Naturopathic Medicine vs. Traditional Medicine: Understanding the Core Differences

Naturopathic Medicine: Principles + Process

[video transcript] One of the questions I get asked all the time is, "What is the difference between a naturopathic doctor and a traditional Western medicine MD?" Well, one of the things I can tell you is that naturopathic doctors operate on a set of principles, and that's what I want to get into today.

The 7 Principles of Naturopathic Medicine

1. First, Do No Harm (with a Naturopathic Twist)

At our practice, we believe in treating our patients with the utmost care and consideration. Just like Western medical doctors, we adhere to the Hippocratic Oaths first principle: First, do no harm. However, our approach may differ slightly as we follow a therapeutic order that starts with gentle treatments before considering more invasive options such as drugs or surgery. We believe in taking a holistic approach to healing, focusing on natural remedies and preventative measures whenever possible. Our goal is to provide care that is effective yet gentle, always keeping in mind the well-being of our patients. Join us on a journey towards better health and well-being without unnecessary harm or invasiveness.

2. The Healing Power of Nature

The second principle is the healing power of nature. Now, this sounds a little "hippie-dippy," right? "Oh, Mother Nature's going to do this," but here's what it breaks down to: The body has this amazing ability to heal itself. And so we respect that as naturopathic doctors. For example, have you ever cut your finger? What happens if you don't do anything? Well, after a couple of weeks, it just heals up, and it does it gradually and little by little. So naturopathic doctors work with that process in the body. We help the body to heal itself rather than suppress it with drugs.

This doesn't mean that we don't prescribe drugs or refer people to other doctors for internal medicine and surgery; we do it all the time. But if there's something we can do to help bolster the body's own ability to get it done, we support that. And that's the kind of thing you see in a naturopathic treatment plan that's a little bit different.

3. Treat the Whole Person

The next principle I want to talk about is treat the whole person. Sometimes you go to a doctor, and they will refer you to a specialist, and sometimes they've got to refer you to many specialists, or a specialist will refer you to a specialist. When you go to that specialist, let's say it's for gastrointestinal stuff, they're kind of looking through this tunnel vision. They're looking at it through the lens of a gastroenterologist. A neurologist is looking at it through the lens of a neurologist. A rheumatologist is looking through it through that lens. So none of these things ever kind of connect.

So when we treat the whole person, we look at the big picture, and we start to connect the dots. We also look at diet, lifestyle, environment, things like that. They're kind of outside the bounds of normal medicine to see if those things are causing problems. So, for instance, if you had a stomach ache and a doctor said, "Well, we need to do surgery," nobody asked, "Well, what did you eat? Are you really stressed?" "Oh yeah, I have a deadline coming up at work." Those are some things that can cause that pain. So we're looking at the big picture before jumping to conclusions. We look at it all.

4. Get to the Root Cause of Disease

What are some of the other things that we do? Naturopathic doctors get to the root cause of disease. And again, it goes back to treating the whole person. We connect the dots; we can get to a diagnosis much more quickly and much more accurately, and we get to the root cause. We don't chase symptoms around. You can have a stuffy nose, but what's really causing that? Did you inhale something in the environment? We want to know that so that we can eradicate that, because oftentimes when you get to that root cause and pull that string, all of the other symptoms of a disease can come along with it.

5. Doctor as Teacher (Docere)

Alright, quiz time! What is the root word of "doctor," and what does it mean? It's actually "docere," and this is another naturopathic principle. You might think that's a Latin term that means "to heal." No, it means "to teach." Doctor means to teach. And so nobody ever leaves our office without direction. When we go through laboratory tests, we go through the jargon. When there is a condition that we need to explain, we make sure that you understand, and it's also an opportunity to partner up. So nobody ever leaves our office without knowing exactly what's going on. That's the "docere" part of what a naturopathic doctor does.

6. Focus on Prevention

And finally, we focus on prevention. This isn't sexy; we totally get it, but naturopathic doctors are experts at preventive medicine. You have to understand that 75% of the diseases that cause all mortality in the United States of America are all largely preventable. These cost the country almost $4 trillion a year, and they're all preventable. So what are we doing about it?

Well, come see a naturopathic doctor like myself, and we can help you down that road. I think most of us like to wait until the last minute, but when it comes to chronic disease and heavy-hitting disease—I'm talking about the heart diseases, cancers, Alzheimer's—you'll want to catch these things as early as possible or before they're ever an issue.

If you're doing all the things correctly and have a great quarterback in a naturopathic physician, you can live a long life and outlive all of these diseases. I offer a free 15 minute Discovery Call that you can book on my website (drdanwool.com) - or you can visit me in Scottsdale, Arizona - nobody ever leaves that call without better direction for their health.