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Naturopathic Medicine Has A Holistic
Approach  Towards  Using  Plants  For
Medicinal Purposes 

Naturopathic medicine, Herbal Medicine or Botanical Medicine... Can be traced back to
thousands of years, and across  all societies and  cultures around the world. It is still 
the most widely used  system of medicine  that exists in the world today.  

Naturopathic medicine is a natural and holistic approach to medicine that relies on the use
of plants for medicinal purposes.

Naturopaths and Herbalists work with a  range of different  herbs to alleviate symptoms &
address a range of different conditions. 

They work from a holistic perspective, which means they treat each person as an individual and treat the entire person, not  just the affected area.  

They  adhere to  the  principle of  least intrusion  and work  with the body’s innate ability
to heal itself.  Using the healing power of nature and gentle  therapeutic techniques, the
body, mind and emotions are supported during the healing process.

Plants are increasingly recognised for their therapeutic
properties. 

The plant’s roots, bark, flowers, berries or leaves are used in naturopathic medicine. 
Herbs are often combined with other herbs to enhance their therapeutic benefits.

Naturopaths generally use a range of treatment methods, including prescribing herbs to treat  various illnesses, advice on dietary and nutritional strategies, stress management techniques,
plus lifestyle advice, flower essences, massage and homeopathy.

Naturopathy can alleviate a wide range of conditions
including:-

• Fatigue and chronic fatigue
• Arthritis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis
• Stress related ailments such as anxiety, insomnia, depression
• Digestive problems
• Women’s health issues including PMT or menopausal symptoms
• Headaches and migraine

What is Naturopathy?

By Anna Simiana, Naturopath

Naturopathy, or “nature cure,” is a method of healing that uses various modalities such
as herbal medicine, clinical nutrition, homoeopathy, flower essences etc to achieve the
highest possible level of health for each individual. 

Naturopathy is proving valuable in the prevention of disease. 

Naturopathic clinicians are trained to spend a considerable time and  effort in teaching
patients the importance of a health promoting lifestyle, diet and attitude. True primary prevention involves addressing a person’s  risk for disease; in  particular heart disease,
cancer, diabetes, strokes or osteoporosis, & implementing a course of  action designed
to reduce controllable risk factors.

The role of a Naturopath is to educate, empower and motivate the  individual to assume
more personal responsibility for his or her health by adopting a healthy attitude, lifestyle
and diet.

Naturopathy takes a holistic approach to health. What does holistic mean? 

It means that the whole person is considered: diet, lifestyle, how long and well they are
sleeping, their  emotional  state, how each  body system is functioning to find the weak
link in the chain which is preventing robust health.

Naturopathy recognizes the body’s own  inherent ability to heal itself to therefore works
to support the body to overcome disease and achieve strong health.

What happens in a consultation?

An initial consultation takes approximately 1.5 hours. During this time you will be asked
about your health concerns, personal and family health history, diet, lifestyle habits; & 
a review of each body system will be taken.

The role of a  naturopath is to piece together the pieces of your jigsaw puzzle. Towards
the end of the session health objectives & treatment plans are discussed & agreed upon

Follow up consultations may be approximately 30 - 60 minutes in duration. In these
sessions, treatment  is  assessed  to  ensure progress is underway; further lifestyle
changes are developed and new objectives may be addressed. 

How often?

A follow-up appointment after the initial consultation is essential to  ensure positive
changes are in progress. This  Session also  provides the patient the Opportunity to
ask questions & allows the Treatment plan to be further refined to suit the patient’s
needs.

Depending on the individual’s health situation, fortnightly sessions may continue for a
short time; otherwise sessions may be Extend to 4-6 week intervals until The desired
result is reach.

Some  improvement  in symptoms may be noted within hours to a day for acute
complaints such as a cold or the flu. For chronic complaints a shift in symptoms
may take 4-6 weeks.

What treatments are used?

Herbal medicine

Is an age old system of medicine that  uses plants  therapeutically to heal and restore
the body back to health. Herbal medicine works to support, rebuild and retrain various
body systems.

For example, if you  have  had lots  of stress and are depleted and Exhausted, Herbal
medicines has a class of medicine called “adaptogens” & “adrenal restoratives”, which
assist to rebuild and help the body to cope with stress more efficiently.

Clinical nutrition

Australia is amongst the fattest nations in the world, but not necessarily well nourished. 
This may be the result of poor food choices, the lack of  availability of truly fresh foods, pesticides & other chemicals  added to our Foods, or even depleted soils. Good nutrition
is essential for the body and all its systems to function optimally.

Clinical nutrition employs the principle that food’s nutritional value plays an important
role in  virtually  every  medical  condition. It  is the Science of how the Human body
obtains and uses nutrients  from food for maintenance, growth  and renewal  of body
tissues necessary for life.  

Every process in the body consists of a biochemical reaction. And within each particular reaction, nutrients  are  required  at each  step of the way. A naturopath can prescribe
various nutrients to rectify and normalize particular pathways.

For example, various nutrients can increase or decrease the levels of important
chemicals in the body, reduce inflammation, influence hormonal balance, reduce
levels of toxic elements/chemicals, improve  immune function, reduce  oxidative
stress etc.

Addressing any existing nutritional imbalances and adopting a healthy diet are of great importance.  This may be achieved through diet changes, which generally takes longer,
but ultimately establishes healthy life long habits; or by prescribing nutritional
supplementation to assist in normalizing a specific deficiency

Are health fund rebates available?

Yes health fund rebates are available through your personal health fund provider
dependant on your level of cover.

Short Consultations

Short consultations  (30 minute) are  available  for  acute ailments. This  allows enough
time to treat conditions symptomatically. This means treatment would only be targeting
and addressing the symptoms and not necessarily addressing the cause, or the  root of
the problem. 

A short consultation would be ideal to treat the symptoms of:
• Cough/bronchitis
• Cold/flu
• Tummy upset,
• Acute digestive problems such as constipation or diahorrea etc

What conditions can a naturopath assist?

Any condition  you would  see a general  practitioner, you could see a naturopath. A
naturopath supports  the body through dis-ease To overcome it. Naturopathy comes
into its own  when approaching  specific conditions  for which  western medicine has
no explanation, e.g.: insomnia, premenstrual  syndrome, inexplicable infertility, or the
consequences of chronic stress.

A naturopath may detect a nutritional deficiency or observe the need to  retrain and
rebuild the body after experiencing disease or enormous amounts of stress. The main
emphasis of naturopathic treatment is to support the  body’s own  inherent ability to
bring about balance and heal itself.