Can Naturopathic Doctors Perform Surgery?

A naturopathic practitioner is a natural medical doctor (NMD)—a primary health care system focused on diagnosing, treatment and preventing illnesses through natural, integrative and conventional options.

Naturopathic doctors approach each patient holistically instead of concentrating on a particular specific illness or diagnosis, by looking at each patient as a whole. All the factors like biology, environmental exposures, lifestyle patterns, diet, training background, and social/emotional factors that make up a person's overall health are taken into account. Naturopathic therapy is ultimately intended to restore equilibrium in the body to facilitate a natural process of healing.

What is involved in Naturopathic Care?

In order to handle a wide variety of health problems natural physicians use a mixture of the conventional methods of care (such as minor procedure and ordering laboratories or x-rays), as well as alternative treatments, such as the use of botanical medicine. Many interventions are based on the intrinsic mechanisms of self-repair. They seek the underlying imbalances and root causes of a complaint instead of merely treating the symptoms of a patient by naturopathic remedies and sending them on their way. Then they will decide what is really important to facilitate and balance the natural healing process of the body.

Naturopathy recovery may be achieved through nutritional counseling, botany, lifestyle changes, hydrotherapy, and minimal surgical care.

When To See A Naturopathic Doctor

When you have symptoms that you want to relieve by natural means, you ought to see a naturopathic doctor. In addition, if you want to correct the root cause of the problem, you will see an ND.

In general, conventional physicians are qualified to alleviate symptoms instead of trying fix why symptoms occur. That said, MDs make the best primary care to learn more about the human body by themselves. However most of them do not have the experience they have in this sector. The fundamental component of their education is to identify a root cause for NDs.

Good examples for seeing a naturopathic doctor therefore include:

• Health of mind. Stress, anxiety, depression, exhaustion and sleeplessness.
• Diagnosed Conditions. Hypothyroidism, obesity, allergies, asthma, heart disease and cancer.
• Pain Relief. For example, indigestion, arthritis, back pain and injury.
• Women’s Health. For example, infertility, vaginal infections and PMS

A medical doctor is likely to prescribe drugs or surgery in the above situations, while naturopathic doctors may use:

• Herbs, supplements and botanical remedies.
• Acupuncture and other Asian medicine.
• Various lab tests.
• Bodywork.
• Counseling.
• Lifestyle changes.

And if you’re lucky enough to go to an integrative health clinic, you have access to a team that may include a naturopathic doctor, medical doctor, osteopath, chiropractor, etc.

In certain cases traditional and naturopathic drugs may be used in order to cure a disease. Naturopathic treatments, for example, can help to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy. However, try to let your doctor know about all of your naturopathic treatments. And tell your doctor of naturopathy your common medicines. Both should work as a health team in that way.