What is Naturopathy?
Naturopaths recognise that health is more than the absence of disease; it is dependent upon a multitude of factors and is a reflection of a harmonious interaction with our environment. Good health means each individual has the capacity to live life to full potential, in body, mind and spirit. Naturopathy aims to increase the vitality of patients so that they can dispel disease by means of their own self-healing mechanism. Disease is seen as the body's response to challenges in the internal or external environment.
The fundamental principle of Naturopathy is the healing power of nature. Naturopathy is a healing system which places emphasis on health and how to promote it, rather than on disease and how to suppress it. Prevention is always preferable to cure.
The General Naturopathic Council defines Naturopathy as a therapeutic system which, amongst other distinguishing features, has four principal hallmarks;
- It seeks to facilitate and promote the body's inherent physiological self-healing
- It recognizes the uniqueness of each patient
- It always attempts to establish and treat the cause of a condition, not merely the end effect
- It always requires that the whole person be treated, not just the local area or organ that may seem to be affected
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How do Naturopathic Practitioners work?
The Naturopathic Practitioner makes use of supportive physical forces and agents such as: light, water, air, thermal effects, magnetism, earth, electricity or vibration; and seeks to harness the patient's own life force more directly with massage, through rest, by exercise, by stimulating reflexes, by making dietary prescriptions, by psychotherapeutic interventions or by employing the patient's own heterostatic capacity. The Naturopathic Practitioner may achieve alterative effects by a number of therapeutic approaches, for example: acupressure, acupuncture, colonic irrigation, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, iridology, kinesiology, massage therapy, nutritional therapy, osseous manipulative therapy, phytotherapy (herbal medicine).
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