Hi Everybody!
Thank you so much for following me, and visiting my new website. I look forward to sharing many of the insights I’ve gained in my Naturopathic medical practice here with you all! I am writing this blog both for Naturopathic Doctors, and any other medical practitioners who are interested, and for member of the public. If you have any comments (and please do comment, it helps me write more effectively), please email them to me at drpaultheriault.nd@gmail.com
I think the first thing I would like to share is a small discussion of the difference between naturopathic and conventional (or allopathic) medicine. I wont discuss this in terms of which medicine is more effective for what condition (that would take a book, or perhaps a PhD).
However the differences in how each of these medical systems approaches disease are quite simple and easy to understand.
Allopathic (or conventional) medical doctors diagnose and treat disease. If you go into an MDs office with a problem, your MD will either preform an examination or order some tests, such as X-rays, lab studies or others, in order to determine which disease is present in your body. Once the disease is determined, your MD will prescribe a treatment in order to either cure or control the disease.
This approach is so common, that it is often difficult to see exactly what it involves. Like many of the things in our everyday lives, the smaller details of this approach only become apparent when we sit and think about it.
The allopathic approach rests on two assumptions.
- Disease exists, as a thing in and of itself
- The way to help people, and improve their lives is to treat disease.
When you sit down and think about this viewpoint, a number of consequences become apparent. For instance, if a person doesn’t yet have a disease, there is very little that can be done, outside of very general measures, to help the person improve their lives.
Secondly, this approach doesn’t directly involve prevention. Many of the preventative measures in allopathic medicine are either the general lifestyle advice mentioned above, or making the assumption that people will develop a disease eventually, and treating them preemptively.
Lastly, the approach of controlling disease tend to push practitioners into a rather controlling view of human physiology. Rather than allowing physiology to balance itself out, or achieve homeostasis, there is a temptation to constantly regulate. With advances in pharmacology that allow us to affect nearly every major body system, it is not uncommon for this logic to lead to patients being given many medications to “correct” every physiological function that is outside of the normal range.
Now that we know what allopathic medicine sees disease as, we can clearly examine what naturopathic medical approach to disease and healing is.
Naturopathic medicine does not see disease as a thing, in and of itself. Naturopathic medicine sees disease as physiology that has become twisted in upon itself in a self destructive pattern. The question that has occupied naturopathic medicine since its creation, is “what is causing this disruption”. By removing what is causing this disruption it is thought (and generally seen in practice) to heal the disease in question.
This view of disease also has several implications.
Firstly, you don’t need to have an advanced disease to deal with what is disrupting your physiology. Over time, naturopathic doctors have developed increasingly precise methods for measuring physiological disruption. Learning that a physiology is disrupted, and what is disrupting it, means that Naturopathic Doctors can treat diseases in very early stages.
Secondly, this viewpoint is less controlling of the physiology than allopathic medicine. Naturopathic treatment may be demanding, but it is unlikely to ever result in the body being micromanaged by a physician.
Allopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine both have strengths and weaknesses. Understanding this, and which medicine is better suited to what conditions, is key to making the best choice for your own health. More Posts on this topic will follow..