Naturopathic Medicine - Identify and address the underlying causes of illness

Naturopathic medicine is a distinct practice of medicine that emphasizes prevention and the self-healing process to treat each person holistically and improve outcomes while lowering health care costs.

Naturopathic doctors are educated and trained in accredited naturopathic medical colleges. They diagnose, prevent and treat acute and chronic illness, restore and establish optimal health by supporting the person's inherent self-healing process. Rather than just suppressing symptoms, naturopathic doctors work to identify underlying causes of illness, and develop personalized treatment plans to address them.

Numerous research studies of naturopathic treatments for common conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, chronic low back pain, and anxiety have shown that naturopathic medicine is both safe and effective.

Licensed NDs complete a rigorous, four-year, in-residence, science-based, post-graduate medical education at an accredited naturopathic medical school.

Medical malpractice insurance rates for naturopathic doctors are among the lowest of any medical services provider.

Few medical treatments are 100% safe, but some are safer than others.

To help you in taking charge of your health, naturopathic doctors:

• Work to identify underlying causes of illness, and develop personalized treatment plans to address them.
• Focus on prevention and empowering you to make lifestyle changes.
• Often spend 30-90 minutes with you and also want you to interact with them to make sure you thoroughly understand your overall health, chronic issues you might have, or diseases for which you might be at risk.
• Work closely with you over time to help ensure your success.

Six reasons to choose a naturopathic doctor are:

• You want a doctor who will treat all of you, not just your illness.
• You want personalized treatment.
• You want to treat the root cause of an illness, not just the symptoms.
• You want to actively participate in managing your own health.
• You have chronic pain and don’t want to use pharmaceutical drugs such as ibuprofen, acetaminophen, or highly addictive opioids to manage it forever.
• You have tried all conventional medical options for diagnosing and treating a health condition.

Naturopathic doctors (NDs) spend between one and two hours face-to-face with patients in an initial appointment, and 30 to 60 minutes in subsequent appointments. There are many factors that affect your health. Naturopathic doctors, who are trained to treat the whole person, take the time to explore as many of them as possible.

This framework, which also guides naturopathic doctors in clinical decision making, prioritizes minimally invasive therapies. These therapies are aimed at supporting the body’s health restoring and maintenance processes, as opposed to just reducing symptoms.

The extra time naturopathic doctors spend with you is often focused on identifying the underlying cause(s) of your health concerns, and empowering you to engage actively in restoring and managing your own health. Research shows that whole-person care often leads to high patient satisfaction and improved outcomes.

• NDs develop personalized pain management treatment plans.
• Treatment plans take into account the root causes of each person’s pain and all its manifestations.
• NDs use various combinations of dietary recommendations and nutritional supplements along with botanical medicines to help reduce inflammation and the pain it causes.
• Exercise, physical rehabilitation, and mind-body approaches that are known to reduce perception of pain are also included in the plans.

A naturopathic treatment approach for diabetes includes:

• Review of diet diary and/or blood sugar log.
• Dietary guidance to strive for more balanced blood sugar throughout the day.
• A thorough review of other systems impacted by diabetes, including the heart, kidney, liver, and brain.
• Lifestyle counseling strategies to engage patients in their own disease management and encourage lifestyle improvement.
• Preventative strategies to avoid disease worsening.
• Herbs and/or nutritional supplements to correct nutritional deficiencies and/or support blood sugar management.
• Consultation on medication management (including insulin).

• Whole-body health evaluation and care during perimenopause is vital, both to manage troubling symptoms, and to preventively address changes that can impact heart, bone, and brain health.
• Symptoms are varied, unpredictable, and often go unrecognized as perimenopause symptoms.
• NDs use a whole-body approach and natural therapies whenever possible.
• Naturopathic therapies help treat symptoms and provide proactive prevention to optimize health as the body ages.
• NDs are trained to use both conventionally available hormone therapy options and also specialty compounded hormone formulations, when appropriate.