NATUROPATHY

Naturopathy is known as a type of alternative medicine. Naturopathic practitioners often recommend against following modern medical practices, including but not limited to medical examinations, drugs, vaccinations, and surgeries. Naturopathy is considered by medical professionals to be ineffective and harmful, raising ethical issues. In addition to condemnation and criticism from the medical community, such as in the American Cancer Society, naturopaths have repeatedly been denounced as being charlatans and practising quackery. Naturopaths are known for their legal recognition campaign in the United States. Whereas schools are available for naturopaths, some jurisdictions also allow naturopaths to call themselves doctors. The lack of authorised and scientific medical training, coupled with the lack of the competency of true medical doctors.

PRACTICE

The practise of naturopathy is based on a belief in the body's ability to heal through special vital energy or force guiding bodily processes internally. Naturopaths claim to promote the natural ability of the body to heal. Diagnosis and treatment concerns primarily alternative therapies and "natural" methods. Avoiding the use of the methods of surgery and conventional medicine, Naturopaths focus on a holistic approach. Naturopaths aim to prevent illness in humans through stress reduction and changes to diet and lifestyle, often rejecting the methods of evidence-based medicine. A consultation typically begins with a comprehensive patient interview assessing lifestyle, medical history, emotional tone, and physical features, as well as a physical examination. Many naturopaths present themselves as primary care providers, while some naturopathic physicians prescribe drugs, perform minor surgery, and integrate other conventional medical approaches, such as diet and lifestyle counselling, into their naturopathic practice.

EVIDENCE BASIS

Based in part on the early views that shaped the profession, vaccines and antibiotics are not generally recommended by Naturopaths. They provide alternative remedies even in cases where evidence-based medicine has been shown to be effective. Naturopaths often oppose mainstream medicine and take an antivaccinationist stance. A naturopath uses particular modalities that vary with training and scope of practice. These may include herbalism, homeopathy, acupuncture, nature cures, physical medicine, applied kinesiology, colonic enemas, chelation therapy, colour therapy, cranial osteopathy, hair analysis, iridology, live blood analysis, ozone therapy, psychotherapy, massage therapy, and traditional Chinese medicine. Physical medicine includes naturopathic, osseous, soft tissue manipulative therapy and sports medicine etc. An examination conducted and published in 2011 of naturopathic clinic websites in Alberta and British Columbia found that the most commonly advertised therapies were homeopathy, botanical medicine, nutrition, lifestyle counselling and detoxification etc. In 2020, a survey of methods used by naturopaths in fourteen countries was conducted and reported that 27% of clients received accupuncture, 22% homeopathy, 16% "other energetic medicines", and 13.5% were given hydrotherapy.

SAFETY OF NATURAL TREATMENTS

Naturopaths often recommend exposure to naturally occurring substances, i.e. sunshine, herbs and foods, as well as they describe as natural, exercise, meditation and relaxation. "Non-scientific health care practitioners, as well as naturopaths, use unscientific methods and deception on people who, lacking in-depth health care knowledge, must rely on the assurance of providers. In the 2018 Australian case against Marlyin Bodnar, who advised a mother to treat her infant son's eczema with a raw food diet that nearly led to the child's starvation death, Judge Peter Berman said, "Well-intentioned but seriously misguided advice is, as demonstrated in the facts of this case, capable of causing great harm and even death to vulnerable children." Furthermore, critics of Britt Hermes note the "pervasive culture of patient blaming" among naturopathic practitioners, where "when something doesn’t work for the patient, the patient is not experiencing the positive effects and zero side-effects that are promised with the therapy." It’s never because the therapy doesn’t work; it’s because the patient didn’t do something right. "

VACCINATION

Joseph Pizzorno co-authored A naturopathy textbook recalls anti-vaccine beliefs associated with the founding of naturopathy in the United States: "a return to nature in regulating the diet, breathing, exercising, bathing, and employment of various forces" in lieu of the smallpox vaccine. In general, evidence of associations between naturopathy and paediatric vaccination is sparse, but "published reports suggest that a minority of naturopathic physicians actively support vaccination". A survey of naturopathic students published in 2004 found that students at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine became less likely to recommend vaccinations to their patients and became more distrustful of public health and conventional medicine as they advanced through the program. The British Columbia Naturopathic Association lists several major concerns regarding the paediatric vaccine schedule and vaccines in general, and the group's policy does not advocate for or against vaccines.