Naturopathy
Naturopathic medicine is a time-tested, effective, and gentle system of medicine that focuses on health promotion and the use of non-toxic natural therapies. A naturopathic physician sees the whole person not individual disease diagnoses; therefore we treat the whole person and search for underlying causes of why disease processes developed.
Naturopathic medicine is based on 6 philosophical principles:
1. First, do no harm. Naturopathic physicians use the safest, most effective, and least intrusive therapies to reach wellness.
2. The healing power of nature. We recognize that there is innate healing wisdom within our own bodies. Our job is to support the body’s ability to heal itself.
3. Treat the whole person. Naturopathic physicians understand that symptoms arise from imbalances in physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual bodies and work with patients on all these levels to promote deep healing.
4. Identify and treat the cause. Two patients may present with the same illness, but naturopathic physicians understand that they have developed the symptoms for different reasons and work on treating the patients with this in mind. Suppressing symptoms does not address the cause of illness and is therefore avoided or minimized in our practice.
5. Doctor as teacher. The responsibility of the physician is to help the patient understand their body and provide them with the tools to affect their own health.
6. Prevention. The best medicine is to prevent disease from occurring by working holistically. We will assess your risk factors based on genetics and environmental influence and help you take the most appropriate preventive measures.
Treatments
Acupuncture: The insertion of very fine needles at specific points along the body to influence the physiological functioning of the body to remove disease.
Botanical Medicine: The medicinal use of plants and their extracts.
Clinical Nutrition Therapy: The use of food to encourage the body to correct and heal disease states in the body.
Homeopathic Medicine: A system of medical treatments that improves the body's innate ability to heal through the concept of like cures like. It is based on the use of minute quantities of substances that in massive doses produce effects similar to those of the disease being treated.
Hydrotherapy: The use of hot and cold water to treat a variety of conditions.
Mind-Body Therapy: A combination of treatments that address the emotional and mental components of illness.
Naturopathic Manipulation Therapy: A gentle movement of joints to resolve symptoms that result from muscle, bone and ligament dysfunctions.
Nutritional Supplementation: The use of vitamins, minerals, metabolic cofactors, trace metals, and probiotics, to name a few, to treat medical conditions with fewer complications and side effects than conventional drugs.*
*Patients with conditions which require more intervention than is within a Naturopathic Physicians scope of practice in the state of Connecticut will be referred to see their Primary Care Physician in addition to naturopathic treatment suggestions.