A licensed Naturopathic physician has attended a four-year naturopathic medical school, is clinically trained, and works in all aspects of family health, from pediatric to geriatric care.
Naturopathy’s comprehensive systems approach to clinical decision making addresses underlying contributions to disease and incorporates behavioral, lifestyle, and other interventions to support disease prevention and to improve patient outcomes.
Naturopathic physicians prioritize early intervention and non-invasive treatments designed to address clinical systems and underlying causes of dysfunction, rather than focusing primarily on symptom management.
This includes instituting not only therapies that support health, but also approaches that eliminate sources of dysfunction.
Treatment choices include evidence-based natural therapies, and may include necessary and appropriate pharmaceutical and/or other interventions. Treatment plans emphasize principles of healthy living and encourage patient engagement through education and advocacy, while offering additional perspectives and therapeutic options for both acute and chronic diseases.
To achieve their patients’ goals this model supports the interprofessional collaboration of naturopathic physicians with other healthcare professionals. Naturopathic physicians working in integrative settings, such as The How Clinic, provide an exceptionally well qualified experience base for fostering high performance, cost effective team-based care.
A standard naturopathic clinical encounter begins with a comprehensive, systems-based assessment that is highly individualized to each patient and that addresses underlying mechanisms driving the disease process. Physicians address individual signs and symptoms, as well as the many determinants that influence health and illness.
Your ND will look to gain an understanding of multiple physiological systems and evaluate circumstances and conditions that create clinical dysfunction, including:
NDs may use a range of naturopathic, conventional, functional, and specialized diagnostic tests to perform this comprehensive evaluation, including but not limited to:
Guided by the naturopathic medical school curriculum and scope of practice and informed by the Therapeutic Order (TM) clinical methodology addresses treatment at several levels, based on the individual’s needs:
“Discover Naturopathic Physicians: Whole Health Specialists in Whole Person Care.” Naturemed Pro, https://www.naturemedpro.org/discover-naturopathic-physicians-whole-health-specialists-in-whole-person-care.