A View on Naturopathy

Today's Naturopathic Insights guest contributor is Lena K. from Boston, MA with a policy statement on naturopathic medicine.

• Identifying the Problem

In the United States, people rely heavily on conventional medicine, often resulting in the overuse of prescription drugs. While therapeutic drug treatments may be both effective tools of healthcare as well as being cost effective, often replacing the need for costly surgical procedures, people’s increasing reliance on them suggests an unhealthy dependency. Moreover, consumer’s increasing demand for quick fixes is increasingly being met by doctors who are overburdened with a growing waiting room of patients. The trend is such that people no longer care about safe-guarding their own health as much as alleviating their symptoms. The current healthcare approach has therefore placed greater emphasis on a person’s symptoms and how best to eradicate them, than on the overall health and well-being of the person in question. First and foremost, this is a problem in the way people think about their own health and the kind of priorities they place on their healthcare services.

• Creating a Solution – The Vision of Naturopathy

“To transform the healthcare system from a disease management system to a comprehensive health program incorporating the principles of naturopathic medicine.”

– Mission Statement, American Association of Naturopathic Physicians

It is the position of physicians who practice Naturopathic medicine that this attitude and outlook towards life and health must change in order to see the improved health and vitality of a people. While conventional medicine is important and its advances and benefits to mankind should not be underscored, natural medicine offers a new way of thinking about health. Naturopathic medicinal theory posits that in many non-emergency circumstances, man has the ability to heal himself. Furthermore, by providing the right circumstances and conditions, the body has the ability to perform at its best and fight off common disease and ailments. This outlook and lifestyle is the difference between being of average health and being in the best possible condition; the difference between feeling ok and feeling full of energy without having to drink a single cup of coffee.

In this manner, Naturopathic Medicine is not only a type of alternative medicine, but it is equally an alternative lifestyle. It stresses people taking responsibility for their own personal health by altering their lifestyle to make themselves healthier, instead of waiting for a doctor to determine how they should do so. Such lifestyle changes range from the minor, such as drinking less, to the more extreme, such as maintaining a diet of only organic foods. But ultimately, Naturopathy prescribes to the idea that in order to be healthy people should take better care of themselves by watching what they put into their bodies and how they treat their bodies.

Examples of conditions that should be improved to improve overall health include examining the types of foods that are eaten, specifically looking for any harmful contents, the overuse of drugs or other harmful substances, constant stress, lack of exercise, and overuse of pharmaceuticals to cover up ailments. Naturopathy also prescribes to the idea that natural substances and methods, such as vitamins and plant extracts with healing properties can effectively deal with internal ailments, while acupuncture and chiropractic services can manipulate the physical ailments of the body. Naturopathy is all encompassing in this sense, and quite literally examines the patient in his or her entirety rather than simply focusing on a localized complaint. Naturopathic physicians go about treating patients in the manner described above on the basis of the Guiding Principles of Naturopathic Medicine:

• First, do no harm

• The healing power of nature

• Identify and treat the causes

• Doctor as a teacher

• Treat the whole person

• Prevention

So not only is the aim to provide better conditions for health, but also to create better educated and more responsible consumers of healthcare services. This is a notable departure from the aims of conventional medicine, which often stresses particular issues and not a person’s overall health and knowledge. Yet people should know their bodies, and should have an understanding of how their ailments affect them in order to make more informed and effective decisions about the type of healthcare offered to them. People have a right to know what they are putting in their bodies, whether this applies to certain types of drugs or even the contents of their food.

Naturopathic Physicians are unique in their mandate to help people make lifestyle changes. They are able to identify how best to establish a new level of health for their patients by providing a comprehensive health analysis based on the Guiding Principles of Naturopathic Medicine. Naturopathic Physicians will continue to work towards shifting people’s understanding of health from one that simply alleviates symptoms to one that treats the entirety of the person.

Works Cited

American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. AANP 2006. Retrieved Feb. 3. 2009. http://www.naturopathic.org/viewbulletin.php?id=206.