Friday, August 22, 2008

What is Naturopathic Medicine

Education and Training of Naturopathic Doctors
  • Pre-requisite - three years pre-med sciences
  • Four-year full-time naturopathic medicine program at a naturopathic school accredited by the Council of Naturopathic Medical Education (CNME). For a list of the accredited school go to http://www.cand.ca/
  • Program encompasses over 4,200 hours of classroom and clinical training including courses in bio-medical sciences, naturopathic sciences, clinical sciences and clinical education.
  • NDs complete the North American standardized Naturopathic Physicians Licensing Exams (NPLEX)
  • NDs complete additional exams as required by provincial regulatory boards
  • Continuing medical education credits are a requirement to maintain licensure
  • Option to obtain post-graduate certification in intravenous therapies, including ozone and chelation

Naturopathic Doctors

  • Are primary care providers
  • Dianose and treat most health concerns
  • Treat acute and chronic illness
  • Use a natural non-pharmaceutical approach
  • Work in conjunction with other licensed health care providers
  • Focus on health promotion and the prevention of illness
  • Are currently regulated in British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. Regulation is pending in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and the Yukon

Treatment Modalities

Core treament modalities include:

  • Clinical nutrition
  • Botanical medicine
  • Homeopathic medicine
  • Physical therapies
  • Acupuncture and oriental medicine
  • Lifestyle counseling

Many NDs take additional post-graduate trainingin specific therapies and focus their practices on those treatments.

Naturopathic Visits

NDs spend their time to listen to patients and get to the root cause of their health concerns through physical exams, disgnostic testing and laboratory analysis.

  • Initial visit range from one to two hours in lenght
  • Follow-up visits range from twenty to forty-five minutes
  • Initial visits include a comprehensive patient history, physical exam and diagnostic testing, as required
  • Visits are covered by most extended health care plans

Research

International research and clinical studies have validated naturopathic treatments and the natural medicines used by NDs. Naturopathic school have research departments and collaborate with other instititions and or ganizations to conduct research.

Naturopathic Philosophy

  • First, do no harm
  • Support the natural healing processof the body
  • Identify and adress the root cause of disease
  • Treat the whole person
  • Teach the basis to health and self-care
  • Focus on prevention

Adopted from the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors website (www.CAND.ca)

Peri-Menopause Symptoms Relieved with Acupuncture & Traditonal Chinese Herbs

Peri-menopause is a 2-5 year period during which a woman progresses from her fertile years into menopause. Menopause is defined as a lack of menstrual flow for greater than 12 months. Peri-menopause is not a disease, nor is it an HRT (hormone-replacement therapy) deficiency. Peri-menopause is a gradual physiological process that begins before birth! A woman will have 6,000,000 follicles as a fetus, 600,000 at birth, 300,000 at puberty, and only 10,000 at menopause. Thus, a woman's lifestyle and diet throughout life will determine the degree to which she experiences menopause. Remember there are some women who, as we say, cruise through this time.

A therapy that is able to address menopausal symptoms that I like to use most is acupuncture complimented by Chinese herbs. This approach focuses on re-balancing the body and tonifying deficiencies in either Yin or Yang.

Symptoms commonly addressed in peri-menopausal women using acupuncture and Chinese herbs are: headaches, fatigue, lethargy, irritability, anxiety, nervouseness, depression, insomnia, lack of concentration, hot flushes (i.e. power surges), vaginal dryness, sweating, and a decreased libido.

In British Columbia, the majority of Naturopathic Doctors (ND) have additional certification to preform acupuncture. The benifit of seeing an ND who also is certified to do acupuncture is that they can also offer you their opinion as to other means which will address other concerns you may have. (Ex: elevated cholesterol or blood pressure.)

ND's scope of practice includes: dietary and lifestyle counseling, acupuncture* and Chinese herbs, Western herbal medicine, homeopathy, functional medicine and nutraceuticals, physical medicine, and laboratory assessment, physcial exams, intravenous* and chelation therapy*.

*requires additional certification

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Anemia and Hypothyroidism

Anemia, specifically iron-deficiency anemia, is associated with hypothyroidism. There are speculations as to the common-denominator in both conditions. For example, some references indicate that it is a matter of copper-deficiency while other references indicate that hypothyroidism results in a reduced uptake of iron due to a decrease in the amount of hydrochloric acid produced in the stomach. Regardless of the common-denominator, if you have symptoms that include fatigue, irritability and depression, and a feeling of always being cold, then you may want to ask your doctor to test both your thyroid and your iron status. Note that at thorough thyroid work-up involves more than TSH and an anemia work-up involves more than serum-iron levels and a CBC.