Naturopathy

[8][9][10][11][12] Naturopathic practitioners commonly encourage alternative treatments that are rejected by conventional medicine, including resistance to surgery or vaccines for some patients.

[20][21] In Scotland, Thomas Allinson started advocating his "Hygienic Medicine" in the 1880s, promoting a natural diet and exercise with avoidance of tobacco and overwork.

[26] Lust defined naturopathy as a broad discipline rather than a particular method, and included such techniques as hydrotherapy, herbal medicine, and homeopathy, as well as eliminating overeating, tea, coffee, and alcohol.

In 1910, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published the Flexner Report, which criticized many aspects of medical education, especially quality and lack of scientific rigour.

[25] In 1968, the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare issued a report on naturopathy concluding that naturopathy was not grounded in medical science and that naturopathic education was inadequate to prepare graduates to make appropriate diagnosis and provide treatment; the report recommends against expanding Medicare coverage to include naturopathic treatments.

[35][36][37] In the United States, the Indian Health Service began accepting naturopathic doctors in their clinics and practice in 2013, also making loan repayment available to ND's.

[41] In 2003, a report[45] was presented by Kimball C. Atwood, an American medical doctor and researcher from Newton, Massachusetts, best known as a critic of naturopathic medicine, stating among other criticisms that "The practice of naturopathy is based on a belief in the body's ability to heal itself through a special vital energy or force guiding bodily processes internally".

[11] Naturopaths aim to prevent illness through stress reduction and changes to diet and lifestyle, often rejecting the methods of evidence-based medicine.

Naturopaths do not generally recommend vaccines and antibiotics, based in part on the early views that shaped the profession, and they may provide alternative remedies even in cases where evidence-based medicine has been shown effective.

[51] A 2004 survey determined the most commonly prescribed naturopathic therapeutics in Washington state and Connecticut were botanical medicines, vitamins, minerals, homeopathy, and allergy treatments.

[42] An examination published in 2011 of naturopathic clinic websites in Alberta and British Columbia found that the most commonly advertised therapies were homeopathy, botanical medicine, nutrition, acupuncture, lifestyle counseling, and detoxification.

[43] In 2020, a survey of methods used by naturopaths in fourteen countries reported that 27% of clients received acupuncture, 22% homeopathy, 16% "other energetic medicines", and 13.5% were given hydrotherapy.

[5] Although it includes valid lifestyle advice from mainstream medicine (healthy sleep, balanced diet, regular exercise),[10] it typically adds a range of pseudoscientific beliefs.

[18][55][56] Naturopathy is criticized for its reliance on and its association with unproven, disproven, and other controversial alternative medical treatments, and for its vitalistic underpinnings.

[10][11] Natural substances known as nutraceuticals show little promise in treating diseases, especially cancer, as laboratory experiments have shown limited therapeutic effect on biochemical pathways, while clinical trials demonstrate poor bioavailability.

In another article, Atwood writes that "Physicians who consider naturopaths to be their colleagues thus find themselves in opposition to one of the fundamental ethical precepts of modern medicine.

"[61] According to Arnold S. Relman, the Textbook of Natural Medicine is inadequate as a teaching tool, as it omits to mention or treat in detail many common ailments, improperly emphasizes treatments "not likely to be effective" over those that are, and promotes unproven herbal remedies at the expense of pharmaceuticals.

[62] The Massachusetts Medical Society states, "Naturopathic practices are unchanged by research and remain a large assortment of erroneous and potentially dangerous claims mixed with a sprinkling of non-controversial dietary and lifestyle advice.

Naturopaths claim that these natural treatments help restore the body's innate ability to heal itself without the adverse effects of conventional medicine.

[66][67][68] Stephen Barrett of QuackWatch and the National Council Against Health Fraud has stated that naturopathy is "simplistic and that its practices are riddled with quackery".

[70] In the 2018 Australian case against Marlyin Bodnar, who advised a mother to treat her infant son's eczema with a raw food diet which nearly led to the child's starvation death, Judge Peter Berman said, "Well intentioned but seriously misguided advice is, as the facts of this case demonstrate, capable of causing great harm and even death to vulnerable children.

[8][12][26][1] These accredited programs have been criticized for misrepresenting their medical rigor and teaching subjects that are antithetical to the best understandings of science and medicine.

[50] Naturopathic practitioners affiliated with the CNME-accredited schools lobby state, provincial, and federal governments for medical licensure and participation in social health programs.

They are not accredited by the same bodies that accredit real medical schools and while some courses have similar titles to the curricula of legitimate medical schools the content is completely different.In 2015, a former naturopathic doctor, Britt Marie Hermes, who graduated from Bastyr University and practiced as a licensed ND in Washington and Arizona, began advocating against naturopathic medicine.

I would characterize this political effort as a perverted redefinition of the words "physician", "doctor", "medical school", and "residency" in order to mask the inadequacy of the training provided in naturopathic programs.

Traditional naturopathic practitioners surveyed in Australia perceive evidence-based medicine to be an ideological assault on their beliefs in vitalistic and holistic principles.

In addition, there did not appear to be significant or systematic coverage of techniques favoured by naturopaths, such as homeopathy, Bach's floral remedies, or mineral salts.

[59] Accordingly, In 2017 the Australian government named naturopathy as a practice that would not qualify for insurance subsidies, saying this step would "ensure taxpayer funds are expended appropriately and not directed to therapies lacking evidence".

[37][83] In North America, each jurisdiction that regulates naturopathy defines a local scope of practice for naturopathic doctors that can vary considerably.

[127][128] British Columbia has the largest scope of practice in Canada, allowing certified NDs to prescribe pharmaceuticals and perform minor surgeries.

A patient undergoing a hydrotherapy session
A nutritional supplement of Chromium(III) picolinate , Chromax II
Homeopathic preparations are commonly used by naturopaths. [ 42 ] [ 43 ] The practice is considered a pseudoscience . [ 44 ]
Equipment for administering large enemas : a bag and a bucket, each holding a gallon. Enemas and colonic irrigation are commonly used by naturopaths for a wide range of medical conditions, [ 43 ] for which there are no known health benefits. [ 53 ]
A rectal bulb syringe for injecting a small enema
Patient undergoing Ozone IV Therapy
Person undergoing ozone IV therapy with ultraviolet irradiation. According to the FDA , "Ozone is a toxic gas with no known useful medical application in specific, adjunctive, or preventive therapy." [ 54 ]
Cases of measles from 1938 to 1963 followed a highly variable epidemic pattern, with 150,000–850,000 cases reported per year. A sharp decline followed after the introduction of the first measles vaccine in 1963, with fewer than 25,000 cases reported in 1968. Outbreaks around 1971 and 1977 gave 75,000 and 57,000 cases, respectively. Cases were stable at a few thousand per year until an outbreak of 28,000 in 1990. Cases declined from a few hundred per year in the early 1990s to a few dozen in the 2000s.
Measles cases reported in the United States fell dramatically after the introduction of the measles vaccine.
National University of Natural Medicine trains students in naturopathic medicine who are eligible to become licensed in some jurisdictions in North America.
The herb garden at Bastyr University , another naturopathic program whose graduates can become licensed naturopaths in some North American jurisdictions
Hugh Mercer Apothecary in Fredericksburg, Virginia , a pharmacy founded by Hugh Mercer , a Scottish physician, in the mid-18th century. It is now a museum demonstrating 18th Century medical treatments.