What is Naturopathy?
Naturopathy is a form of complementary and alternative medicine that takes
a holistic approach to health and wellness based on six main principles.
The Healing Power of Nature: The body has an innate ability to heal itself.
Identify and Treat the Cause: Look beyond the symptoms to find the underlying, root cause.
First Do No Harm: Utilise the most natural, least toxic and least invasive therapies.
Practitioner as Teacher: Educate and empower clients to achieve and maintain health, and prevent illness and disease.
Treat the Whole Person: Acknowledge the individuality of each person and treat them as a whole, not just their symptoms.
Prevention: Focus on the maintenance of health and the prevention of illness and disease.
With thorough, detailed questioning and discussion of your health, lifestyle and bodily functions (paired with traditional and functional pathology), Naturopaths can get a clearer picture of what is happening within your body and find the root cause/s of your illness or disease. From there, we can address these causes directly and give the body what it needs to heal using dietary and lifestyle modifications, herbal preparations and nutritional supplements.
E.g.
Hypothyroidism: Where traditional Western medicine would simply prescribe hormone replacement therapy (i.e. thyroxine), a Naturopath would investigate all factors that could be contributing to the condition, such as stress, illness or infection, toxin exposure, autoimmunity, and dietary choices that may be causing inflammation or micronutrient deficiencies. Once we understand what is driving the low thyroid function, we can address the causes and supply the body with what it needs for optimal thyroid function.
Eczema: While most people understand eczema to be a skin condition, it is truly an immune condition. It is an external manifestation of an internal imbalance - whereby the immune system is in overdrive. By understanding what is causing the immune system to react in this way (e.g. fetal exposures, birth delivery method, food sensitivities/intolerances, gut microbiome, household chemical/toxin exposures), we can better support it to balance itself which in turn will allow the skin to heal and restore its protective barrier function.