About this video:
In this video, Dr. Margaret Litchy-Miller explains the six principles of Naturopathic Medicine.

Question for Dr. Litchy-Miller: What is Naturopathic Medicine. What are the 6 Pillars of Naturopathic Medicine

Explanation from Dr. Litchy-Miller(Transcript):

Naturopathic Medicine is a form of Healthcare that stimulates the body's natural ability to heal through the use of natural therapies. Naturopathic doctors do that utilizing a set of two systems. The first system is the Six Principles of Naturopathic Medicine. 

1. Do No Harm

Those principles include first Do No Harm. And that means that we're going to use the absolute least invasive procedures and therapies possible and utilize the healing power of nature to the utmost extent before going up the ladder and using more invasive procedures. 

2. Treat the Whole Person

The second principle is Treating the Whole Person. Utilizing all the aspects of the person -  to include what they do for work, what their social life is like, what are their genes saying, what is their diet like, what is their sleep like, what is their exercise like? All of these things are extremely important to understand what is going on in their body physiologically and biochemically so that we can treat accordingly and get the best results possible. 

3. Healing Power of Nature

Another principle is the Power of Nature, The Healing Power of Nature. Because we believe that the body has an inherent ability to heal itself using nature. To stimulate this power of healing is the best way of supporting the body in the healing process. 

4. Doctor As Teacher

Another principle that we use is Doctor As Teacher. When one is involved in their healthcare, we see that the results are that much better. So educating the patient, having them understand what is going on in their body, what the biochemical processes are. What the physiology is. How we're going to correct that and then also talking with them about how we're going to go about that. What are their options? What makes sense to them? What do they want to do? Because if the patient isn't on board, it's just not going to work. I can tell you to go to ABCDE, but if that's something that's not going to work with your lifestyle or your schedule, it's going to make it very difficult for you to follow those recommendations. Establishing a true partnership with the patient is of the utmost importance.

5. Treat Root Cause

The next principle would be Identify and Treat the Cause. This is where Naturopathic doctors are truly unique insofar as we want to treat the cause. What this can look like, theoretically, is if a patient is coming in with chest pain most of the time we're going to go straight to a cardiovascular event. Meaning that we are going to definitely rule out if the patient is having a heart attack right? So that's treating the symptoms. We're going to treat the symptoms to get rid of the chest pain. But what's causing the chest pain? Is it indeed cardiovascular? Is it something else? Could it be that they're having a reaction from food? We don't know so we need to systematically go through and determine what the cause of that symptom is. When we reveal what the cause is, that's when we see true healing. 

6. Prevention

Then the last principle of that we follow, but could possibly be the most important principle, is emphasizing prevention. One of the phrases that I like and appreciate is “An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure.” So if you were to come to me and say Dr. Litchy-Miller, I have a history of heart disease in my family. I have a history of diabetes in my family. I don't want to follow down that road. Well, I’ll think I don't want you to follow down that road either. Let's see what we can do to make sure that that doesn't happen. So I would utilize a lot of my tools. Diet. Exercise. Possibly some supplementation to support your cardiovascular system and your endocrine system to make sure that that didn't go down that road of diabetes and heart disease. Preventative medicine is really the most cost-effective of healthcare because if you can avoid double bypass surgery, that's great. So that's the first system that we follow.

Key Take away:
Six pillars of Naturopathic Medicine Include
1. Do No Harm
2. Treat the Whole Person
3. Healing Power of Nature
4. Doctor as Teacher
5. Treat Root Cause
6. Prevention

 Trailhead Health Tip:

Your Naturopathic Doctor is also your teacher, who helps you understand your body and practice prevention. The Naturopathic doctor believes in and helps you harness the healing power of nature and your body using natural therapies. If faced with a health problem, the naturopathic doctor is trained to help identify and treat the root cause.