Naturopathic Doctor, career and scope

Naturopathy is one of the branches of alternative medicine, which uses methods like exercise, diet control and massage instead of in taking chemical drugs. The term “naturopathy” has come from Latin and Greek, and its literal meaning is “nature disease”. It is basically a holistic approach that includes the study of one’s lifestyle for treatment.

Principles of Naturopathy

The concept of naturopathy came into limelight somewhere around 400 B.C. As per the history, it was first used by the Hippocratic School of Medicine, a Greek philosopher Hippocrates believed that the laws of nature can be very helpful in curing different ailments. This school of thought laid down the following principles of naturopathy:

• The healing power of nature: the nature is said to possess a native ability to heal
• Identify and treat the cause: as per the conventional medicine, doctors focus more on treating the symptoms. However, in naturopathy the doctors look for the root cause, be it physical or emotional
• Do no harm: a naturopath always ensure that the techniques used during the treatment doesn’t have any bad effect in the future
• Treat the whole person: be it the physical, mental or emotional aspect, everything is taken into consideration
• The naturopath as teacher: the role of a naturopath is more than just a doctor. He or she acts as a teacher and explains the rules and benefits of self-care and self-healing to the patients
• Prevention is better than cure: in naturopathy the toxic substances and situations are removed from a patient’s life, so as to prevent him or her from further disease

Who is a Naturopathic Doctor?

A naturopath is a health practitioner who applies natural therapies along with the modern day sciences. His spectrum includes practices like

• Traditional Medicine:

Homeopathy
Acupuncture
Herbal Medicine

• Modern Approach:

Bio-Resonance
Ozone-Therapy
Colon Hydrotherapy

A naturopath applies a holistic approach and considers all the elements of the patients as one entity (mind, body and soul).

Some popular practices under naturopathy

Though different techniques are used for different patients, some of the common and most used practices of naturopathy are stated as follows:

• Control on diet – a naturopath always advices the patients to eat fresh and unprocessed food that enhances the proper a functioning of their body.
• Physical therapies like massage, chiropractics and osteopathy
• Herbal medicines are used instead of conventional drugs to treat specific conditions
• Hydrotherapy means water therapy, is often used to treat specific muscular conditions

Naturopathy as a career

Naturopathy helps the patient in overcoming ailments like stress, anxiety, depression, upset stomach, fertility problem, respiratory issues and skin conditions such as acne and eczema. Though there are very good allopathic treatments to cure these diseases, still people prefer naturopathy. This is so because the allopathic drugs might lead to some side effects or bad after effects, but naturopathy is very safe. As per the statistics, people galore are using naturopathic medicine for getting healed. This makes it further clear that health practitioners have a great future in this field. Further, gradually the need of professional naturopaths is increasing, making it a safe and bright career option for the medicine practitioners. Last but not the least; it is a noble job as doctors are considered next to God.

Considering the high popularity of naturopathy, more and more professional institutes are providing courses to become an alternative medicine doctor. These courses include both theoretical and practical knowledge about naturopathy. Thus, all those who are interesting in making a future in naturopathy just need to enroll in one such program and thereafter can give a kick start to the career.

Author Bio:

The author of this post is Arvind, a passionate blogger and career counselor who has written many useful posts on the health and education.