Naturopathic medicine, or naturopathy, is a system of medicine that uses natural substances to treat the patient and recognition that the patient's mental, emotional, and physical states must all be treated for a lasting effect.

The Principles of Naturopathic Medicine

• The Healing Power of Nature: Nature acts powerfully through healing mechanisms in the body and mind to maintain and restore health. Naturopathic physicians work to restore and support these inherent systems when they have been broken down using methods, medicines, and techniques that are in harmony with natural processes.
  
  
• First Do No Harm: Naturopathic physicians prefer non-invasive treatments which minimize the risks of harmful side effects. They are trained to know which patients they can treat safely and which ones they need to refer to other health care practitioners.
  
  
• Find the Cause: Every illness has an underlying cause, often in aspects of the lifestyle, diet or habits of the individual. A Naturopathic physician is trained to find and remove the underlying cause of a disease.
  
  
• Treat the Whole Person: Health or disease comes from a complex interaction of physical, emotional, dietary, genetic, environmental, lifestyle, and other factors. Naturopathic physicians treat the whole person, taking these factors into account.
  
  
• Preventative Medicine: The naturopathic approach to health care can prevent minor illnesses from developing into more serious or chronic degenerative diseases. Patients are taught the principles with which to live a healthy life and, by following these principles, they can prevent major illnesses.
  
  
• Wellness: Establishing and maintaining optimum health and balance. Wellness is a state of being healthy, characterized by positive emotion, thought and action. Wellness is inherent in everyone, no matter what disease(s) is (are) being experienced. If wellness is really recognized and experienced by an individual, it will more quickly heal a given disease than direct treatment of the disease alone.
  
  
• Doctor as Teacher: The original meaning of the word “doctor” is teacher. A principle objective of naturopathic medicine is to educate the patient and emphasize self-responsibility for health. Naturopathic physicians also recognize and employ the therapeutic potential of the doctor-patient relationship.

To accomplish these goals, Naturopathic medicine incorporates many therapeutic modalities: herbal medicine, homeopathy, nutrition, hydrotherapy, food, exercise therapy, physical therapy, manipulation of the bony and soft tissues, lifestyle and counseling. Naturopathic physicians treat the patient from the preventive stage through to serious, chronic and debilitating disease. Therefore, people can go to Naturopaths for colds, bronchitis, allergies, as well as for heart disease, diabetes, and malignant diseases.