May 15, 2007
Dear Friend,
“The hardest thing to widen is a narrow mind.”
— French Proverb
This old axiom is loaded with meaning for me as a naturopathic doctor. I began my medical training conventionally, but quickly became disillusioned by what I was being taught.
There was a singular devotion to the pathology of disease states and a maniacal focus on suppressing symptoms. Hopelessly lost in the narrow mind of conventional medicine was any actual healing.
I chose naturopathy because it looks beyond symptoms to the source of an illness or ailment. It offers a holistic approach that supports the body, mind and spirit in finding proper balance. My intuition and heart told me that this was the only real way to practice healing medicine, and for over 25 years I’ve been doing just that.
Symptoms are clues and a starting point for healing
Masking symptoms, as conventional medicine so fiercely strives to do, won’t make you well. In fact, it’s like throwing a roadblock in the path of recovery because symptoms are your body’s response to a disease or condition. They’re important clues in the ultimate curative process.
Doctors of naturopathy analyze symptoms as an important starting point for healing, but that’s only a small part of what we do. We also work with our patients to identify the history and lifestyle patterns that have led to a particular condition. And we draw upon multiple treatment options—or modalities—to help nurture and balance a patient for true healing and lasting wellness.
Six Principles of Naturopathic Medicine
All naturopathic physicians are guided by six principles of naturopathic medicine:
- Do No Harm – Find a way to encourage the body’s own healing power. Don’t interfere with the natural healing process by masking symptoms or creating adverse effects with unnecessary drugs.
- Treat the Whole Person – Consider the mind and spirit, as well as the physical body.
- The Healing Power of Nature – The body has a miraculous ability to heal itself, given proper balance and support.
- Identify and Treat the Cause – True cures go beyond alleviating symptoms. The naturopathic physician must identify and address the root cause, which can exist on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels.
- The Physician as Teacher – A key role of the naturopath is to educate and encourage a patient to take responsibility for his or her own health.
- Prevention – A naturopath believes it’s best to promote a healthy lifestyle that’s in balance with nature in order to prevent disease from taking hold in the first place.
For more details on these principles and what you can expect from a naturopathic approach to health, click here.
To find a qualified naturopathic physician near you, visit the web site for The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians at www.naturopathic.org and click on “Find a ND”.
Multiple modalities offer natural healing choices
In my last Online Health Bulletin, I touched on two important modalities of naturopathic medicine—nutrition and supplementation. Specifically, I talked about the importance of eating an organic, whole foods diet and using prebiotics, probiotics, digestive enzymes, and bitters to help your body better absorb and utilize the nutrients you’re getting from the foods you eat.
Other common modalities that naturopathic doctors draw upon are acupuncture, botanical medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, physical manipulation, and Chinese medicine. Each of these powerful techniques uses a distinctive means to promote healing balance within the body. Let’s take a closer look at perhaps the best recognized and most used of these—acupuncture.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture has been used to relieve pain for over 5,000 years, and scores of recent clinical studies have demonstrated its effectiveness. One study, published in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine, reported that of 204 patients suffering from chronic pain, 74 percent experienced significant relief that lasted more than three months following acupuncture treatment.
Acupuncture involves inserting tiny needles in your body at specific points to improve healing energy flow and reduce or eliminate pain. Because this modality uses needles, some people shy away from it. But you shouldn't. The needles are extremely slim—almost like a human hair—and while it's not without sensation, a well-executed insertion is virtually unnoticeable.
Sometimes, acupuncture needles are heated using a traditional Chinese medicine technique called moxibustion. It uses mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris), a small, spongy herb. Specifically, the tip of the acupuncture needle is wrapped in a mugwort mixture called moxa, which is then ignited, generating heat to the acupuncture point and the surrounding area to facilitate healing.
Acupuncture has become increasingly popular over the past few years. Even the National Institutes of Health acknowledged it as a bona fide therapy for pain, and some insurance companies now reimburse for it.
* * * * *
Not all naturopathic treatment modalities are appropriate for all people. With the help of your naturopathic doctor, you can determine which ones will best help you achieve balance and fortify your health. And regardless of the modalities you chose, remember that they all work to support your body’s own inherent healing abilities. True healing is self healing.
To Your Good Health,
Dr. Marcus Laux
P.S. In future Online Health Bulletins, I'll be highlighting the history and healing potential of naturopathic healing modalities other than acupuncture. I look forward to continuing this important discussion with you and staying true to the "Physician as Teacher" principle of naturopathic medicine.
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