Consider a type of medicine that supports your body to heal.

A medicine that seeks to find the underlying cause of a health issue, and how one health issue relates to another within your body. A medicine that utilizes science and our understanding of how our bodies work, to give your body what it needs.

This medicine is naturopathic medicine.  And naturopathic medicine represents the future of medicine.

Naturopathy—healing with nature—has existed for hundreds years, and likely longer. It includes the use of all sorts of natural approaches, including nutrition, herbs and homeopathy, as well as the use of water, temperature and light.

Naturopathic Physicians complete a graduate-level doctorate degree at a federally accredited naturopathic medical program and sit for national board exams. We are trained at the highest level of science and medicine to understand disease processes and what bodies need to be healthy, mind, body and spirit.

Naturopathic Physicians are experts in the safe and effective use of natural therapies, as well as primary care providers. And yet only seventeen states, not including New York, license the profession and in only some states does insurance cover naturopathic care.

So why is such an amazing medicine not readily available?

That is the question that boggles me.

Ever since I moved to New York in 2001, I’ve worked to bring awareness to Naturopathic Medicine. I led the effort to license NDs as president, executive director and legislative director of the New York Association of Naturopathic Physicians for over ten years. And I established Naturopathic Awareness Week in New York four years ago, which is now nationally recognized.

And I will continue to share my passion for the benefits of Naturopathic Medicine with my patients, and with all New Yorkers through my work, because I believe that everyone should have the opportunity to understand their bodies and to benefit from naturopathy, as I have.

Every day I hear from patients whose lives have improved after discovering which foods are causing inflammation in their bodies, and learning how to heal infections and balance hormones naturally.

Naturopathic Medicine is not in exclusion of other forms of medicine, but without it, we are missing the wellness that we seek, and that can help our country during a health care crisis.

Just as an unwanted weed will come back if we don’t address the roots, health issues will progress if we don’t address the underlying stress that has disrupted the optimal synergy that creates health.

We can learn which environmental factors, foods and lifestyle choices are stressing our bodies, and make choices that have the potential to shift our health, even with our individual genetic tendencies.

Why not give your body what it needs?

Naturopathic Medicine is all about finding solutions and restoring health.

Please do share with others how you have benefited from naturopathic medicine below, and tell your legislators that you want access to naturopathic medicine for your health.

And to find an naturopathic doctor in your area, go to www.naturopathic.org.

Empowering wellness – naturally,

Dr. Doni