Modalities of Naturopathic Medicine

Botanical Medicine

Botanical medicine is one of the main therapies used by naturopathic doctors. The use of plants as therapeutic agents is as old as medicine itself. In all times and cultures, where people tried to help relieve suffering and improve health, plants have been used. Botanical medicine is a broad term. It refers to plant medicines in a number of forms, ranging from teas to concentrated extracts (where the medicinal ingredients of the plant are concentrated). Botanicals are effective medicines. Like all medicines, they have limitations, and sometimes adverse effects, so they need to be prescribed by someone who is trained in their use. In most cases in naturopathic therapeutics, the patient is given a botanical which contains the whole plant. Even concentrated extracts are usually given in a base preparation of the whole plant. This means that the patient is consuming a variety of compounds. Not only is the medicine complex, but its interaction with the body is complex. Although it presents challenges to understand how many botanicals work (there is much yet to learn), there is a lot of scientific literature examining their efficacy and more research done all the time. To add to this, many of these plants have traditions of use going back hundreds, even thousands of years.

Nutritional Therapy

Clinical nutrition is a very important therapy for naturopathic physicians. The most simple way of using nutrition is to work with the patient in improving their diet. This is usually done after the naturopathic physician studies the patient’s eating habits. This often involves asking the patient to write down what they ate, and this includes: quantities, types of food, and beverages. The patient also makes a note of any symptoms which they may have had and what time the symptoms appeared. This can be of assistance in making an association between consumption of a food and the generation of a symptom. Nutrition is the building block of the body's tissues and proper levels of nutrients are essential to normal physiological function.

Hippocrates said "let food be your medicine" and this proposition is still the guiding principle in the naturopathic approach to nutrition. The connection between diet, health, and disease is now well established. Levels of a antioxidants vitamins and minerals, fat, fiber and other constituents are linked to the prevalence of certain diseases. To put it another way, Victor Lindlahr, a health educator and son of the famous early 20th century nature cure doctor Henry Lindlahr, used to say “you are what you eat”. Imprecise perhaps, but practically speaking, the Lindlahrs seem to have been proven right about the importance of diet.

Naturopathic physicians supplement the diet with concentrated preparations of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. These supplements are very popular these days, although many people are unsure of how to use them. In naturopathic practice they are usually used in a precise way, and in the best of circumstances, for a specific therapeutic or preventive goal in addition to an appropriate diet.

Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a system of medicine developed over 200 years ago. It is based on the principle that "like cures like". Homeopathy really began with the work of a German physician, Dr. Samuel Hahneman. Hahneman was a physician, but also a chemist. In the late 1700s and early 1800s he found through experimentation, and study, that small amounts of a substance, such as a botanical, that are capable of producing a certain set (or “picture”) of symptoms in a healthy person, could heal when given to a sick patient who had that same set of symptoms. The first substance he noticed this characteristic of was Cinchona bark, which was used to treat malaria (the bark of this tree has quinine alkaloids in it). Hahnemann noticed that Cinchona caused a kind of recurrent, period fever alternating with chills, that mimicked malaria very closely. He spent the rest of his long and fruitful career developing new remedies through experimentation and observation, and elucidating the techniques, developed out of experience, for matching the right remedy to the patient. Hahnemann’s system of homeopath grew in usage, and spread to the United States. By 1900, one in five American physicians identified themselves as a homeopath! Homeopathy declined during the early and mid twentieth century, but experienced a resurgence in the 1970s and onwards. The mechanisms of homeopathy are not fully understood, and some aspects of it defy explanation, but in terms of application, there is a great deal of clinical history. Naturopathic physicians tend to use homeopathy for both chronic and acute conditions, because of its non toxic nature (homeopathic preparations are extremely dilute) and because homeopathic medicines can be matched to the patient in a very specific way (individualization).

This link at the National Institutes of Health describes homeopathy in greater detail and offers other resources and links which can be helpful.

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy is an integral part of naturopathic practice, and a very traditional one. The early naturopathic doctors made great use of hydrotherapy in their practice. As the name implies hydrotherapy involves the use of water as a healing agent. Water has a long history of use in medicine. Virtually every medical tradition has some kind of hydrotherapy as a part of its therapeutic arsenal. The original idea of hydrotherapy in Naturopathic medicine was to assist in the process of detoxification. It was also used to stimulate the healing powers of the body. There are specific hydrotherapy techniques such as:

Wet sheet packs
Constitutional treatment (alternating hot and cold to back / chest and abdomen)
Steam baths
and many other types and variants of treatment applications.

Naturopathy grew out of a central European “nature cure” tradition, that involved curative water treatments.

Here is a link to a site which describes hydrotherapy in greater detail.

Physical medicine

The naturopathic physician traditionally has used “all of nature’s forces” and this includes: heat, light, vibration, electricity, magnetic fields and more. This is still a part of naturopathic medicine. The use of various physiological therapeutics has been developed to a much higher degree than when naturopathic medicine first appeared although the powerful and helpful techniques of spinal manipulation have always been used in naturopathic practice.

They include:

Electrotherapies
Therapeutic ultrasound including phonophoresis
Interferrential Current Therapy
Russian muscle stimulation
Iontophoresis
T.E.N.S. stimulation
Diathermy
Magnetotherapy
Manual Therapies
Spinal and peripheral joint manipulation
Sweedish Massage
Deep massage
Stretching
Muscle energy technique
Trigger point therapy/massage

These therapies are carefully applied, but can help with general healing, reduction of pain, and improvement of joint and muscle function.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a very long history. It emerged in China approximately four thousand years ago, and spread to other parts of Asia. Countries such as Japan, Korea, Thailand, and many others have adopted the principles of Chinese medicine and added to them with their own experience. TCM has many branches. These include acupuncture, botanical medicine, Tai Chi Qi Gong, and others. The fundamental basis of TCM, is that the body's energy flows along certain pathways called meridians. This energy is known as qi; it enters the body at conception and is the vital principle in the human body throughout life. Health is when the flow of qi is harmonious and uninhibited, and, its fundamental aspects - that of Yin and Yang, are in balance. When qi is blocked, or Yin and Yang are not in harmony - disease results. TCM is a medical system unto it’s self: there is also a system of understanding of the bodies physiology which involves organs. Each organ represents a broader concept than that of the organ in western medicine, including some energetic or mental/spiritual aspects.

Naturopathic physicians use Traditional Chinese Medicine, although many choose to go for additional training. It is a powerful therapy, and is truly holistic, as it considers the patient’s symptom pattern on both a physical and mental level.

Lifestyle Counseling

Lifestyle counseling is a foundational component of naturopathic therapy andyet, it is not a singular approach or set of procedures. Practically, allnaturopathic physicians incorporate lifestyle counseling into their practice. This term encompasses a wide array of skills which have as their central theme assisting the patient in making changes to their thought and action which supports the healing process. In this respect, the naturopathic physician plays a role of teacher, coach, and source of information. Naturopathic physicians actively listen and try to understand the obstacles to change and healthy adaptation in their patient. They try to not just dispense information but workwith the patient in a process of change that includes ongoing communication and education.

In association with...

The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians