6 Naturopathic principles
6 Naturopathic principles, that I also call our core values, that inspired me to take up Naturopathic medicine.
These are the values I live, breathe and stand by every day in my practice and with every new client, I remind myself of these fundamental principles – so that I continue to live by them. I wouldn’t be surprised if we test my blood to show positive for these principles – running through my system lol!
Naturopathic Medicine, not only spends time and energy investigating your issues both from immediate relief but also heavily focuses on addressing and fixing the root cause of the issue. The amount of time we spend with our client is our biggest advantage against any-other treatment modalities available. So that it helps us look at the presenting problem from a deeper lens and also respect the fact that each person is unique and so is how disease manifests for them! Naturopathic medicine’s key focus is to find the root cause of the condition and not just suppress the symptoms with some unsustainable bandaid solutions. There is clinical evidence in many instances how suppressing symptoms can come with their new can of worms!
So Naturopathy aims to remove all roadblocks and restore a state of health and vitality. Our guiding principle of ‘identify and treat the cause’ lights the way ahead 🙂
Example ACNE: if you present with Acne in my clinic, the initial conversation can go up to an hour-long. I will take the complete case history to understand what makes it worse or triggers. But a huge focus is also to understand how your other body functions are (digestive system, liver health, diet and lifestyle, sleep… and much more). I will also run some physical examinations, Iris study (iridology) and check your ZINC status and much more – this allows me to look at the issue from all aspects and identify the road-blocks, investigate the main cause/s for Acne. Abiding by the principle of ‘treat the whole person’.
It is important to identify the right cause of acne in YOU versus comparing it against everyone that presents with Acne because each person is unique and so are their conditions and you cannot put ONE BOX solution for all cases. Some of the main known triggers are hormonal imbalance, liver insufficiency, issues in Digestive process, Gut imbalance, or poor lifestyle choices etc. Therefore clearly putting acne suppressing topical creams is not going to address the root cause of the issue in any way possible and even if you gain some short term gains whilst you are using the products – trust me its in no way long term or sustainable!
And then next step is to build our treatment objectives and plan and that would be broken down in steps/ action plan- Short term to medium to long term.
Tools as naturopath – I use herbal medicine, which is safe, evidence-based and TGA(Therapeutics Goods Act) approved herbal medicine, which has proven evidence of efficacy and is been known for generations for healing abilities. – because as a naturopath it is very important for me to utilize non-toxic and most natural medicine and ensure that there are no side effects or contraindications with any existing prescription medication you may be on.
I can also use clinical nutritional medicines if required to address the issue.
A considerable amount of focus is also coaching, guiding you on important dietary and lifestyle changes or improvement that will help to minimize the breakout and long term sustainability addressing ‘prevention’ – this also brings us to principles of ‘do no harm’ and ‘practitioner as a teacher’
