When I say I am a Naturopath, I often get a lot of questions asking what that means. So, today I thought I would shed the light on the power of naturopathy. If you’re even slightly curious about naturopathy or alternative and holistic healing methods in general, this blog is for you…

What is Naturopathy

Naturopathy is a system of healthcare that believes in the healing power of the human body. We believe the body wants to be healthy and can heal itself if we give it the right environment. However, modern life with its packaged and processed convenience foods, high stress coming from things like work deadlines, pollution, and also food based stresses like sugar and gluten, or our reliance on prescription drugs and alcohol is not really giving us the right environment, is it? The belief in the healing power of nature; using plants and whole foods as a therapeutic tool for 100% health and vitality in the body. Long before we made drugs and medicines in laboratories, people used plants for medicine.  There are still many active ingredients in medicines available today that are originally derived from plants. e.g. aspirin. The active ingredient in aspirin is salicin, or salicylic acid, which originally comes from the bark of the willow tree.

Naturopathy Vs Conventional Medicine

The difference between herbal medicine and pharmaceutical/conventional medicine is, Pharmaceutical medicines will take a plant; isolate 1 active ingredient in that plant (in this case, salicin) and then make that 1 part, very very potent. This may increase the medicines actions, however it can and does cause a number of side effects. Naturopaths may instead suggest the use of herbal medicines, i.e. using the whole plant which is understood to be better for the body than just isolating 1 part of the plant, as with pharmaceutical medicines. And the last belief is prevention being better than cure. Why wait to get sick, before doing something about it? Why not work on the health of your body so you can potentially ‘breeze through menopause’, or dramatically reduce your risk factors for contracting heart disease, or osteoporosis? Just because we haven’t been diagnosed with an illness or disease, this doesn’t mean we’re healthy. Naturopaths believe that real health is not just the absence of disease. This is different to the approach of conventional medicine. With conventional medicine, you’ll go to your GP with any number of symptoms – fatigue, anxiety, headaches, migraines, hormonal issues, sleeping problems, sksin issues like chronic eczema and psoriasis or digestion troubles. With conventional medicine, they might run some tests and everything comes back within normal range – so you’re healthy……apparently. Naturopaths believe that true health is about balancing everything in your life – mind, body, diet, spirit – not just about feeling ok, not just getting through – but feeling vital, 100% healthy.