What does a Naturopath do?

When they ask me what I do and I answer that I am a Naturopath, the question "and what does a naturopath do?" Almost always appears. Many times our work is associated with dealing with plants or energy and the fundamental pillar on which our work is based is forgotten: the naturist vision. We are living a moment of maximum confusion about natural therapies, which creates mistrust and misinformation about a global of practices that on many occasions have nothing to do with each other. With this article, I intend to explain our foundations and transmit our work as complementary and parallel to allopathic medical work and not contrary or opposite. Sometimes people confuse between Naturopath and Hypnosis both are different  

These are our Principles:

Treat the whole person by individualizing the treatment

Each person a unique case, that is, we focus on the person and his whole (emotions, lifestyle, relationships, food, work, and physical activity) and we do not determine his treatment alone for the pathology it has.

The healing power of nature

Nature is our inspiration and reference. In this way, we understand the perfection of the human body as a reflection of it. If we understand that the human body always seeks balance (or homeostasis), any symptom will be understood as an attempt by the organism to regain this balance, so it should not be eliminated but used as a search for the cause.

Identify and treat the causes

The symptoms are doors and windows to the causes of the pathologies. They serve to guide us towards what prevents the body from regaining its balance. The causes can be of all kinds (emotional, energetic, biochemical, structural ...). It is for this reason that acute and urgent pathologies require allopathic and non-naturopathic medical treatment because medicine is much faster and more effective and the naturopathy is slower but it is maintained over time.

First, do no harm

Naturopathy will always seek to stimulate the restoration of the natural balance, helping the body to recover it. The therapeutic elements that we can use will go in this direction and will not directly affect organic functioning. We stimulate the organism but we do not modify its nature. When in doubt or possible harm to the person, the option will be to do nothing. Faced with medical treatment, the doctor's criteria will always be respected and we will not be in contradiction.

Health education

The most important part of the therapeutic process is to transmit our knowledge to the person so that they can maintain their health through daily habits. To fulfill it we must transmit with clarity and passion and motivate the person to include in their lives the habits that benefit them and leave those that harm them.

Therapeutic resources respectful of nature

Nature is our source of learning so we must respect it. Our resources should be sustainable and cause little environmental impact. In the feeding and/or supplementation recommendations we should be aware of whether we respect this principle. It is for this reason that I always recommend low animal protein diets and I do not recommend supplements with bovine colostrum or shark cartilage among others.

I will give you an example so that you can see our principles in practice. What happens when we have a fever? When there is a fever, the increase in temperature causes the circulation to accelerate and can carry toxins, which are eliminated thanks to sweating. Also the vasodilation and vascular permeability that it causes allow the arrival of the cells of the immune system and for the blood supply to reach less irrigated areas. In other words, as naturopaths we understand fever as a super effective mechanism of the organism to eliminate pathogens, so our recommendation will be rest, hydration, stimulate sweating and not cut the temperature (unless it exceeds 39 ºC) for the body to perform its function.