Naturopathic medicine is a distinct practice of medicine that emphasizes prevention and the self-healing process to treat each person holistically and improve outcomes while lowering health care costs. Naturopathic doctors are educated and trained in accredited naturopathic medical colleges. They diagnose, prevent and treat acute and chronic illness, restore and establish optimal health by supporting the person’s inherent self-healing process. Rather than just suppressing symptoms, naturopathic doctors work to identify underlying causes of illness, and develop personalized treatment plans to address them.

You want a doctor who will treat all of you, not just your illness. Naturopathic doctors (NDs) are trained to treat the whole person. This requires taking the time to listen and understand the genetic, environmental, and behavioral/lifestyle factors that can affect your health. At your initial appointment, you’ll spend up to an hour or more talking with your ND.

Naturopathic Doctors also understand there is no one-size-fits-all treatment that works for everybody. After your visit with an ND, you’ll leave the doctor’s office with a treatment plan uniquely tailored to you, your health status, your health goals, and your lifestyle.

As concerns grow over high health care costs and poor health outcomes in the United States, a growing number of policymakers, health care practitioners, and other stakeholders are calling for an expansion of the focus of our health care system to keeping people healthy in addition to providing medical treatment after a person gets sick. To accomplish this change, health care professionals from a broad range of disciplines must come together in primary care teams. Trained as primary care doctors and to emphasize prevention, licensed naturopathic doctors have a central role to play in these efforts. Naturopathic medicine is a distinct practice of medicine that emphasizes wellness and the self-healing process to treat each person holistically. Licensed naturopathic doctors are known for following a unique Therapeutic Order, an approach that identifies the natural order in which therapies should be applied to provide the greatest benefit with the least potential for harm. This approach leads to improved outcomes and lower health care costs.

There are a number of situations where naturopathic and conventionally trained doctors working together deliver care for some patients. Examples include: • People with one or more chronic diseases or lifestyle-related conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, or hypertension, which require a high level of patient engagement in their own health as well as time to realize the full benefits of recommended treatments • People with cancer or other diseases where commonly used medical treatments can cause significant side effects that can undermine health • People seeking relief from chronic pain without using highly additive opioids • People who want to build and maintain a foundation of optimal health and well-being • People with symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, and gastrointestinal distress who have exhausted options with conventionally trained medical doctors and still do not have an actionable diagnosis or are not improving with current treatments These are areas where naturopathic medicine excels, providing diagnostic approaches and treatments that complement those of conventionally trained doctors. Naturopathic doctors are educated and trained in accredited naturopathic medical colleges to diagnose, prevent and treat acute and chronic illness and restore and establish optimal health by supporting a person’s inherent self-healing process. In addition, they are trained to identify underlying causes of illness and develop personalized treatment plans to address them. They also are known for their unique Therapeutic Order, which identifies the natural order in which naturopathic therapies should be applied to provide the greatest benefit with the least potential for adverse reactions.

Naturopathic medicine emphasizes prevention and the self-healing process to treat each person holistically and improve health outcomes. As a health care consumer evaluating whether naturopathic medicine is safe, you should be aware of the following facts: 1. Numerous research studies of naturopathic treatments for common conditions such as heart disease, diabetes2 , chronic low back pain3 , and anxiety4 have shown that naturopathic medicine is both safe and effective. Significant research shows that lifestyle-change programs that focus on nutritional interventions, exercise, and emotional well-being can sometimes reverse the progression of chronic disease safely and effectively. Naturopathic medical treatment plans focus on these and other therapies, such as botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, hydrotherapy, and counseling to name just a few.