Too often I find doctors assume people know what it is that they do. And the truth is, most of the population doesn’t know the differences between healthcare professions, or have been given incorrect information. With a lot of different types of healthcare practitioners out there, it can get confusing and lines can begin to blur. This can lead to false expectations and frustration, neither of which are conducive to healing.
With that in mind I wanted to put together an article that takes away some of the ambiguity and sets patients up for success. While I may not be able to address the nuances of each profession, I can speak on my own profession – naturopathic medicine!
What is a naturopathic doctor?
This is a question I get asked a lot. I get it, there are a lot of people who can call themselves a doctor. To help clarify this I will talk about another title we have, naturopathic physician. This is an important distinction because only few professions reserve the right to that title. Physician is a title that only medical doctors and naturopathic doctors (in B.C.) can call themselves.
A physician is a type of doctor that is qualified to provide primary care. Primary care deals with the study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments.
So, now that we have cleared up which category naturopathic doctors (NDs) fall in, this begs the question – what is the difference between a medical doctor and a naturopathic doctor?
Let’s start by dissecting the different philosophies. Naturopathic medicine is founded on 6 main principles:
- First do no harm
- All doctors have this as their number one principle, for obvious reasons.
- Doctor as teacher
- We place a heavy emphasis on educating our patients about their health and the treatment plans we provide.
- Treat the whole person
- We are trained to look at all of the different body systems and figure out the common denominator, or how they are all affecting each other.
- Identify and treat the root cause
- By understanding the whole person, you are better able to figure out what is at the root of it all. This is different than many types of medicine where the focus is put on suppressing the symptoms, without addressing the cause of these symptoms.
- Utilize the healing powers of nature
- Our bodies are incredibly intelligent, but a lot of our lifestyle habits and our environments can throw things off. The goal is to restore balance to the body so it can continue to do the healing for us.
- Prevention
- Ideally we are not waiting until our health is in a crisis state. There is so much we can do to prevent disease, and naturopathic doctors are heavily trained in these preventative measures.
These core principles are ultimately what guide everything we do in practice and the approach we take. This means we focus a lot on the foundations of health, ie nutrition, movement, sleep, water, breath and our mental state. Addressing these foundations are crucial because a couple milligrams of medicine will never overcome the food we eat, water we drink and the activities we engage in. Beyond the foundations of health, we also add on more specific treatments. This can include things such as:
- Dietary supplements
- Herbal medicine
- Acupuncture
- Physical medicine (adjustments, muscle work)
- Injection therapies, and IV’s
- Prescription medications
- Homeopathy
This list isn’t exhaustive and doesn’t necessarily mean your naturopathic doctor uses that specific treatment, but the point is, we are trained to do so if it fits our practice.
How we implement these treatments is another distinguishing factor for naturopathic medicine. Below is the general, bottom-up approach we take in a treatment plans.
In order to give these individualized and holistic treatment plans, we need more time. Which leads me to our next major difference – the amount of time we spend with our patients. Appointments with your ND usually range from 30-60 minutes in length. This is how we are able to look at the whole person, figure out the root cause, educate our patients and provide individualized treatment plans.
Having longer appointment times results in better patient care and communication. While this is obviously a major highlight of our medicine, it is also the reason we are part of the private healthcare sector. The government spending on healthcare is massive and they simply can’t afford to give public health providers more time. Therefore, if you want to provide more holistic medicine, you have to go private and that is why naturopathic doctors chose to opt out of MSP a while back.
Lastly, another major difference is the resources available to us and some of the training. Majority of NDs do not work in hospitals, which means we do not have direct access to a lot of the advanced imaging machines (ie MRI, X-ray), expensive life-supporting machines (ie ventilators), surgery teams, and so forth. We are also not trained in surgery, or triaging in emergency rooms.
This means we are NOT who you go to when you’re having a heart attack, are bleeding out, have progressed infections like meningitis, and other immediate, life-threatening conditions. If your life is in immediate danger, then go to the emergency room. This is where MDs spend a majority of their training and they are better equip to deal with such situations.
Where NDs excel is the chronic diseases. These are conditions that develop gradually over time. Chronic disease is often very serious and can lead to disability, or death (ie cardiovascular disease and cancer), but they are conditions that won’t result in death right now. This means we are trained to treat A LOT of different conditions, as most health concerns we have on a daily basis aren’t emergent.
Why would you book in with a naturopathic physician?
- You have health complaints that require more than 10 minutes to explain.
- You’re dealing with a chronic health concern.
- You want a doctor that treats the root cause, not the symptoms.
- You’re looking for a doctor who listens and will explain things to you.
- You want therapies that aren’t available in a hospital setting, ie nutritional IV’s and acupuncture.
- You want a second opinion.
- Your philosophies on health align with the naturopathic principles and you feel that this is the right medicine for you.
- You want to prevent disease.
- You want a routine health check-up.
In summary, as a naturopathic doctor, I have a medical understanding of diagnostics and pathology, but I also recognize that there are many reasons why a person may experience symptoms. My practice may look slightly different than that of a colleagues, but ultimately we all graduate with the same training and capability to heal.
I hope this lengthy article adds clarity, so you can make a more informed decision when choosing a healthcare practitioner for you.
If you would like to learn more about my specific practice and how it can help you, please book an in-person, or virtual consult today!