Naturopathy

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Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a field of practice in healing and maintaining health wherein licensed medical doctors also use various "natural" remedies to treat their victims patients. Naturopathic medicine disfavours surgery and drugs, preferring more friendly and fuzzy treatments like herbal medicine or outright woo such as "natural energy fields". Naturopathy doesn't have any real standards; what therapies one can expect from naturopathic care can vary wildly from practitioner to practitioner,[1] but in most cases include homeopathy and acupuncture.

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[edit] Definition

As has been noted, naturopathy doesn't really entail anything very specific (other than vitalism), and practitioners can run the gamut from slightly dubious lifestyle counselors to completely crazy germ theory denialists.[2] The American Textbook of Natural Medicine lists Unani as an acceptable form of naturopathic treatment,[3] even though bloodletting and leeching are integral parts of it. So, theoretically, a U.S.-based naturopath could read up on Unani therapies and start bleeding his/her patients.

[edit] Licensing

Although naturopathy has most of its modern roots in Europe (and can, in a sense, trace its roots to ancient Greece and the original Hippocratic Oath) it is most prominent in North America. Fourteen of the United States, and every province in Canada, license naturopathic physicians.[4]

There are currently seven colleges and universities that offer a "ND" (Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine) degree in North America.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. "The practices we encountered in our survey of the occupation ranged from the generally supportable to the improbable to the disproved. The list includes: [...] Some naturopaths we interviewed laughed at certain items in the list but embraced others that had even less credibility." Naturopathy: A Critical Analysis, Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD, Susan Downie, Quackwatch.
  2. Germ theory denialism: A major strain in “alt-med” thought, David Gorski, Science-Based Medicine, August 9 2010.
  3. Naturopathy Embraces the Four Humors, Jann Bellamy, Science-Based Medicine.
  4. http://www.naturopathyworks.com/
  5. http://www.aanmc.org/
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