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Naturopathic
Medicine: What’s Different About It? |
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If you are visiting about multiple problems or a long term, complex,
chronic condition, I will take a week or more to collect the information
I need to create a multi-faceted plan for your recovery. My treatment plans are anywhere from one to 10 or more pages long. They are designed to give you information and choices. We will review the plan together and decide which aspects to begin with. You will have the advantage of the other parts of the plan in written form, so that as you progress you will know up front the additional possibilities to move on to are. I want you to make the changes you plan suggests because you are curious about and interested in trying it; I never want you to do anything just because I said to. I want you to have all the information you need to make changes because the reason for it makes sense to you. That will mean you are willing to read, to ask questions, and learn new things and practice, practice, practice new skills. Naturopathic Treatment Philosophy When I think about your situation, I am guided by a set of principles, or rules that make naturopathic medicine the kind of health care system that it is. Naturopathic medical practice is rooted in the idea that living organisms are self-healing. Mechanisms to recover from insult and injury are automatically included as standard equipment in the basic design of all living beings. A naturopathic physician understands illness to be a disruption of our optimally orderly functions; healing is the process by which living systems return to balanced function, either on their own or with the assistance of some helper. Naturopathic medicine is sometimes called “wholistic medicine”. Wholistic medicine means creating a partnership between doctor and patient in which all aspects of the patient’s life circumstances can be considered, and all possible treatments examined for whatever help they may offer. There are five basic rules that govern treatment decisions for a naturopathic physician. First, we assume that there is a reliable, inborn intelligence that guides everyone’s self-renewing capacity. We call this principle the vis medicatrix naturae, or the healing power of nature. We use our understanding of this reliable, orderly, internal feature to make treatment recommendations that will support it. A second principle states that no treatment should further disrupt a system that is trying to regain it’s own balance. Otherwise known as primum non nocere or first, do no harm, this idea leads us to choose treatments that do the least harm according to the circumstances the patients find themselves in. Sometimes that means recommending more exercise, or particular herbs or nutritional supplements. Sometimes this means supporting a person to undergo surgery or chemotherapy. What is least harmful is decided on based on the whole context of the person’s life circumstance at the time of treatment. The naturopathic physician seeks to understand all of the causes that are disrupting the patient’s optimal health, in order to treat the whole person. In this process the doctor acts as a teacher, offering information that supports the patients efforts to learn the skill and responsibilities for on-going self care. This kind of mutual participation in the restoration of health means each doctor-patient exchange offers the patient a growing independence and more skills for their future, when prevention becomes the focus of the doctor patient relationship. |
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