What is Naturopathic Medicine?

Naturopathic medicine is a distinct system of primary health care which integrates scientific knowledge with traditional healing wisdom, and uses natural medicines to treat disease and give preventive health care.

It is a health care system which uses safe, gentle, non-invasive therapies including clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture, hydrotherapy, naturopathic manipulation and lifestyle counselling, to assist the whole person in maximising the body's inherent self-healing capacity. Two or more of these treatment methods are generally used either at the same time or sequentially, for the synergistic effect this has on health improvement.

Naturopathic doctors have seven years of training: three years of university pre-medical sciences, then four years (5,000 hours) at an approved naturopathic medical college. Here we cover the same western medical diagnostic studies as MDs, followed by training in a variety of natural treatment methods, including 1,200 hours of supervised clinical experience.

Naturopathic doctors can therefore use natural healing practices, while taking into account any standard medical treatments the patient may be using, for a truly integrated treatment protocol that is individualised to each patient's specific needs at that time.