Naturopathic Medicine

What is Naturopathic Medicine?

Naturopathic medicine is an alternative medicine that focuses on identifying and targeting the underlying root causes of an illness or condition. It works with the patient to create personalized treatments that support the person as a whole, and addresses their specific needs. Naturopathic Doctors (NDs) / Naturopathic Medical Doctors (NMDs) work with the inherent systems of the human body to diagnose, support, treat, and prevent chronic illnesses and symptoms to optimize a patient’s health. In order to identify underlying causes, naturopathic medicine works to identify various lifestyle patterns that could be impacting health, including diet, digestive and metabolic health, genetics, trauma history, stress levels, sleep patterns, hormone imbalances, and many more. Typically, treatments are an effective blend of evidence-based, scientific research combined with age-old medicine.

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Functional Medicine and Naturopathic Medicine

When comparing functional medicine and naturopathic medicine, the difference between the two isn’t always clearly defined. It can be said that the two can—and often do—go hand in hand. Many naturopathic therapies incorporate functional medicine into their practices, and vise versa. It can be said that functional medicine has its roots in naturopathic principles, and often functional medicine practitioners are also licensed NDs. 

The Kalish Institute of Functional Medicine states that functional medicine typically refers to lifestyle change medicine that takes the entire patient into account in conjunction with advanced laboratory testing (which naturopathic medicine also does). Functional medicine utilizes the most current scientific research about genetics, environmental factors, and lifestyle to diagnose, support and prevent symptoms.

Naturopathic medicine therefore utilizes functional medicine to identify foundational causes that impact patients’ health, treating the individual with the disease and not the disease the individual has.  It offers an effective alternative to conventional medical methods. At Nascent Health, our team utilizes both Naturopathic and Conventional medicine when necessary, making us a truly integrative practice. 

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A Brief History of Naturopathic Medicine in the U.S.

Naturopathic medicine dates back to the 1600s in Europe when doctors focused on hydrotherapy, herbal medicines, and other nature-based treatments – by the 1800s its effectiveness made its way to North America. In 1902, “naturopathy” became officially inaugurated when Dr. Benedict Lust founded the American School of Naturopathy in New York. From there, naturopathic medicine grew in popularity, and by 1920 naturopathic practices were spreading across the country. However, with the rise of World War 2 came a critical demand for surgical and pharmaceutical medicine, and the need for naturopathic therapies significantly decreased.

In the 1970s, naturopathic medicine experienced a pivotal revival as people began to seek out natural alternatives for their health, resulting in the resurgence of naturopathic practices. Today there is considerably growing demand for naturopathic treatments, resulting in an increase in information and education, access to naturopathic doctors and practices, and legislative recognition.  

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How Does Naturopathic Medicine Work?

Naturopathic medicine is centered around a Therapeutic Order model that dictates how to provide the most effective naturopathic support with the least amount of potential damage to the patient:‍

1. Establish Foundation For Optimal Health

• Remove obstacles that are preventing health, including dietary patterns, metabolic disturbances, stress levels, and hormonal imbalances
• Construct an individual plan based off removing or minimizing these obstacles

2. Stimulate Self Healing

• Utilize therapies that strengthen the body’s innate self-healing and self-preservation systems
• Therapies include nutrition, vitamins and supplements, botanical medicines, hydrotherapy, homeopathy, acupuncture

3. Restore And Support Weakened Systems

• NDs target physiological systems that have become weakened or imbalanced
• Utilize therapies that help repair the body at a cellular level, including lifestyle modifications, dietary changes, botanical medicines, vitamins, and supplements

4. Correct Physical Alignment

• Restore structural integrity of the body
• Utilize physical therapies that help to improve and maintain skeletal and musculature integrity, including spinal manipulation, massage therapy

5. Symptom Relief and Control

• Natural substances that restore and regenerate balanced physiological symptoms
• When a specific pathology is diagnosed that must be addressed, NDs utilize safe and natural substances that help to support symptoms without increasing toxicity or stress

6. Synthetic Symptom Relief and Control

• Utilize pharmacologic substances that help to halt progressive pathologies
• NDs are trained and can use pharmaceutical substances when necessary, including when natural substances are no longer effective
• If they are licensed, NDs can prescribe pharmaceutical medications, or provide referrals

7. High Force Intervention

• In cases where life and functionality are at risk, NDs refer patients to specialists expertly trained in a specific areas of medicine
• Utilize therapies such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy
• NDs will work in conjunction with specialists to provide supplementary and supportive therapies to help decrease side effects and increase effectiveness of more invasive therapies

Benefits of Naturopathic Medicine

The primary goal of naturopathic medicine is to treat the entire person—body, mind, and spirit—in order to optimize health with negligible side effects. It works to encourage healthy lifestyle changes and choices while optimizing prevention. In doing so, it works to ensure that a patient’s health is not only improved, but the improvement can be maintained long term.

Common benefits include:

• Health and functionality promotion
• Disease and pain prevention
• Conditions and pathologies treated
• Individualized treatment
• Safe and effective treatment that works with the body’s innate physiologies, resulting in minimal side effects
• Cost effective long term
• Current research supports the direct link naturopathic medicine addresses between health, diet, and stress

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Common Applications and Conditions Treated

Naturopathic medicine is proven to be an effective treatment for a wide variety of conditions, including:

• Hormonal imbalances, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, hypothyroidism, and hyperthyroidism
• Weight management, including obesity, weight loss, weight resistance
• Fertility issues, including infertility, preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum support
• Chronic pain, including joint pain and muscle pain
• Chronic fatigue
• Digestive issues, including IBS
• Autoimmunity
• Skin conditions, including acne, psoriasis, eczema
• Hypertension and high blood pressure
• Allergies
• Insomnia and sleep patterns
• Menstruation support, including PMS, abnormal/severe period pain, endometriosis

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Our Approach to Naturopathic Medicine

At Nascent Health we firmly believe in working along with you and teaching you about what’s going on with your body so that you can make the best decisions for you and your health. We take pride in offering a wide variety of traditional and alternative services that utilize naturopathic therapies, functional medicine, and the latest research to provide you with safe, effective, and cutting-edge services including ozone therapy, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, regenerative injections, and many more. We will listen and work with you to come up with customized treatment plans, and will be there alongside you to ensure you are getting the best care possible. 

Passionate about alternative medicine, our team will advocate for you. We believe that everyone has the right to a healthy and happy life, and will be there to educate and provide you with safe and effective solutions. We understand how frustrating the journey to health can be, and are here to help pave the road towards your best, brightest and healthiest self!

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