Understanding Naturopathy

Naturopathy is based on scientific tradition to promote wellness by exploring unique aspects of the patient and administering natural therapies without any toxic content to restore the patient’s psychological, physiological and structural balance.

In broad terms, naturopathic medicines are defined as a distinct system for primary health care, a science, an art, philosophy as well as practice of diagnosing, treating and preventing illness. Naturopathic medicines are also distinguished using principles that the practice relies upon. These principles are also subjected to continuous re-examination to tune in with scientific advancements. The techniques used by naturopaths (those who practice naturopathy) include scientific, traditional, modern as well as empirical methods.

Training received by naturopaths

Practitioners of naturopathy receive similar training as general practitioners with specialization in natural medicine. Further, they co-operate with other branches of medicine with no hesitation to refer patients to other medical professionals for treatment or diagnosis when considered appropriate. The qualification of a naturopathic practitioner is ND or Doctor of Naturopathic medicine and involves a 4 year study in a medical college. Admission requirements for the study compare well with conventional medical education. The 4 year study covers biochemistry, cardiology, gynaecology, pathology, immunology, paediatrics, pharmacology and neurology.

Apart from the standard curriculum for medical studies, students of naturopathy should also do elaborate coursework in natural therapeutics. This will include therapies from botanical medicines, clinical nutrition, physical medicine, homeopathy, lifestyle counselling, exercise therapy and hydrotherapy (using water in treating diseases or disorders)

SA Wellness Centre is an Australian Naturopathy treatment provider, based out of South Adelaide and has been a sought after destination for naturopathy treatments

Principles of naturopathy

Naturopathy follows a series of key principles:

1. Nature’s power to heal — The body has its inherent ability for maintaining and restoring health. Naturopathic physicians facilitate this process by getting rid of the obstacles for curing and identifying treatments that enhance healing.
2. Identifying and treating the cause — Naturopathic physicians focus on treating underlying cause of illness than the mere symptoms. Symptoms are mere external manifestation of internal imbalances on account of any combination of mental, physical, or emotional causes. While managing symptoms can be important, the underlying cause should gain precedence.
3. Gentle, effective, non-invasive therapies with no harmful side effects. Naturopaths focus on methods that will not suppress the symptoms.
4. Physician as teacher — The word ‘doctor’ comes from its Latin root docere meaning ‘to teach’. A naturopath’s primary role therefore is to educate, motivate and empower patients to be more responsible for their health through the adoption of healthy lifestyle, attitude and diet. Thomas Edison once commented that future doctors would not administer any medicine but will kindle interest in patients to maintain the human frame in diet as well as preventing diseases. Teaching patients is more effective compared to treating.
5. Treating the individual as a whole — Naturopaths identify specific dysfunctions or weaknesses in the patient and tailor treatments based on the individual presentation of the patient. They consider the patient as needing treatment and not the symptom or state of the disease. Naturopaths are keen on finding the characteristic symptoms defining the patient and treating them than the common symptoms which define a disease.
6. Prevention: It is much cheaper and easier to prevent diseases than treating diseases. Naturopaths evaluate objective and subjective information essential for uncovering potential susceptibilities to disease states in the patient, in future. They can also advise specific nutritional supplements or lifestyle strategies as a measure of disease prevention.

How naturopathic medicines impact your wellbeing and health

Often times, naturopaths are successful in treating chronic problems that fail to respond to traditional medicine. This includes, but not limited to: pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and disorders of the digestive system. They can respond to individual needs of the patients and evolve a treatment plan including botanical medicine, diet therapy and nutritional supplements. The art of healing is well understood by naturopaths and that is well above merely dispensing a nutritional supplement or herbal remedy. They comprehend the context of illness in patients and that takes time listening to the story of the patient. Patience is a key attribute that is essential for naturopathic treatment and that should also be supplemented by good communication. Most patients do know their problem and what should be done, but they cannot translate the knowledge into an effective action plan. Naturopaths can fill this void translating the patient’s story and assigning priorities among multiple options that may come up. They will also take time before coming up with answers to questions posed by the patients.

Is naturopathy supported by good evidence?

In conventional healthcare, evidence base is reckoned as the paradigm and this has been a suggested method for natural medicine. Randomized and controlled trial is the underlying foundation of evidence based medicine which is indeed valuable in individual cases and for evaluating single treatments. Randomized and controlled trials do exist suggesting that naturopathy treatments like nutritional therapies, botanical medicine, physiotherapy and acupuncture are effective for treating certain conditions like migraine, fibromyalgia, depression, asthma, headaches, type II diabetes and hypertension.

Though these randomized and controlled trials are indeed effective for testing single treatment options, they may not qualify to be the best means of judging multiple treatment options for patients with several diseases and/or disorders. For this reason among others, some scientists opine that evidence based treatment should include research evidence as also clinical expertise alongside patient preferences. For instance, a Vitamin B , riboflavin has been seen to reduce duration and frequency of migraine attacks during controlled trials , when the medicine was used for 3 months in a row. Therefore, a naturopath will use riboflavin often as a component of a treatment plan. The treatment may also include omega 3 fatty acids in order to reduce inflammation or prescribe an elimination diet to understand possible chemical or food triggers. Individual patients can also have varying triggers and it could be MSG while wheat can be the culprit for some others. Taking note of individual responses constitute an essential part of reckoning patient preferences.

Summing up, naturopathic medicine represents personalized medicine which may not always adhere strictly to treatments on the basis of randomized and controlled trials in isolation.