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Service Details

Naturopathic Medicine Services

Alternative Medicine for Optimal Health

Naturopathic and alternative medicine helps you regain your energy and optimal health through precise changes in diet, lifestyle and nutritional supplementation. At Integrative Health Centre, our natural therapies can be applied to a wide variety of conditions, such as anxiety, high blood pressure, weight loss, and depression. See our Services for a full list of the types of conditions treated and our range of alternative therapies.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine

What to Expect from Alternative Health Care

The initial assessment at Integrative Health Centre consists of an in-depth interview where information such as current and prior health concerns, diet, stress, lifestyle, exercise, past illness, and environmental exposure are discussed to identify the cause of any symptoms presented. Following this, the patient undergoes a quick external physical exam followed by additional testing to detect underlying causes and imbalances. The patient is then educated on what is causing the imbalance and what is required to return them to health. The patient's understanding and compliance are the most important components in the healing process; therefore, visits are designed to create an atmosphere of trust and interaction.

What Should I Expect from Naturopathy Treatment?

Naturopathic and alternative medicine emerges from five underlying principles of healing that distinguish it from other medical approaches. Together, these principles guide every naturopathy treatment, including diet recommendations, lifestyle changes, supplements, natural therapies and more.

1 - THE HEALING POWER OF NATURE

The body has the inherent ability to establish, maintain, and restore health. The doctor's role in complementary and alternative medicine is to facilitate and encourage this process, to act to identify and remove obstacles to health and recovery, and to support the creation of a healthy internal and external environment. The underlying causes, rather than the symptomatic expression, of disease must be discovered and treated before a person can recover completely from an illness.

2 - FIRST DO NO HARM

Illness is a purposeful process in an individual's body, and the doctor's actions can either support or antagonize this process. Alternative therapies and interventions should be synergistic with the healing process. Therefore, naturopathy treatment programs designed to suppress symptoms without removing underlying causes of the condition are considered harmful and avoided.

3 - TREAT THE WHOLE PERSON

Health and disease are conditions of the whole individual, involving a complex interaction of physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, and other factors. In alternative medicine, the doctor must treat the whole person by taking all of these factors into account. The harmonious functioning of all aspects of the individual is essential for both recovery and prevention of disease.

4 - DOCTOR AS TEACHER

Beyond an accurate diagnosis and appropriate naturopathy treatment plan, the doctor must work to create a cooperative, sensitive interpersonal relationship with the patient. The doctor's major role is to educate and encourage the patient to take responsibility for his or her health. The patient ultimately creates or accomplishes healing; the doctor is merely a catalyst for change.

5 - PREVENTION

The ultimate goal of any health care system should be prevention. In alternative health care, this is accomplished through education and promotion of habits that create good health. The doctor assesses risk factors and hereditary susceptibility to disease and makes appropriate interventions or recommends natural therapies to avoid further harm and risk to the patient.