Part I: Naturopathic Medicine: Relating the Naturopathic Doctor to the Person

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I cannot count the number of times over my last 10 years in practice how often this has come up. As more and more people come to rely on the fundamental truth of naturopathic medicine based on the impact they have seen and experience, the basic understanding of naturopathic medicine is becoming more and more a common place. However, if you a reading this, there are people like you that have not had the opportunity to become fully aware.

Naturopathic medicine is a distinct primary health care system, akin to going to a family medical doctor, that blends scientific knowledge with traditional and natural forms of medicine. The big difference for most people’s understanding comes in the philosophy, as most of us began to learn early in our youth the allopathic (western medical paradigm) system, and thus what we usually compare all other forms of health care. So, let us start there.

The naturopathic philosophy is to stimulate the body’s ability to heal itself and to treat the underlying cause of disease.

The first part of that statement is huge divergence from modern western medicine mostly because the majority of the system is set up treat with emergency medicine. The time when your body has become overwhelmed and cannot recover without aide. However, this approach does not work well with chronic diseases. If you cut yourself, and it is not life threatening, what causes it to heal? Your own body of course. Now some people will heal faster than others and some may not be able to heal within a reasonable time. There are many factors that will influence the body’s ability to heal, including the level of vitality of the person who suffered the injury. This is the basis of chronic disease. In other words, what is the base line of that individual’s health.

• are they sleeping enough?
• are they eating nutritious dense foods, are those foods producing sensitivities?
• are they under a lot of stress?
• are there significant events leading up to poor health?
• are they well supported with a strong community of family and friends?
• do they have poor or addictive behaviors
• have they had a significant or chronic medical history

There are many more factors to consider, a Naturopathic Doctor will take the time to ask many questions in order have a complete understanding of your medical history and what led to your current concerns. The focus is not one health concern per visit model because you simply cannot understand the underlying causes to disease without a whole approach also known as a holistic approach. Symptoms of disease are seen as a warning signals of improper functioning of the body resulting from unfavorable lifestyle habits. They offer clues to the actual causes.

The goal of the Naturopathic Doctor is to teach the individual how to sustain their health, even though they may need the assistance of natural interventions in the beginning. In addition to diet and lifestyle changes, natural therapies include:

• botanical medicine
• clinical nutrition
• hydrotherapy
• homeopathy
• naturopathic manipulation
• IV’s and injections
• Traditional Chinese medicine/acupuncture

The ultimate goal is to use these interventions to first strengthen your body’s ability to heal and then ultimately maintain a symptom free self-regulating body without continuous life-long intervention. The goal is not to have you on “xyz” for the rest of your life.

Treating both acute and chronic conditions, naturopathic treatments are chosen based on the individual patient and their current needs. That is to say, we ask the patient what their primary goals are and what are they able to do at that particular time. There is no sense of adopting a treatment plan that does not align with a person’s value system. The success of an intervention plan depends on compliance and compliance depends on what the person is truly able to do at that particular time.

Naturopathic Doctors provide tailored interventions for the individual, treating both acute and chronic conditions. There are 3 major types of patients that seek naturopathic medical care:

1. Patients who are looking for health promotion and disease prevention. They recognize that health doesn’t happen by chance, that it is a lifelong process that involves a clear understanding of the factors that affect health and how to deal with them on a daily basis.
2. Patients that have a range of symptoms that have not been able to be properly address either on their own or with the help of other medical practitioners. Having a broad understanding of health and its relationship with life and environment, Naturopathic Doctors are often able to offer a new perspective with safe and effective ways to restore health.
3. Patients that have been diagnosed with an illness and are looking for treatment options. Naturopathic medicine is very effective in improving quality of life for those with serious and life threatening illnesses. It is used extensively and effectively for those patients that are looking to combine western medicine and naturopathic treatment with the aim of minimizing side effects to drugs, surgery and other treatments causing side effects.

Naturopathic medicine is powerful because it uses the greatest healing tool we have at our disposal, the human body, mind and soul. It is unwavering in finding fundamental causes that are preventing or obstructing our best tool to heal.

So now that you have a better understanding of Naturopathic medicine, is this the right fit for you? Is it time to begin “taking care of yourself”?

I have been helping many people over the last 10 years, many who were at the end of their rope, thinking that they had run out of options and that “this” was it for the rest of their life.

Because I am ready and willing to help you if you are!

Dr. Derek Cook, ND