-->| Needless to say, this did not please the Thomsonian naturopaths and they began a campaign to repeal medical licensure—a campaign that succeeded. By the time of the Civil War, the practicing of medicine was open to anyone—a policy that brought in the snake oil era of patent medicine. Coca-Cola, for example, started out as a patent medicine and headache cure containing extracts from the cola nut (caffeine) and coca leaf (cocaine). |  Not only do you get a therapy, you also generally get an education about the nature of your condition and the rationale behind the therapy. naturopaths tend to be relatively inexpensive, generally in the neighborhood of $40 to $100 per visit. |  Also, the worst naturopaths were, in many cases, actually getting better results than the best medical doctors. There were thousands healed from cancer and other serious diseases naturally. Those who were healed were many times sworn to secrecy. This was to protect the natural healer from getting arrested for practicing medicine without a license. There are so many who have been healed -there are thousands of these people and they have kept their mouths shut. |  They include medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, and naturopaths. These are health professionals who employ many different nutritional supplements in their healing protocols. They often tell us that when they add MSM to an already existing program for a patient they see accelerated healing and marked improvements, often in cases that have been resistant to other treatments.
One physician, for instance, mentioned this accelerating repair effect of MSM for a number of his most difficult patients who had degenerative and rheumatoid arthritis and other musculoskeletal problems. | | I learned medical doctors carry even more risk than other practicing naturopaths because the licensing boards keep track of their member physicians, ready to revoke licenses at the slightest perception of using an unapproved method. It is easier for these physicians to lose their licenses than it is for psychiatrists who get caught having sex with their patients. Use of unconventional methods by a licensed medical doctor is considered a major wrongdoing.
"Oh, yeah," natural practitioners would say. "Dr. |  American naturopaths add a few grains of powdered goldenseal to this nasal douche, and also advise using either a freeze-dried capsule, tincture, powder, or extract of the herb internally to counter bacterial infections. Do not use goldenseal if you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy since it may cause uterine contractions.
Moisture restores normal cilia function in the nose and relieves nasal and head congestion, headaches, sinus pain, and sore throats. Mix Vi of a teaspoon of noniodized table salt with a touch of baking soda to 1 cup of lukewarm botded water. | | Some naturopaths prescribe demineralized, distilled water, which can be obtained by the gallon from drugstores. Because of its absence of minerals, such water is said to act like a cleansing magnet by attracting unnecessary minerals in the bloodstream. Distilled water is alleged to be helpful in treating arthritis as well as some other health problems. However, the absent minerals must be replaced through food intake or judiciously selected supplements. | | Countless individual variations have been formulated by naturopaths over the years, as they adjusted their own views to the needs of their patients. It is written that Hippocrates practiced naturally, and that he cured the island of Cos of all diseases using a small number of herbs, fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and massage. One may well argue that in simpler times there were fewer diseases, affecting smaller percentages of the population. Yet in the past few thousand years the genetic makeup of the human being has altered little. | | Acupuncturists have witnessed aspects of this law for thousands of years. naturopaths who guide their clients in long fasts and psychotherapists who lead their clients into deep psychotherapy have occasionally noted this phenomenon, too.
Classical Homeopathy
In my own practice I follow the path of the classical school of homeopathy which was developed by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann. James Kent took the science further and today George Vithoulkas of Greece is expanding it even further as president of the International Foundation of Homeopathy, an organization which trains professionals. |  When people are ill, naturopaths attempt to restore or enhance homeostasis. They do this by supplying the body with what it needs for optimal functioning, such as dietary supplements, herbal remedies, and other natural medicines. Once the body is back in balance, it has the ability to better resist disease and maintain a state of health and wellness.
This approach is very different from that used by conventional, or allopathic, physicians. The goal of conventional medicine is generally to suppress or eliminate disease by using drugs or surgery. |  A favorite with naturopaths, a solid extract is actually a gooey syrup that's a concentrated source of herbal medicine. Surprisingly, many solid extracts—of hawthorn berry or licorice root, for example—don't taste half-bad, says Dr. Catellani.
