What Is Naturopathic Medicine?
Traditional Chinese Medicine
The key principal that defines and connects all of Chinese medicine is that of Chi, or vital energy. The chi of all organs must be in balance, neither too active nor too dormant, for a person to be healthy. The chi of the body’s organs and systems are all connected in meridians or channels that lie just under the skin. Using traditional chinese medicine acupuncture a Naturopathic Doctor will use Eastern herbs and acupuncture to assist the body in regulating the Chi and achieving balance. Acupuncture is the use of very thin needles which are inserted into specific meridian points. The practice of acupuncture has been around for over two thousand years and has proven to help, especially for pain relief and chronic illness.
Traditional Chinese Medicine
Physical Therapy and Spinal Manipulation is just as it sounds, using physical manipulations of the muscles, ligaments, tendons and joints of the body in order to optimize physical functioning. This may include using massage, trigger point release, ultrasound, laser therapy, electrical stimulation, stretching, or adjusting specific joints. By teaching patients about proper posture, effective movements and stretching techniques, it can retrain the body and take some of the physical burden or stress off the body.
Health Psychology and counseling addresses the mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of health and wellness. Often this is the main obstacle to optimal health and wellness that gets the least attention when people think about improving their wellbeing. The impact of stress on our mental, emotional and spiritual health has wide ranging effects in the body, often manifesting themselves into physical ailments. A perfect example is when someone says they “have butterflies in their stomach” prior to giving a public speech or some other important event. This, in reality, is the anxiety of the event causes physiological changes in their gastrointestinal system such that its manifests as a physical feeling in the stomach or gut. Too often in our society our emotions are repressed or not expressed properly and kept inside. This will lead to physical changes in functioning, which can cause or contribute to the development of illness. By working with patients through counseling and other mind-body techniques, Naturopathic Doctors can teach people how to effectively handle and or minimize the impacts that daily stressors can have on the body and how mental, emotional and behavioural changes can lead to an improved sense of wellbeing and health.
Hydrotherapy is the use of water, in its various forms, in order to bring about healing. Water cure has been used since antiquity to bring about physiological changes and stimulate healing. People used to go to sanitariums, which were water cure centers, for a retreat in order to heal their ailments. By using various treatments such as cold-water baths, saunas, ice packs, herbal waters, salt rubs, or full body treatments of alternating hot and cold packs (constitutional hydrotherapy) the bodies own healing capacities were stimulated.
Clinical Nutrition is utilizing diet, nutritional counseling and nutritional supplementation to optimize health and wellness. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said, “Let food be thy medicine, and let medicine be thy food.” It couldn’t have been said any better. Our health depends of the types of food we nourish our bodies with and nutrition should be the cornerstone of any system of medicine. When cells receive the right information from the proper types of food and nutrition coming in to our bodies, they are able to perform or function optimally. Without proper nutrition the body will be lacking in essential vitamins, minerals, enzymes and a variety of other essential components needed for physiological functioning. Unfortunately, many of the public are unaware how unhealthy their diets are and what they are lacking in nutrition. The media, marketing and convenience of certain food choices have lead our society to believe they are eating just fine when this is far from the truth. Our world is filled with fast food, premade food, chemically laden foods, preservatives, chemical flavourings, colourings and many other items, which are cheap to produce and provide no true nourishment for the body and can in fact disrupt our health. Food should be eaten the way nature intended it, from the earth, with minimal processing of those foods. And, in our fast paced world, many people don’t take the necessary time to prepare home cooked, nourishing meals. This lack of investment and time over the course of a lifetime takes its toll on the body and leads to many of the chronic diseases of our time, most of which are preventable and treatable through dietary and lifestyle changes.
Homeopathic Remedies
Homeopathy is more than 200 years old and is widely accepted in many countries. Homeopathic remedies are made from specific dilutions of plant, animal and mineral substances. When carefully matched to the patient they are able to affect the body’s “vital force” and to stimulate the body’s innate healing forces on both the physical and emotional levels, with few side effects. Some conditions that do not respond well to conventional treatments respond well to homeopathy.
Botanical/Herbal Remedies
Medicinal plants have been, and will continue to be a valuable part of health care. These plants and plant substances are safe in the right dosage and when used correctly with other herbs and treatments. Herbs can be prepared in many forms – teas, tinctures or capsules. Naturopathic doctors are extensively trained in both the art and science of botanical remedies. Naturopathic doctors are currently the only health care providers in Canada to be regulated for the use of botanical remedies.
Prevention and Lifestyle Counseling
Mental attitudes and emotional states are important elements in healing and disease. Addressing all aspects of a person’s life, identifying and addressing the impact that stress and life events have on a patient’s health is an important aspect of naturopathic treatment. Naturopathic doctors are trained to counsel on diet, lifestyle, specific stressors, exercise and occupational or environmental hazards as an integral part of the naturopathic treatment program.
Sports Injury Treatment
Naturopathic & Wellness doctors help you optimize your health and achieve your exercise, training and competition goals. Using non-invasive naturopathic treatments, our interns can address the causes of chronic pain brought on by sports injuries, help you attain your peak athletic performance, and achieve a better quality of life.
Sport treatment treats over-training using proactive therapies and optimizes your diet with sport treatments and supplements. Sports treatment treats injuries, manages and relieves pain, and maximizes recovery. Naturopathic doctors use acupuncture, hydrotherapy, electrostimulation, soft tissue manipulation, intramuscular stimulation, and active stretching.