What is Naturopathy?
Naturopathic Medicine's central philosophy is to view the body as an integrated whole of Mind, Body and Spirit. The whole is always more than a simple sum of our body parts, hence the term "holistic" is often associated with our profession. Today, naturopathy is a science-based medical practice that uses comprehensive laboratory assessments in its system of therapeutics to identify the body's needs.
The choices of treatments, then, are natural. This includes, but is not limited to: oral or intravenous vitamins, minerals and/or amino acids to address nutritional deficiencies, herbal medicine or homeopathy to address the causes of illness, physical medicine or acupuncture for pain management, and counseling to help the mind find peace. Combined together, the patient's overall lifestyle is modified for better wellness.
"First, do no harm" is a key phrase attributed to the noted ancient Greek physician and "father of medicine", Hippocrates, and to this date it still serves as the foundational ethical code for the practice of Naturopathic Medicine. We do our best to minimize pain and damage to the integrity of the body when administering our treatments. All of our bodies carry a "vital force" and naturopathy’s approach to health hinges on this vital force, engaging it in the healing process by using natural, least invasive, and least toxic therapies. We treat the entire person, with inclusive regard to psycho-spiritual factors, and not just the physical body. In this conservative and respectful way, we can effectively treat illness to restore overall health and wellness.
Naturopathic doctors also view themselves as teachers and we believe that the creation of a Doctor-Patient team to educate the patient on his/her health status and personal therapeutic responsibilities is the best path towards an optimal result in the patient's treatment program. Our relationships with our patients are nurtured through compassionate listening and thorough communication. We take our time to comprehensively understand your health concerns within the whole context of your lifestyle background and history. Our assessments are aided by highly-detailed blood or other lab analyses. Only with this multi-level approach are we able to reliably identify root causes that have led to your health condition, and subsequently formulate a therapeutic plan that is unique to you.
In many cases, people are also looking for ways to prevent diseases before they occur and naturopathy offers a variety of science-based solutions to help people maintain their most valuable treasure – HEALTH.