Juice. If you have access to generous amounts of fresh herbs and have a good, heavy-duty juicer, this is an excellent way to make your medicines, says Chanchal Cabrera, a member of Britain's National Institute of Medical Herbalists, a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild, and an herbalist in Vancouver. |  Visits to various alternative practitioners, including chiropractors, acupuncturists, and naturopaths, now top those to primary care doctors—and the numbers are rising.
Many people are responding to perceived shortcomings in conventional medicine. Health care these days is too often delivered in an impersonal manner. Visits are rushed. The emphasis is on drugs and high-tech fixes. Emotional, psychological, and spiritual factors in illness are too often ignored. The role of nutrition in disease is poorly taught in medical schools and given short shrift in medical practice. | | Knowing what to eat and what not to eat is one thing; using this knowledge is another. naturopaths often offer their patients support as they alter lifelong habits and struggle with issues at the core of their resistance to change.
The American Academy of Family Physicians has stated that 80 percent of all visits to family physicians are due to stress-related complaints. Stresses are critically important factors to address when hypoglycemia is the problem. According to Dr. Epstein, one doesn't treat hypoglycemia, one treats a person who has hypoglycemia. |  Many naturopaths believe that accumulated body toxins are a major cause of illness. One of the ways they help cleanse the body of toxic materials is with a sweat-wrap. By wrapping the body in materials that retain body heat and retard evaporation (such as plastic wrap or non-porous banana leaves), a patient with a build-up of sweat-excreted toxins can be purified,
If you are in basically good shape, you can try this at home. Turn on the hot water in your shower full blast. Don't try to stand in the stream — you'll get burned. |  In the case of a serious illness, such as cancer, naturopaths are trained to make referrals to M.D. specialists for conventional treatment.
How to Get the Best Products
Sometimes walking into a health food store or perusing the mail order catalogues for natural remedies is a nightmare of confusion, even for highly sophisticated, knowledgeable people. The array of different products and brands is daunting.
Since the government does not regulate the potency of natural remedies, you have no guarantee that a product you buy has substantial pharmacological activity. |  There is a telling joke told by naturopaths about the difference between the two systems of medicine. It goes like this:
Question: "What is the difference between an M.D. and an N.D. (naturopathic doctor)?"
Answer: "When a patient calls in the middle of the night with a runny nose, sore throat, and headache, the M.D. says, 'Take two aspirin and call me in the morning.' The N.D. says, 'Take 20 drops of echinacea and call me in the morning.' |  A Textbook of Natural Medicine, a reference book for naturopaths and even medical doctors who use natural methods in their practice, 60 percent of Americans may react adversely to some food. Many go undiagnosed, however, because few doctors recognize or even think to look for the signs. These include skin
8 -i ra rashes, eczema, breathing difficulty, migraine headaches, blurred vision, muscle aches, nervous tension, fatigue, behavior swings, anxiety and even manic depression. |  TCM doctors, naturopaths, and other herbal professionals are trained to prescribe some simple herbs during pregnancy for problems like morning sickness.
Personally I like the TAM philosophy concerning pregnancy. Ayurveda prefers that women and men prepare themselves for pregnancy prior to conception by using herbs and meditation practices to purify the system. Prayer and fasting are part of these practices in India and Nepal, but the basic idea could be modified according to your own beliefs. If this is done, hopefully there will be less need for medicine during pregnancy. |  In other states, since there is no licensing board overseeing the profession, many people who receive mail-order diplomas from non-accredited correspondence schools call themselves naturopaths. In such states, the best criterion of legitimacy is whether a person graduated from one of the three schools listed above or is a member of the AANP. For more information, contact
The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians P.O. | | Since teaching the patient how to live healthfully is a primary goal of naturopathy, the time devoted to discussing and explaining principles of health maintenance sets naturopaths apart from many other health care providers.
The patient-physician relationship begins with a thorough medical history and an interview designed to cover all aspects of a patient's lifestyle. Making a diagnosis of a disease is only one part of this process. If needed, the physician will perform standard diagnostic procedures, including a physical exam and a blood and urine analysis. | | Furthermore, some naturopaths focus in particular medical fields such as pediatrics, natural childbirth, or physical medicine (including massage and therapeutic manipulation).
