The ‘Naturalpath’ of it all
You are flipping through the newsfeed app on your phone, watching a morning TV show or an advert on the busy subway. You are highly likely to come across it on a daily basis. A fad health diet or cleanse or supplement. Usually promoting weight loss, clearer skin or a better life in general. Or you bring up with your friend, who uses a lot of natural health products, a health issue you have been dealing with for a long time. They recommend something and it doesn’t work. The health food store clerk points out a different product that may work but find it has no benefit for you.
It’s tough. For some, it becomes pricey trying so many things to get better and then for others it is a question of should I really do that? Or you get a diagnosis that has changed your way of thinking about long term health and feel stuck. It is important to understand, when done correctly for you, natural medicine does work. Self-prescribing or advice that has been passed down by a friend of a friend usually doesn’t. It is also the fact that most don’t comply long-term to recommendations that friends or family advise. So if those lifestyle changes, supplements, diets and/or cleanses do actually work, most don’t implement them in their lives long enough to create a change.
A lot of the time improvements can be seen pretty quickly, but permanent changes take time. Maybe the condition you have is due to many years of neglect or a certain lifestyle, or maybe you were born with something pre-existing. Repairing or creating change will take patience. But who is to say you should go at it alone or even know where to begin with it all. The internet and google searches will confuse you more and most likely lead you astray. Medical Doctors are great and definitely needed, but their education is specific to one way of practicing. Just as Natural Healthcare practitioners have another way of practicing. Both are needed. MDs just don’t have the time and educational training, as well as are restricted from practicing holistic alternative medicines. It also comes down to the business of healthcare and government regulation. So most Naturopathic Doctors try to collaborate with your Medical Doctor to communicate their treatment plans. One side focuses on symptoms that may cause problems in the near future while the other focuses on prevention, holistic care and the total picture.
A Naturopathic Doctor will look over your whole personal and health history. You may have a specific health concern but most times multiple organ systems (digestive, cardiovascular etc) in your body are involved. One system may be the main cause of preventing optimal health or it may be a combination of systems. So that one supplement you were recommended or found for your condition may just be helping cover up some symptoms, while the root cause is still there. Most times it starts with food, nutrition and/or digestive function. Then we almost artistically choose from our many modalities/tools, a treatment plan that is suited for you. We as Naturopaths are trained to take a holistic approach while focusing on the main imbalance. Communicating and working with other professionals to guide and support you to your best self is part of the work too. Mind, body and soul.
The world is filled with overwhelming knowledge. And we are all in the same boat when it comes to how we should live our lives. Many say that it takes a village to raise a child however I also believe that it takes a good team of professionals and social community to raise a healthy adult.
That, is the natural path of it all.