Naturopathy or Naturopathic Medicine is the practice of assessing, preventing and treating the conditions of human body and mind. By means of incorporating the conventional health sciences with a wide range of the traditional and natural therapies, the naturopathy cures the emotional, mental and the physical states of a patient to bring about a lasting effect.
Naturopathy is based on the philosophy of ‘healing power of the nature’. It means that your body has its own healing energy. With the help of the naturopathic treatment, the body would be able to repair itself and then recover from the illness and if it’s in a supportive and healthy environment.
Most of naturopathic health practitioners make use of a wide variety of techniques and therapies like behavior change, nutrition, herbal medicine, acupuncture and homeopathy. There are two areas of focus in the naturopathy. One is supporting the healing abilities of the body and the other is to empower the people to make the lifestyle changes essential for attaining the best possible health.
While the naturopathic doctors treat both the short bouts of chronic conditions and illness, their primary illness is on preventing the disease as well as educating the patients. The most modern form of the naturopathy treatment dates back to the 18th and the 19th century. These natural healing systems involve hydrotherapy or water therapy that was once popular in countries likeGermany. And the nature cure as developed inAustria was based on use of air, food, water, herbs and light to treat various types of illnesses.
A Naturopath is primarily trained to employ effective and safe natural therapies that will stimulate and support healing powers of nature in the gentlest and also in the least invasive manner possible. The naturopaths make use of a wide range of the methods in order to assist the whole healing process including nutrition, herbal medication, vitamins, lifestyle recommendations, diet, minerals, homeopathy, flower essences, tongue, hair, massage, and iridology and nail analysis.
A Naturopath can treat both chronic and acute medical conditions starting from ear infections to arthritis, asthma, HIV, hepatitis, congestive heart failure etc. A naturopath can treat the whole person rather than just treating only the disease and its symptoms. It aims to help the patients maintain an overall balanced state of health. Due to the holistic approach, naturopath can be specially suited for the treatment of the chronic illnesses.
Some common treatments as used by naturopaths are acupuncture, nutritional counseling, detoxification, homeopathic medicine, herbal medicine, spirituality, psychological and lifestyle counseling, physical medicine, water therapy or hydrotherapy, etc.
Usually a Naturopath takes into account the general lifestyle and the medical history of the person. The lifestyle and medical history is reviewed to determine that the naturopathic treatment routine is best suited to the individual requirements. The diagnostic procedures like blood, physical exams and the urine analysis can be needed in order to establish the health promoting and treatment program. Overall, naturopathy can suit everyone starting from the infants to that of the adults.
