Naturopathic Medicine 101

Welcome to your introduction to Naturopathic Medicine! This is Dr. Briana Peddle, the resident Naturopathic Doctor at Elements Wellness Centre. While Naturopathic Medicine is becoming more and more popular, there is still some mystery and misunderstandings surrounding it's philosophy and practice. This blog will serve to give you a basic understanding of the Naturopathic philosophy, the modalities (aka treatments) and general conditions treated.

The Naturopathic approach is based on individualized patient care with a focus on treating the cause and healing from within. When you seek care from an ND (Naturopathic Doctor), the focus is placed on 3 aspects of your health:

1. How do we make you feel better in the short term?
2. How do we prevent you from ending up in your condition again?
3. What are your long term health goals?

To do this, I need to know about the totality of your health picture, not just what made you book your appointment. For this reason, a typical initial visit is 1 hour long and will cover questions about things like your digestion, diet, sleep, energy, mood, stress, past medical history and family history, etc.

Follow-up visits are generally 30-45mins long and are necessary to either further develop your treatment plan, provide treatment (like acupuncture, Bowen therapy, etc) or check in on your existing treatment plan and progress. The following is a list of modalities that Naturopathic Doctors use (for more information about each of these modalities, check out the "Naturopathic Medicine" page on the Elements Wellness Centre website).

1. Nutritional Counselling and Supplements
2. Acupuncture
3. Herbal Medicine
4. Bowen Therapy
5. Homeopathy
6. Counselling and Mind-Body Medicine
7. Infrared Sauna
8. Detoxification

Naturopathic Medicine is effective at treating almost any condition you would see your MD for. We also love seeing patients who are interested in preventive health care and in living a healthy lifestyle. We tend to treat a lot of digestive conditions (including indigestion, acid reflux, gas/bloating, IBS, Crohn's disease or Ulcerative Colitis), women's health (PMS, menstrual cramps, irregular cycles, menopause, fertility, etc) and pain issues. But this is just the tip of the iceberg!

With access to labs, prescriptive rights and our arsenal of natural therapies, Naturopathic Doctors are well equipped to manage most conditions and concerns. I look forward to seeing you at Elements!

Dr. Briana Peddle ND Board Certified Acupuncturist and Bowen Practitioner