Naturopathy
Simply put, naturopathic medicine is using natural treatments and the healing power of the body to treat illness, whether acute or chronic, instead of pharmaceutical drugs.
Individuals are first assessed according to naturopathic philosophy. Naturopathy’s chief concern is uncovering and treating the root of the problem as well as removing what are called “obstacles to cure”.
Many factors contribute to ill health and in practice, “the root” is rarely one factor. Instead it is a combination of factors – food, lifestyle, stress, sleep, negative thoughts/beliefs – that lead a person to experience health concerns.
Obstacles to cure are similar to the potential root causes in that the same factors mentioned above can be the obstacles to cure as well. For example, a lack of sleep may not have been an issue 10 years ago when a person’s health condition started, but if there is currently a lack of sleep/poor sleep quality, this would interfere with the body healing itself. This obstacle would need to be removed, ie. get sufficient sleep, in order for treatment to be effective.
It is not enough for someone to simply take some natural remedies and feel better while not addressing the root cause or obstacles to cure. Why? Because the underlying imbalances that have led to the health concern are still there. The imbalances are still active and sooner or later, another health concern will arise. This “new” health concern will stem from the root imbalance as before.
For many people, the day comes when new health concerns seem to be showing up fairly frequently. People will say “I’m falling apart!”. What is happening in these cases is that the imbalances in the body have reached a “threshold” and are now “spilling out” at a rate which is the person can no longer tolerate.
The Guiding Principles of Naturopathic Medicine
- First Do No Harm (Primum Non Nocere)
- Medicine should not attempt to help one part of your body while it hurts another.
The Healing Power of Nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae)
The body has amazing healing powers. We just need to get out of it’s way! Some examples of things that get in the body’s way are: stress and anxiety, lack of sleep, sub-optimal nutrition, lack of exercise, a weakened system and negative thinking. There are other factors as well, but these are a few of the biggest.
Identify and Treat the Cause (Tolle Causam)
The cause needs to be found in order to be able to heal the effect. The rule of cause and effect applies quite simply here: if the cause remains, so does the effect. The effect can be masked with medication (pharmaceutical or even with supplements), but it can only be masked – the underlying process will continue and will most likely show up again as a different condition/issue.
Treat the Whole Person
Just like our head is attached to our body (and vice versa), the health of our mind affects the health of our body and the health our body affects the health of our mind. If a person has digestive troubles, they are not a perfectly balanced person with a digestive system that is defective – they are a person who has digestive symptoms that are raising a red flag. These digestive symptoms are sounding an alarm: that there is a imbalance somewhere that needs to be addressed. As far as most digestive problems go, I find the cause is usually food and/or stress.
Doctor as Teacher (Docere)
It is important that patients understand what it is they are doing and why. It is important to me to teach each one of my patients the “why” so they can maintain their own health. Maintaining one’s health in today’s stressed out society can take quite a bit of effort – it’s easy to put effort into something when you understand why you are doing it and what you are getting from it.
Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Waiting until you get sick is the long route to health. Prevention is the short and relatively easy path. The best way to prevent disease and enjoy optimum health is to eat healthy food, live a healthy lifestyle and manage your stress level.