A paradigm is a pattern or a model.

The prevailing medical model most of us have grown up in is called Allopathic medicine. Like fish in water who do not realize the all encompassing influence of being in water until they are out, this over view of medicine and disease is as much an orientation to how we see life as it is a way of how we see health and disease. This mainstream orientation is more than using drugs and surgery to treat symptoms. Allopathic medicine is a way of reacting to symptoms and managing and eliminating that process.  Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, coined this term to refer to using medicines that are “other than the disease,” to make it distinct from using natural medicines that were “similar” to the symptoms. Today Allopathic medicine thrives on an enormous financial relationship with both food and pharmaceutical companies for both research for drug treatments and training doctors, nurses and many other health care providers on how to think about protocols and the entire nature of the disease process. Allopathic medicine treats the symptoms manifesting from the disease process. There is significant controversy to what degree the application of drugs in treating epidemics and wide spread diseases is responsible for the reduction and elimination of suffering and symptoms, or to what degree clean water, sanitation, and environmental factors reduce the incidence of disease. Certainly the explosion of different synthetic drugs in the last century has powerfully effected how lay people think and how doctors prescribe these “magic bullets” to reduce symptoms. The incidence of “iatrogenic” symptoms, i.e. symptoms that are caused by medicines or allopathic treatments have gone up catastrophically as well.  Allopathic medicine is responsible for extraordinary breakthroughs in surgery in many areas from knee and hip and other joint replacements to heroic heart bypass procedures and pace-makers that prolong life. When we think of the billions of dollars for aspirins for headaches, viagra for erectile dysfunction, or prozac for depression, our culture is quite hypnotized in paying for medicine that have magic powers that have nothing to do with treating the reason why our body is expressing that symptom.

Our challenge is: are we oriented to prolonging our life in years or are we focused on the quality of the years we have in our body?

While we spend billions and billions of dollars on allopathic disease management therapies, some statistics are very disturbing and possibly frightening.  The mortality rate i.e. how long people live in a certain period and the incidences of cancer and heart disease have not changed that much at all. People are not living longer by any measure that makes much difference; taking care of the elderly does not cost less than before; hospitals are not institutions that people see as comforting places to get well; people do not die of old age peacefully. Rather, most people still struggle and suffer terribly and die fearfully. Part of the allopathic medicine is its focus on disease, not health, in a way that does not prepare people to know how to live well or die with dignity. Some allopathic proponents might argue that is not a mission of a health care system.

Naturopathic Medicine was brought over to the United States from Europe in the early 1900s by Benedict Lust, MD. These German medical doctors believed in the power of Nature to heal, “vis medicatrix nature.”  Focusing on food, air, and exercise as the major components of a healthy life style, this system of medicine has evolved and is practiced differently in different countries. In some countries, the simplest of the original concepts of nutrition, diet and exercise are taught in 2 year certificate programs. In the US, Naturopathic Medicine has grown exponentially with explosion of both people who are frustrated with not getting answers to their concerns from their allopathic doctors as well as the enormous growth in the interest in vitamins and organic food. In the US, Naturopathic Medicine is very competitive with allopathic training. Accredited Naturopathic medical schools include comprehensive basic science training comparable to the best allopathic schools, followed by extensive training in nutrition, herbs, homeopathy, oriental medicine and acupuncture. Naturopaths in the US who graduate from an accredited school usually with the exception of surgery, have the capacity to be deliver health care to many different kinds of patients. However, more than significant therapeutic differences, the major distinctions between allopathic and naturopathic is more what I call context or the basic paradigm.

Naturopaths use natural medicines (some that have active natural drugs from food and plants) to activate the body’s own capacity to heal. While Naturopathic doctors might be open to address symptomatic relief to reduce pain and suffering, the focus for a Naturopath is to look at treating the cause and remove interferences to the body’s ability to get back in balance. The body is always going in and out of balance, and most Naturopathic doctors see themselves as teachers and educators, not just physicians treating a set of symptoms with a “natural magic bullet.” Naturopathic training is very comprehensive in the scope of what is taught. However, some Naturopaths focus on one area of treatment, i.e. they become herbal or homeopathic specialists, while others focus more in a specific area like children or women. Some Naturopaths practice holistically and see that part of their mission is to teach and address emotions, living one’s life purpose, how one communicates and how one deals with our unique challenges and stresses that can express as physical symptoms.

In the last 45 years that I have been learning how to best support people to use their symptoms to learn about the power of health and healing, I know that sometimes the best service is a combination of the best diagnostic skills of an allopathic orientation with a Naturopathic approach. There are many people who are seeking many different kinds of understanding and perspectives that they can get from speaking with a Naturopath, and there are times when a person needs the highly specialized abilities of a medical doctor to attend to their crisis. Hopefully the future will allow for more and more collaboration that will only empower people more to lead their lives with more health knowing their enormous capacity to heal is real.

Dr. B