How to Know If You’ll Benefit From Naturopathic Medicine

in Health & Well-being

Over the past few years, naturopathy has continued to gain recognition as a reliable form of treatment and management for a wide range of health issues. Naturopathic doctors undergo rigorous training before becoming certified and allowed to offer their services. As a matter of fact, many of them possess qualifications for medical doctors and employ naturopathic techniques in combination with conventional medicine. Naturopathic doctors also work in conjunction with conventional doctors in the treatment and management of certain health issues in patients.

Defining Naturopathy

If you’re reading this, there’s a big chance you’ve heard about naturopathy or naturopathic medicine, often touted as an alternative approach to conventional medicine. By definition, naturopathic medicine is a medical approach that aims at using nature and natural solutions to stimulate the body to health or improve one’s wellness by itself. It often involves the combination of knowledge in modern science, traditional medicine, and natural remedies or treatments. Apart from treatment, this medical approach is also used in disease diagnosis, as well as prevention and overall health improvement.

Naturopathic care has been shown to have numerous benefits. It is used to treat both physical and psychological health issues; and is especially beneficial for people with chronic health conditions. Considering the many advantages of this natural-oriented healthcare approach, how do you know you can benefit from it? Starting with a brief outline of naturopathic techniques, here are some pointers you can use to know whether you’ll benefit from naturopathic medicine.

Naturopathy Techniques

As earlier mentioned, naturopathic medicine involves the use of natural remedies and therapies to support and improve one’s health. As explained by Dr. Karen R. Threlkel, holistic medicine involves more than just using a natural approach to treat disease symptoms and ignite healing. It is more about using the patient instead of their disease to help health the body, mind, and spirit. This is why it comprises several kinds of natural therapy used alone or in combination.

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Employed based on the patient’s individual needs, some popular techniques used in naturopathy include:

  • Clinical nutrition
  • Homeopathy
  • Herbal medicine
  • Lifestyle counseling
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Acupuncture
  • Naturopathic manipulation

With this in mind, let’s now take a look at various scenarios where naturopathic benefits could benefit an individual.

As a Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Solution

As earlier established, naturopathic medicine revolves around the understanding that the body can heal itself. This is an innate ability in humans. With this in mind, normal body function can be restored by simply removing the obstacles or underlying root causes of disease. It’s about enhancing the body’s healing abilities, which can promote overall wellness and prevent health issues that could develop in the future. If you’re looking for a solution to promote your overall well being, naturopathy could help.

You Have a Stubborn Health Issue

It is not uncommon to suffer from a chronic illness; many people suffer from lifetime health conditions. However, some health issues prove too stubborn to diagnose, let alone treat using conventional medicine and treatment approaches.

In some cases, the symptoms of a chronic illness like arthritis could be too extreme to alleviate using conventional approaches. In such a situation, naturopathic treatment can help support conventional therapy and improve your quality of life. Some patients have confessed to being rescued by naturopathy from issues such as spinal problems or chronic back pain. Some of these therapies are also effective in supporting the health of patients with terminal and life-threatening ailments.

Where a Combined Approach Is Needed

Conventional treatments, drugs, and approaches like surgery may have many unpleasant side effects. If you want to minimize such side effects, many doctors recommend combining a conventional care approach with naturopathic techniques, depending on the patient’s needs.

When You Need Individualized Treatment

Naturopathic treatment is always customized to the patient’s needs. It takes into account the patient’s unique situations in terms of genetics, medical history, nutrition, lifestyle habits, preexisting health conditions, and so forth. Anything that affects the individual’s health is taken into account. These factors are used by the naturopathic doctor to draw conclusions and determine the best treatment approach or techniques to use in triggering the body’s innate healing process.

If You Have One of These Issues

Needless to reiterate, naturopathy is applicable in many ways when it comes to disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Regardless of your age, sex, or medical history, you could benefit from naturopathic medicine one way or another. However, some acute and chronic health concerns that can be treated through naturopathy include:

Allergies

Allergy is one of the most terrorizing experiences anyone can bear. You want to scratch and soothe the feeling away, but you can’t. From the itchy eyes to a stuffy nose and sneezing, allergies can be unbearable, and there isn’t much that you can do to alleviate them. However, naturopathic medicine has been shown to help remedy certain allergies. Here, the doctor’s aim at treating the underlying cause of the allergic reaction using therapeutic nutrition, botanical medicines, and change of lifestyle, among other approaches. The physician also gives natural antihistamines, which helps in reducing the symptoms without giving you side effects associated with over the counter medicines. However, it may require much patience before medicine reaches its full effectiveness.

Headaches

A recurring headache should never be ignored… not all headaches are usual. Migraines can cause immense discomfort, which can easily make you dysfunctional. If you have been suffering from frequent headaches, it would be wise to unveil the cause and start the process of healing. Many reasons can contribute to a migraine or a mild headache even after taking prescriptions. It can be caused by poor diet, dehydration, or even the lack of enough sleep. Naturopathic physicians are skilled in altering the causes of such chronic headaches by providing you with treatments without the use of an analgesic pain killer. Popular approaches include botanical medicines and nutritional supplements.

Insomnia

Some goodnight’s rest ensures you are rejuvenated and revitalized to kick start the next day. Unfortunately, with insomnia, this becomes a mere dream in the wake. If you have been struggling to catch some sleep at night, naturopathic medicine can offer you the solution and ensure you have a good night’s rest. A naturopathic physician will provide you with therapeutic nutrition, herbs, and behavioral medicines, which are natural and effective to help you sleep better.

Digestive Disorder

A good digestive system is key for excellent health. The digestive system is one of the most vital parts of your body. A digestive system that is not functioning well can cause indigestion, constipation, or bowel movement problems with a lot of discomforts. Naturopathic medicine can be used to tune it back to normal. The doctor can be able to get to the root cause of the digestive problem and provide you with a diagnosis of supplements to deal with the underlying problem.

Finally, as mentioned earlier, naturopathic medicine could also help with pain relief, especially for chronic conditions. It can help treat the underlying factors that cause some types of acute, recurrent, and chronic pain which most of the conventional prescriptions do not seem to address. Moreover, NSAIDs and common pain relief medication are often addictive, so be careful when taking them without a prescription.


Image Credits: cottonbro, mentatdgt

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