What is Naturopathic Medicine?
Naturopathic medicine, like East Asian medicine, is a system of healing that looks beyond the Western diagnosis to the imbalances and patterns in our bodies, emotions and thoughts that underlie disease. As a Naturopathic physician I am trained in performing physical exams and in ordering and interpreting lab values and medical imaging, and have a strong background in Western diagnosis of disease, so I can speak the same language as your other health care providers and can work with them to coordinate your treatment.
However when treating you I will often use homeopathy and herbal medicine, and will give you advice on how to incorporate healthy eating, exercise, and home remedies such as hydrotherapy in your life in order to create greater balance, and give you more control over your health and well being.
Here’s a few things that I might recommend to you if you come in for a visit…
Diet
What we eat often has a profound effect on how we feel. Over the years I’ve seen diet modifications create some of the most profound shifts in health of anything that I recommend in my practice. I work with people to tailor dietary modifications to what will work in their lives. Sometimes it’s as (deceptively) simple as making goals to eat more vegetables and less sugar. Sometimes it’s a more complex elimination diet followed by controlled reintroduction of foods to pinpoint foods that may be contributing to a person’s ill health.
Lifestyle
Exercise and techniques to relieve stress are important factors in preventing and treating disease. And they make life more fun!
Homeopathy
Is a system that uses natural substances in small doses to treat the whole person. The individual remedy is chosen based on how closely its effects mirror all the symptoms the patient is experiencing as a whole.
Flower essences
Like homeopathic remedies, flower essences are small dose treatments that can help you move out of stuck emotional or mental patterns.
Herbs
Herbal formulas are chosen to fit each individual, and herbs balance and support each other to lessen side effects and produce deep improvements in health.
Hydrotherapy
A system of applying alternating hot and cold to the body in order to change blood flow and activate the immune system. Hydrotherapy can be done at home and helps a wide variety of common ailments, from colds to headaches.
