Naturopathic Medicine Week

This week is a very special week in the field of Naturopathic Medicine. It is a week that Naturopathic Physicians across Canada get a chance to talk about Naturopathic Medicine, preventative medicine, and health awareness. As part of Naturopathic Medicine Week, many NDs will provide free consultations and presentations during the week of May 3rd to May 9th. So, in this week’s column I thought I would talk about what Naturopathic Medicine is, how Naturopathic Doctors are trained, what treatments NDs provide, what tests NDs offer, and what conditions Naturopathic Doctors treat.

What is Naturopathic Medicine?

Naturopathic medicine is a holistic approach to medicine rooted in science and nature. It is a form of medicine that focuses on identifying the causes and underlying mechanisms contributing to disease rather than focusing on the symptoms. Accurate assessment and diagnosis of the causes of disease create the foundation for Naturopathic treatment. Naturopathic medicine utilizes the body’s innate healing capacity, promotes optimal nutrition, and teaches prevention techniques.

How are Naturopathic Doctors trained?

Naturopathic doctors receive 8 years of post secondary education, including 4 years of Naturopathic medical school. The education process includes medical training in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, pathology, and embryology. It also includes training in natural treatments, 1200 hours of clinical experience, and North America wide standardized board examinations.

What Treatments do Naturopathic Physicians Use?

In British Columbia, Naturopathic doctors are licensed to diagnose medical conditions and treat primarily with natural medicines. These treatments include dietary modification, nutritional supplementation, acupuncture, spinal manipulation, botanical medicine, homeopathic medicine, and counseling. In addition, many NDs like myself are trained in other specialized treatments like prolotherapy, intravenous nutrient infusions, chelation, and neural therapy.

What Tests do Naturopathic Doctors offer?

The foundation of all testing should be physical examination. Naturopathic Doctors are trained to perform full physical examinations and targeted physical exams like neurological exams, cardiovascular exams, breast health exams, prostate exams, and pelvic exams including PAP smears.

Naturopathic Doctors are trained to order and analyze all the standard blood, urine, and stool tests like the complete blood count, lipid panel, thyroid panel, urinalysis, and parasite testing. In addition, most NDs like myself utilize more specialized blood, urine, stool, and saliva testing like intracellular nutrient analysis, hormone testing, neurotransmitter testing, heavy metal testing, and comprehensive digestive stool analysis.

What Conditions do Naturopathic Physicians Treat?

This is a very interesting question for me to answer. Naturopathic Physicians are licensed to treat any condition a person may seek treatment for in the conventional system or any other system of medicine. However, most NDs would say that we don’t treat conditions as much as we treat the person who has the condition. Naturopathic Doctors typically don’t use standardized protocols to treat diseases because many diseases have multiple and complex causative factors. Naturopathic treatments are designed to treat the causes and underlying mechanisms of disease for each individual patient.

The most common conditions people seek Naturopathic Healthcare for include musculoskeletal pain, headaches, fatigue, depression, anxiety, digestive system disorders, cardiovascular disease, hormonal imbalance, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and inflammatory conditions.

Free Events of Naturopathic Medicine Week

On Tuesday May 4th, Dr. Brent Barlow will be at Choices in Kelowna from 4:30-6:30 for a free “Ask the Doctor” session. Everyone is welcome to stop by Choices and ask Dr. Barlow any health-related question on their mind.

On Wednesday May 5th, Okanagan Naturopathic Healthcare will open its doors up for free 15 minute consultations for anyone interested in Naturopathic Medicine or meeting Dr. Brent Barlow or Dr. Brett Phillips. Please call 250-860-8855 to schedule an appointment time.

On Thursday May 6th, Dr. Brent Barlow and Dr. Brett Phillips will put on a free talk entitled “Weight Loss and Detoxification” at Chapters in Kelowna at 7:00 PM.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.