Naturopathic medical practitioners, whether working with cancer or any other types of illness, have the fundamental belief that this form of medicine is an art, a science, and a philosophy. It is a practice of diagnosis, treatment and the prevention of future illness. These healers believe in the premise that the human body has an innate ability to heal itself, so they treat the whole body, rather than just the sick portions.
Naturopathic practitioners develop individualized whole body treatment plans that utilize what they consider the best of modern medical science and traditional natural approaches to not only treat disease, but to also restore health to the individual, perhaps after a disease is treated by a conventional physician. Once health is restored, patient treatments and visits will focus on the maintenance of health.
It is common knowledge that conventional forms of cancer treatment, which include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and even nuclear medicine, are quite severe. Cancer is such a scary word, not just because of the pain and suffering the disease causes, but also because the treatment is painful, expensive, debilitating, and often makes the patient feel sicker than the symptoms of the disease itself.
More and more cancer patients are turning to naturopathic care to support conventional cancer treatment. The fears of the side effects of chemotherapy, the pain and disfiguring effects of surgery, and the unknown effects of treatments such as radiation therapy, are part of what is leading people to explore the implementation of natural remedies such as herbs, nutrition, exercise and overall lifestyle adjustments in order to prevent this illness, and/or in order to restore themselves to a healthy state after conventional cancer treatments.
While conventional medical practitioners focus on eliminating the cancer disease by destroying the tumor, naturopaths will try to find what is causing the growth. Until the cause of the illness is identified and eradicated, true optimal health for the patient cannot be achieved.
The basic tenet of naturopathic medicine, treatment of the whole body, is logical, so huge portions of the population are becoming increasingly cynical about all the man made and artificial medications and treatments that are being used in and on our bodies by conventional MDs. They want to believe and embrace a longer more healthy life, so the demand for holistic medicine is growing.
Some naturopathic practitioners use Autonomic Response Testing (ART), which is a series of tests that investigate different areas of the body including the tissues and psychology of an individual to get an accurate picture of their health or illness. ART is a highly advanced kind of biofeedback testing that uses hands on techniques along with high tech Signal Enhancers and a polarization filter. These tests are designed to give the patient and the doctor clearer feedback from the body.
Practitioners of naturopathic medicine work to create a full body treatment plan that recognizes each individual s unique physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, sexual and spiritual makeup. It is the interaction, or mis interaction of all these components of the human body that allows wellness, or creates disease in the body.
A typical plan for post cancer treatment can include any or all of the following components: nutrition, botanical (flowers and herbs) medicine, homeopathy, classical Chinese medicine, hydrotherapy, manipulative therapy, environmental medicine and minor surgery; whatever is required to treat the entire body, boost the immune system and treat the patient on a mental and emotional level as well. The long term goals are to improve the patient s energy, well being and overall quality of life.
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