What Is Naturopathic Medicine?
Naturopathic medicine blends modern scientific knowledge with traditional remedies to support the body’s healing processes. It emphasizes holistic techniques such as nutritional counselling, botanical medicine, and lifestyle changes to treat illnesses and promote wellness.
Naturopathic medicine works on a set of basic principles, including stimulation of the body’s healing power, as well as addressing the underlying causes of ailments rather than merely alleviating symptoms. The primary naturopathic approach is to understand the root cause(s) of an individual’s illness. Naturopathic medicine is a distinct form of health care.
At The Pain & Wellness Centre, our naturopathic therapy’s guiding principles include:
- Do no harm – Utilize the most natural, least invasive remedies first.
- Prevention – Promote healthy habits that reduce the patient’s chances of getting sick.
- Identify the root cause of illnesses – Focus on the underlying cause of the disease rather than just treating the signs and symptoms.
- Work with nature’s healing power - Trust the body’s innate powers of recovery when obstacles to good health are eliminated.
- Support the whole person – Consider all the factors that influence the patient’s health and well-being (not just the physical condition).
What is a Naturopathic Doctor?
A naturopathic doctor is a trained and licensed healthcare provider specializing in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of acute and chronic diseases using natural remedies. Just like other medical doctors, naturopathic doctors undertake an undergraduate university course. They subsequently enter a four-year naturopathy medical program from an accredited school.
How Might Naturopathic Medicine Help You?
Our goals as naturopathic practitioners are to craft the right treatment plan based on your healthcare needs. This plan may include:
- Removing obstacles to your overall health (i.e. poor dietary habits and excessive stress).
- Stimulating and strengthening your body’s inherent self-healing abilities through practices such as clinical nutrition, botanical medicines, and acupuncture.
- Removing toxic substances to regenerate and restore a distressed body.
- Using complementary therapies to support conventional medicine and increase its effectiveness.
Nutritional Counseling
Great nutritional practices promote wellness, improve energy, improved digestion, weight loss, and so much more, whereas poor nutrition can lead to various diseases. Naturopathic nutritional counseling involves:
- Guidance on proper food selection, preparation, and appropriate eating habits
- Determining the ideal nutritional balance for you
- Creating individually assessed dietary therapy plans
- Using natural foods for detoxification
- Providing lifestyle recommendations to optimize dietary therapy
Botanical Medicine
For centuries, plants have been effectively used to create medicines, and now modern research has confirmed many of their therapeutic qualities. Botanical medicine, also called herbal medicine, involves using plants and extracts to treat illnesses, support wellness, and improve overall health.
Lifestyle Counselling
Your lifestyle and environment have a considerable impact on your well-being. Naturopathy involves offering advice on simple lifestyle changes such as getting enough sleep and exercise to improve your health.
Lab Testing
Our naturopathic doctors at The Pain & Wellness Centre in Vaughan also perform unique patient lab tests.
Lab testing is an effective way to get a clearer picture of what is happening inside your body.
The combination of a comprehensive history combined with lab testing can help establish a specific diagnosis and treatment plan for the patient. Also, lab tests can help to monitor how the patient is responding to treatment.
Naturopathic doctors can order many types of tests, including standard blood tests and specialty diagnostic tests like digestive function panels, food sensitivity tests, hormone tests, and more.
What conditions do naturopathic doctors at The Pain and Wellness Centre treat?
Our naturopathic doctors are primary healthcare practitioners and can treat many of the same conditions as your family doctor, including:
- Chronic pain such as headaches, muscle tension, fibromyalgia, and more
- Autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, among others
- Digestive concerns including IBS, SIBO, colitis, food sensitivities, acid reflux, etc
- Cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and more
- Neurological conditions like peripheral neuropathy, Parkinson’s, dementia, etc
- Traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, post-concussion syndrome, and more
- Thyroid dysfunction including hypo/hyperthyroidism, Grave’s, Hashimoto’s.
- Female hormone dysfunction like heavy periods, painful periods, menopause, fertility
- Persistent infections such as chronic viral/bacterial infections, gastroenteritis, and more
- Sports performance from elite athletes, weekend warriors, healthy lifestyle, etc.
- Post-surgical recovery best practices
- Weight management & nutrition counselling
Our team is ready to take the first steps towards a naturopathic treatment plan for you.