What does a Naturopath do?
Combining Traditional Wisdom with Modern Science
What is a naturopath and What does naturopathic treatment look like?
Naturopaths are trained health professionals, usually holding a bachelor degree or higher, and who belong to a professional association. Naturopaths study health sciences such as anatomy, physiology, clinical diagnosis, pharmacology, and also in-depth food, nutrition, diet, nutritional and nutraceutical supplements, herbal medicine, sometimes homoeopathy and flower essences, lifestyle approaches, and functional medicine pathology to get deeper insight into what’s going on for each individual client.
When you visit a naturopath you can expect a detailed consultation which uses a holistic approach. This will include asking lots of questions about your current health presentation, your past health history, your family history, and lots of details around all your body systems as naturopaths treat you as a whole person and respect the influences all the body systems play on each other in managing your health.
What is a “holistic approach”?
Here’s an example to show how the various systems of the body are interconnected and why naturopaths view the whole person and take into consideration how the systems all work together.
You’ve probably heard by now, about “gut microbiome”, the population of all different types of microbes (little bacteria, fungi & viruses) that live in our digestive tracts. And you might be aware that this population influences many other parts of our bodies from the immune system to the brain chemicals that help us feel good, sleep and maintain balance in our moods. This is one example of a “driver” of other health conditions that might seem unrelated to our digestive process but from a naturopath’s perspective everything is connected in how our bodies function.
So we view the body, mind and emotions too, as being interconnected and therefore to get good healing we holistically treat the “whole person” and not just one particular area where symptoms may have emerged.
Using the information gleaned during the consult, taking into consideration personal pathology results, and other diagnostic testing, your naturopath delves in to uncover the underlying drivers of your particular health issues.
The result is a Unique prescription tailored to address your specific needs.
What does naturopathic treatment look like?
Health problems can be like onions! Your treatment may have to address the outer layers first and then progress deeper with subsequent consultations.
For example, it’s quite possible that digestive health requires attention and gut healing will be helpful. You may leave your first consultation with a naturopathic prescription to ease your current symptoms and just begin to work on the underlying systems that need support.
Once the outer layer of your health issues has been addressed you can go deeper in with further treatments until you have reached a satisfactory level of wellness.
Using your information and some testing, a unique prescription is created for you which addresses foods, nutrition and gentle lifestyle changes. It’s likely that you’ll be prescribed some effective natural medicines such as
vitamin powders or capsules
mineral powders or tablets
liquid or tablet herbs and
nutraceuticals
to support you in the process of returning to good health. These can work alone or be complementary to current prescription medications, taking into consideration avoiding any potential interactions. These may change as you move along your healing journey.
For your consultation, it helps to bring along a list of your medications, current supplements and any blood test results you have.
Be Well on Your Health Journey!
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