What is a Naturopathic Doctor?
A licensed doctor is someone with the ability to diagnose and treat disease - this would include NDs, NMDs, DOs, and MDs, that are state licensed with their relevant medical board.
A licensed naturopathic physician (ND) attends a four-year, graduate-level naturopathic medical school and is educated in all of the same basic sciences as an MD, but also studies holistic and nontoxic approaches to therapy with a strong emphasis on disease prevention and optimizing wellness. In addition to a standard medical curriculum, the naturopathic physician also studies clinical nutrition, homeopathic medicine, botanical medicine, psychology, and counseling. 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.
Chiropractors, Acupuncturists, Functional Medicine Practitioners, Nutritionists, Wellness Coaches, Massage Therapists, etc are all excellent service providers to have on your health care team, in addition to a licensed doctor. A concern with a non-doctor wellness practitioner is that they may treat with just supplements, may not properly diagnose the condition, may not use the appropriate natural treatments nor will they have the ability to prescribe antibiotics or other conventional treatments if necessary.
A Naturopathic Doctor fits into your health care when you are looking to get to the root cause of your health condition. A good example might be in the case of a urinary tract infection (UTI). It is important to receive an good diagnosis so that you can receive appropriate treatment to prevent the UTI from becoming a kidney infection, but you also want to discover WHY the UTI occurred in the first place, and for those who have recurrent UTIs you want to know how to address the underlying issue to stop the recurrence cycle, not just suppress the symptoms of the condition.
With the Naturopathic Doctors at NWC, you receive the best of both worlds – natural treatment utilizing herbs, vitamins, physical medicine, dietary changes, etc, with the training, license and ability to provide conventional care as needed. We will also focus on WHY the conditioned happened in the first place.
Your team at the Naturopathic Wellness Center are believers in integrative medicine, and that there is a time and place for all areas in your health care cycle. Conventional medicine is wonderful for emergency medicine, for when the health condition is severe and/or needs immediate attention, or your need a higher level of intervention. A non-doctor wellness practitioner is excellent to help you implement more complicated prescribed nutritional and dietary changes as well as provide other services like coaching, energy work, or a myriad of other offerings that may aid and assist you on your path to wellness. A Naturopathic Doctor is best to serve as the central practitioner, to evaluate your overall health, provide complex diagnosis’, monitor your progress, and ensure that you are receiving the Best-in-Class care amongst conventional-medical, traditional, functional and natural medicines.
Let’s blend the integrative parts of your team together.
