WHAT IS NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE?
Naturopathic Medicine holds that illness arises, with very few exceptions, from three sources, all of which are caused primarily by the violation of natural laws. These causes include:
- Poor habits, overindulgence, overwork and the like (together considered “lowered vitality”).
- Nutritional deficiencies (or “abnormal composition of blood and lymph”).
- Drugs, poor dietary choices, environmental toxins, pathogens, and so forth (together considered “the accumulation of waste matter, morbid materials and poisons”).
Restoration of health, therefore, starts with the basics. This includes dietary assessment and adjustments, assessment of lifestyle and sleep factors, and evaluation of toxic exposures. However, as a board-certified Naturopathic Medical Doctor in the state of Arizona, Dr. Lauren combines these simple therapies with other safe and effective natural therapies and, as needed, integrates them with the most current advances in modern medicine.
- First Do No Harm
- The Healing Power of Nature
- Identify and Treat the Cause
- Treat the Whole Person
- Physician as Teacher
- Prevention is the Best Cure
Naturopathic physicians (N.D’s/N.M.D’s) receive four years of post-graduate training in medical schools structured specially for them. The first two years of naturopathic medical school includes the same basic medical science courses and diagnostics required of their conventional counterparts, followed by a basic sciences board exam. The second two years combine clinical rotations with further classroom training, in order to expose the future naturopathic physician to the many additional modalities within his or her scope of practice. These modalities includes therapeutic nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, natural childbirth, classical Chinese medicine, hydrotherapy, naturopathic manipulative therapy, pharmacology and minor surgery. A naturopathic physician takes rigorous professional board exams so that he or she may be licensed by a state or jurisdiction as a primary care general practice physician.
Additional information on naturopathic schools can be found at www.aanmc.org, as well as at http://alternativemedicineschools.net.