by Dr Farhin Rahman

Naturopathic doctors or NDs are educated and trained in accredited naturopathic medical colleges. They diagnose, prevent and treat acute and chronic illness to restore and establish optimal health by supporting the person’s inherent self-healing process. Rather than just suppressing symptoms, NDs work to identify underlying causes of illness and develop personalized treatment plans to address them.

Naturopathic Education

A licensed naturopathic physician (ND) attends a four-year, accredited, graduate-level naturopathic medical school and is educated in all of the same biomedical sciences as an M.D. In addition to medical and clinical sciences, naturopathic education incorporates natural and nontoxic treatments with a strong emphasis on disease prevention and optimizing wellness. It incorporates standard medical curriculum, and studies including clinical nutrition, physical medicine, homeopathic medicine, botanical medicine, psychology, and counseling. A naturopathic physician takes rigorous professional board exams so that they may be licensed by a state or jurisdiction as a primary care general practice physician. Currently, there are eight Accredited Naturopathic Schools in North America.

While many naturopathic doctors are trained in primary care, like conventional medical doctors (M.D.s), some choose to specialize or focus their practices. Specialty associations currently exist for Endocrinology, Environmental Medicine, Gastroenterology, Pediatrics, Primary Care Physicians, Psychiatry and Oncology.

Naturopathic medical education curricula include certain areas of study not covered in conventional medical school like botanical pharmacology and herbal medicine, in-depth nutrition and nutritional biochemistry, functional laboratory testing. Aspiring NDs receive training in the same biomedical and diagnostic sciences as M.D.s and osteopathic doctors (DOs). The result is a comprehensive, rigorous and well-rounded scientific medical education.

The Six Principles that Guide Naturopathic Medicine are:

1. Do No Harm

2. The Healing Power of Nature

3. Identify and Treat the Root Cause

4. Doctor as Teacher

5. Treat the Whole Person

6. Prevention

Naturopathic Therapeutic Order identifies the order of therapies applied for the greatest benefit:

1. Remove Obstacles to Health. Health, the “natural state” of one’s body, is damaged by obstacles that lead to disease. The 1st step in restoring health is to remove entities that disturb health such as: poor digestion or diet, chronic stress levels, toxicity, physical dysfunction and more. NDs construct a healthy regimen based on an individual’s “obstacles to health” to change and improve the terrain in which the disease developed.

2. Stimulate the Self-Healing Mechanisms. NDs use therapies to stimulate and strengthen the body’s innate self-healing and curative abilities. These therapies include modalities such as clinical nutrition, botanical medicines, hydrotherapy, and homeopathy

3. Strengthen Weakened Systems. NDs have an arsenal of therapeutics available to enhance specific tissues, organs or systems including: lifestyle interventions, dietary modifications, botanical medicine, orthomolecular therapy (use of substances that occur naturally in the body such as vitamins, amino acids, minerals), and homeopathy.

4. Use Natural Substances to Restore and Regenerate. Naturopathic medicine’s objective is to restore health. NDs employ safe, effective, natural substances that do not add toxicity or additionally burden the already distressed body.

For more information, visit www.Naturopathic.org, American Association of Naturopathic Physicians.

Dr. Farhin Rahman (Dr. Far) is a Naturopathic Doctor, Clinical Nutritionist and owner of Far Natural Health and SANO Integrative Wellness, at 116 North Haddon Ave., 2nd Fl., in Haddonfield, NJ. She currently specializes in personalized nutrition, integrative cancer care, metabolic health and chronic illness. She uses functional lab testing, herbal medicine and other natural therapies to help her patients achieve the best quality of life. She works alongside her husband Dr. Fernando Lazo, their Chiropractor and integrative men’s health expert. For more information or to make an appointment, call 856-484-5546, email SANOWellnessNJ@gmail.com or visit www.SANOWellnessNJ.com.