The current range of therapies in which naturopathic physicians are trained includes clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, hydrotherapy, physical medicine, counseling and other psychotherapies, and minor surgery (i.e., suturing wounds, removing warts or moles, and other minor office procedures). | | The early naturopaths and their contemporaries attached great importance to a natural, healthful diet. John Kellogg was a physician, Seventh-Day Adventist, and vegetarian who ran the Adventist Battle Creek Sanitarium, which utilized natural therapies. His brother, Will, built and ran a factory in Battle Creek, Michigan, to produce health foods such as shredded wheat and granola biscuits. Driven both by personal convictions about the benefits of cereal fibers and by commercial interests, the Kellogg brothers helped popularize naturopathic ideas about food, as did their former employee C. W. |  Flexner said that naturopaths and homeopaths were practicing unscientific medicine and so their schools should be shut down," Levin explains. "And allopaths had to have a uniform curriculum, so that somebody studying in Boston and somebody studying in St. Louis would know the same thing.
"All that sounds good on the surface. But at that point preventive medicine, nutrition, and all those things that aren't good for business became unimportant classes in medical school. Big-dollar things like surgery, internal medicine, and pharmacology became very important. |  Part of this problem is avoided by choosing a holistically oriented physician and simultaneously getting support and advice from other health practitioners—for instance, experienced herbalists, naturopaths, and therapists skilled in emotional transformation.
• Cancer can result from overnutrition, especially from excessive amounts of growth-promoting foods such as meats, fats, dairy products, sweets, and rich foods in general. | | Some unlicensed people, however, might call themselves naturopaths even though their training is from brief correspondence courses.
When choosing a naturopathic doctor the main question to ask is: Where did you graduate from? To be considered for a license N.D.s must graduate from an accredited naturopathic medical school, pass board-certified exams, and receive continuing medical education. At the beginning of 1997 there were two accredited schools: Bastyr University in Seattle and the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. |  Durkee held an exalted position within the National Medical Society, an alternative to the AMA that was growing rapidly with the many M.D.'s, naturopaths, chiropractors, and osteopaths espousing natural medicine practices. Hoxsey's first physician, Dr. Bruce Miller, was now the president of the society, which openly opposed the AMA's monopoly on medical practices and challenged its politically incorrect position blocking national health insurance. |  While many homeopaths and naturopaths view malpractice insurance as superfluous, acupuncturists either pay exorbitant rates or can't get insurance at all. Chiropractors have no problem because they run their own insurance company, while osteopaths are recognized by mainstream insurers as an acceptable risk. Home-birth midwifes, however, are walking an insurance tightrope. Regardless of their short-term problems, alternative-complementary care practitioners agree that the malpractice crisis may be the golden opportunity that finally puts empiric holism on the medical map of America. | | The idea was also to keep homeopaths, naturopaths, herbalists, and chiropractors out of the marketplace by regulating the licensing of physicians.
The practical result is that there is no free and open competition in the American medical marketplace. You have the right to choose your physician, provided it is an allopathic M.D., but you cannot, in most cases, choose between an M.D. and a naturopath and expect to get insurance reimbursement. |  The naturopaths are really on to something," says Dr. Edelberg. For example, instead of prescribing an antibiotic to wipe out an infection, a naturopathic physician might prescribe a combination of natural remedies to attack the infection but then will also try to determine which factors in. the patient's daily life—such as stress, poor nutrition or inadequate exercise—made him susceptible to the illness in the first place. |  Chiropractors in particular are generally well trained to deal with a wide range of health problems and to refer when necessary. naturopaths (N.D.'s) are trained in a number of non-pharmacological approaches including nutrition, herbalism, mind-body techniques, and massage, and function, in some states, as primary care providers.
You're often better off if you can find a situation where several alternative practitioners work together in collaboration with an M.D. or D.O. This helps to ensure a more integrated and comprehensive perspective and easier referrals. | |
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