What is Naturopathic Medicine and How it Works?

What is natural medicine? Naturopathic medicine, or naturopathy, is based on the principle of vitalism. This holistic philosophy promotes treatment with natural substances and techniques to support and stimulate your body’s inherent healing capacity. By harnessing your vital force, you can achieve and maintain optimum health through self-cleansing, self-repair, and self-healing. Here at Tummy Temple, our naturopathic treatments utilize the innate wisdom of the human body to restore its natural balance and promote wellness.

What is Naturopathic Medicine?

Naturopathic medicine combines the advances of modern medical science with eons old traditional knowledge and practices. This integrative approach uses natural modalities and, if needed, conventional diagnostic testing to obtain a comprehensive assessment of your body’s functions to identify and treat the root causes of ailments, rather than focusing on their symptoms. Tummy Temple’s Naturopathic Doctors (NDs) employ fundamental principles to treat you as a whole person—encompassing your body, mind, and spirit:

The 6 Principles of Naturopathic Medicine

Principle #1: First Do No Harm

Our team of naturopathic physicians strives to understand the balance between risk and benefit for any treatments that they recommend for you. Their goal is to maximize your body’s innate healing ability. Our naturopathic physicians select naturopathic and integrative treatments that are effective, non-toxic, and non-invasive.

Principle #2: The Healing Power of Nature

Conventional medicine is overly reliant on lab-manufactured pharmaceuticals and often overlooks the ancient knowledge of traditional remedies. Naturopathic medicine employs the abundance of nature’s pharmacopeia to assist your healing process. It also uses physical medicine, known as nature cure practices, to awaken your body’s wisdom and natural processes to guide it toward health.

Principle #3: Identify and Treat the Causes

All too often people use medications to suppress the symptoms of an affliction, just to feel better and be able to get on with their busy lives. As useful as this may be in the short term, our naturopathic patients will benefit from identifying the underlying causes of their disease, and the removal of any obstacles to curing it.

Principle #4: Doctor As Teacher

Just as important as getting well is staying well. Our naturopathic doctors provide naturopathic medical education to our patients so they understand the steps needed to establish and maintain health. This knowledge is essential for lifelong wellness. Tummy Temple is committed to building relationships based on trust, to help you help yourself on your journey to healing and well-being.

Principle #5: Treat the Whole Person

Our naturopathic physicians comprehensively examine how the deep, underlying interconnections of your unique body, environment, and lifestyle affect your overall health. It is vital to view your body as the integrated sum of all its physical, psychological, and spiritual parts. At Tummy Temple, we seek to balance all these aspects to achieve the best possible health outcome for you as an individual.

Principle #6: Prevention

The adage “prevention is better than cure” is paramount. This is the real gist of what is meant by natural medicine—it is far better to prevent illness and suffering whenever possible. Our naturopathic doctors focus on overall health, wellness, and disease prevention by identifying potential areas of imbalance and addressing them proactively.

How Does Naturopathic Medicine Work?

Anything wrong in your body has an underlying cause, which can originate from an internal or external source. To be properly treated, the source has to be correctly identified. This requires a comprehensive 1–2 hour consultation with one of our highly-qualified naturopathic physicians. They can do this in person, or remotely, depending on what is most convenient for you. The naturopathic doctor will ask you about your health history, stress levels, goals, and lifestyle, and perform physical examinations. If necessary, they may order diagnostic lab tests to get a better understanding of the physiological processes involved.

Your Personalized Health Plan

Once your naturopathic physician has gathered all the necessary information, they formulate a personalized health plan for you. The primary goal is to treat the root cause of your disease rather than just the symptoms.

This may include

• Complementary medicine, such as targeted supplementation, and homeopathic remedies such as herbal medicine and botanical medicine.
• Supportive physical medicine including lymphatic therapy or other specialized forms of massage.
• Other restorative and detoxifying therapies, such as colonics and IV therapies.
• Recommendations for stress relief, lifestyle adjustments, and physical exercise.
• Referrals to other specialized healthcare practitioners for evaluation and treatment.

What Conditions Are Treated With Naturopathy?

People often turn to naturopathic treatment as a last resort, after a long, fruitless search for help from conventional medicine. Although naturopathy views the whole person to find the cause of disease, its application can be used to treat specific conditions with great success.

The list below shows some of the extensive health issues addressed by Naturopathic Physicians:

Allergies	Food, seasonal and environmental allergies.
Autoimmune diseases	Lupus, thyroid diseases, and chronic fatigue syndrome.
Cancer support	Depleted immune system, and side effects of chemotherapy.
Cardiovascular health	High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease.
Detoxification	Environmental exposure, sluggish gut, drugs, and alcohol.
Digestive disorders	Constipation, diarrhea, heartburn, GERD, IBS, IBD, SIBO, and SIFO.
Endocrine disorders	Hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and adrenal, hormones.
Infections – acute and chronic	Colds and flu, ear infections, sinus infections, strep throat, UTIs.
Lifestyle diseases	Malnutrition, obesity, addictions, stress, insomnia, fatigue.
Lymphatic diseases	Edema, lymphedema.
Mental health	Depression, anxiety, SAD, phobias, PPD, eating disorders.
Metabolic disorders	Diabetes, obesity.
Musculoskeletal conditions	Injuries, headaches, fibromyalgia, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Neurological conditions	Migraines, neurodegenerative diseases, and chronic pain.
Pediatric conditions	ADHD, autism, colic, and food intolerances.
Respiratory conditions	Asthma, COPD, bronchitis, sinusitis.
Skin complaints	Acne, eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, folliculitis.
Sleep disorders	Insomnia, trouble falling and/or staying asleep.
Women’s health	PMS, menopause, fibroids, PCOS, infertility, osteoporosis.

 What Are the Benefits of Naturopathic Treatment?

• It is personalized for the individual.
• Natural medications are safe and effective.
• It can treat a wide range of common disorders and diseases.
• Preventative care boosts wellness and strengthens the immune system.
• All treatments are non-invasive and include many modalities and options.
• It can proactively help with disease prevention.
• It can help deal with the side effects of serious conditions, such as some cancers. 
• Natural medicine can be combined with conventional medicine.

Conclusion

Tummy Temple’s accredited and professional Naturopathic Doctors are dedicated to the holistic healing of body, mind, and spirit. Every treatment is tailored to meet your unique individual needs along your path to wellness. Whether you are searching for relief from an intractable problem or want to achieve optimal health, we will assist you with the care and compassion that you deserve. Get in touch with us today to discover how we can help you, naturally.