Identify and Treat the Cause (Tolle Causam)
It is impossible to recover from an illness, if the underlying cause remains unaddressed. Communication is a key aspect of naturopathic treatment. An ND will work with you to understand why symptoms emerged. Treatment is never a means for suppressing symptoms. Instead, a naturopathic doctor will direct treatment toward the root cause of illness be it physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual.

First Do No Harm (Primum No Nocere)
Naturopathic doctors follow three principles to avoid harming the patient. The first is to employ methods and medicines that minimize the risk of harmful side effects. The second is to avoid the harmful suppression of symptoms. The third is to respect the individual’s healing process by using the least force necessary for diagnosis and treatment.

Treat the Whole Person (Tolle Totum)
NDs approach healing holistically. Poor health and wellness alike affect the functioning of all of your body’s systems. Disharmony and imbalance yield sickness, while harmony and balance yield wellness. Naturopathic doctors take a comprehensive approach to diagnosis and treatment to ensure safe and effective healing.

The Physician as Teacher (Docere)
As teachers, NDs empower and motivate patients to take responsibility for their own health by engaging patients’ awareness of their own wellbeing. A naturopathic doctor will listen to and examine a patient carefully. Then, an ND can provide the patient with the knowledge needed to recognize imbalance and to bring about healthful change.

Prevention (The Best Cure)
The naturopathic focus is on building health, rather than fighting disease. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is sufficient for avoiding numerous health issues. Risks factors and heredity are also considered by NDs, and appropriate interventions are designed to prevent illness.

To learn more about how Naturopathic Doctors approach treatment, you can browse the tabs above, contact our office, or leave a comment below.

An Approach to Life

This is an exciting moment in the history of medicine! Now, more than ever, individuals are able to access an array of methods for sustaining and restoring health. Treatments ranging from A (aromatherapy) to Z (Zen) meditation are hunkered under the umbrella of holism. The term “holistic” is often used as a synonym for alternative therapies, but “holistic health” is not a categorical term, as such.

Holistic health is simply an approach to life. As far back as 5,000 years ago, healing systems in China and India called attention to the importance of living in harmony with nature. Holistic practitioners today are able to integrate this ancient wisdom with modern medical understanding to focus on each person as a whole, unique being interacting with the environment.

Conventional Medicine and the Holistic Approach: What’s the Difference?

A holistic approach to wellness does not mean turning away from therapies provided by modern medicine today. Comparing and contrasting conventional medicine and a holistic approach through the example of a common health issue-like high cholesterol – demonstrates how one is not opposite nor separate from the other.

High cholesterol affects 1 in 5 U.S. adults. People with high cholesterol have a much greater risk of encountering severe health problems. For this reason, drugs like Lipitor and Zocor are often prescribed immediately to reduce the possibility of complications like heart attach, stroke, and vascular disease. Like jumper cables for your car battery, these drugs jolt your body back into a functional state. This can be very helpful.

To continue with the car analogy-drugs for high cholesterol are designed to get you from the side of the highway to your home, work, or the mechanic’s shop safely. There, you can assess the car’s electrical problem in-full and proceed to make repairs. It would be nonsensical and possibly damaging to jump the car’s battery everyday.

LOOKING AT THE BIG PICTURE
Encourage the Body’s Natural Instinct to Heal Itself

Holism – n. the theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts.

A high cholesterol reading is only a sign of a larger imbalance. Like the mechanic who takes pains to diagnose exactly how and why a car’s electrical system has failed, a holistic health practitioner will want to know how the interlocking systems of your mind, body, and spirit influence any health problem that you might experience.

Holistic treatment starts with the premise that your body already knows what it needs to sustain health and that poor health is your body’s way of communicating that it is in need. This means that patient and doctor must ban together to deal with the root cause of an illness. Patient involvement is essential for developing and orchestrating holistic treatment systems.

A health concern like high cholesterol can be the result of numerous physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual factors. A drug that jumpstarts health is only designed to be helpful in preventing serious implications in the short-term. This collaborative style of holistic healing achieves sustainable health by treating physical disharmonies from the inside out.

Asking the right questions and actively listening are the most important services that a holistic practitioner can provide. Are emotional problems contributing to poor eating habits, or is anxiety causing your cholesterol to sky-rocket? When the source of imbalance is truly understood, treatment is adapted to meet your specific needs.

If you are seeking a personal and sustainable health solution and would like more information about what you’ve read in this blog, please contact my office or shoot over an email. We at IMS are open to any and all comments, questions, and conversations!