Practice Management
Naturopathic medicine is a distinct practice of medicine that emphasizes prevention and the self-healing process to treat each person holistically and improve outcomes while lowering health care costs.
Naturopathic doctors (NDs) are educated and trained in accredited naturopathic medical colleges. They diagnose, prevent and treat acute and chronic illness, 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...
Read more
Accredited naturopathic medical schools are four-year, in-residence, hands-on medical programs consisting of a minimum of 4,100 hours of class and clinical training. During naturopathic medical school, students are educated in the biomedical sciences as well as the latest advances in science in combination with natural approaches to therapy. They also study disease prevention and clinical techniques.
In addition to a standard medical curriculum, schools require their graduates to complete four years of training in...
Read more
Why is it that so many patients are looking for alternative and complementary medicines and treatments?
Should more studies be conducted on alternative or complementary treatments, or is it a waste of money and time?
Does integrative medicine belong in academic medical centers—should it be taught at all?
These are among the questions that I discussed last month as a panelist on a Medscape Facebook Live event—Both Sides Now with medical ethicist Dr. Art Caplan. The theme: “Alternative Medicine: Should Physicians Embrace or Reject It?” You...
Part I presented compelling data on both the efficacy and the economic savings of naturopathic approaches to reducing cardiovascular risk and chronic back pain. Two more studies are discussed below, followed by data on patient behavior, which indicates significant cost savings for those who seek naturopathic care.
The two other studies did not have companion economic analyses, but they did show significant health improvements. Adjunctive naturopathic care for...
Read more
Naturopathic doctors may at times receive this question from their patients. It is nice to know that there is an evidence-based response that says “Yes!”
Rising health care costs have been a fact for some time. Evidence is now emerging that adding or enhancing adjunctive care services can serve to reduce overall costs. Much of the evidence relates to treating chronic conditions that can be major cost drivers within health care. This article highlights the findings from four randomized clinical trials conducted in partnership with a major Canadian corporation and a major union, and...
Read more
A steadily growing percentage of the population is choosing to focus on prevention, wellness and natural approaches to managing illness by seeking out practitioners of complementary and integrative medicine. As such, many are seeking the advice of naturopathic doctors to guide this process in a safe and effective way.
Despite the popularity of natural medicine, there is a lot of confusion around what naturopathic medicine is and how naturopathic doctors practice. Below we will address some common myths and misunderstandings about naturopathic medicine.
Myth #1: I can get an...
Read more
Here are some examples of headlines generated by a recent paper about alternative medicine. The headlines are quite imposing, and in some cases plainly misleading:
- “Cancer patients who turn to Alternative Medicine are 2.5 times more likely to die”
- “Alternative Medicine alone as a cancer treatment linked to lower survival.
- “You are more than twice as likely to die from your cancer if you choose alternative medicine. If you have breast or colorectal cancer, you’re more than five times as likely to die.”
- “Cancer is way more likely to kill you if you rely...
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, allergies have become increasingly common affecting 30 percent of adults and 40 percent of children.1 Allergies are the third most common chronic disease among children under the age of 18. In this audio blog post, naturopathic physician Dr. Todd Born talks about the integrative treatment of inhalant allergies. He describes why inhalant allergies can sometimes be difficult to treat and what integrative medical tools should be considered when treating inhalant allergies.
Audio:
...
Read more
Vitamin D3 and K2 are two essential, fat-soluble vitamins that together have a broad and intertwined impact on health.1-3 We all know that vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is light transformed and that it is technically not a vitamin because the skin synthesizes it on exposure to UV light. Vitamin D3 is the precursor to a class of D3-related hormones that have many functions in the body beyond calcium homeostasis. Receptors for this vitamin are ubiquitous throughout the body as they are found in more than 36 cell types.4 Recent research has shown the action of vitamin D...
Read more
New York State finally got on board with offering another alternative to the chronic pain dilemma. Chronic pain is now a qualifying condition for the New York State medical cannabis program. New York’s program1 began in 2016 and has been grossly underutilized largely due to the glaring omission of one of the most prevalent conditions, chronic pain.
When the program was first announced, optimism loomed large as initial estimates for the number of people who would benefit from the program were somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000. To date only 15,000 patients and 911...
Read more