This year I began a four-year program to become a naturopath, also known as a doctor of natural health.  I plan to focus on nutrition and plant medicine, or ‘food as medicine.’  Interestingly, since starting down this path, an amazing number of people in my life have come out of the woodwork to criticize natural health modalities, or the practice of naturopathy and herbalism, in general.  In fact, very dear friends have made it very clear that, in their estimation, only allopathic medicine is “real” medicine, and if it’s not been proven by rigorous scientific study, then it has no merit.  

 

I might have believed this to be true at one time, as well.  Before I knew that studies could be doctored, data falsified, and that the funding source of the studies greatly influences the outcome, I might have firmly believed that if it wasn’t published in some respected journal, it wasn’t worth giving a second thought.  The world of research, however, is not that altruistic or dependable, sadly. 

 

Aside from this, for years, no one seemed to be interested in research that didn’t produce or support a pharmaceutical or surgical therapy, or a device that could be patented, marketed, and sold so that research dollars could be recouped.   Why prove Echinacea works to enhance the immune system, when Echinacea, the plant, cannot be patented?  Of course, if some piece of the whole is isolated, that can be patented, and thus marketed and sold.  However, the various other constituents of the plant that work in conjunction with that isolate are lost, but that’s not really addressed.

 

Even in those cases where real truth is the goal, sometimes all the wrong questions are asked, or in the wrong way. For instance, a study hoping to identify an herb’s effect on human sperm concluded that Echinacea caused damage. (You can find that study here.)  Obviously, this would be alarming for men taking Echinacea thinking they were enhancing their immune system but may have, in the process, been causing harm to their sperm.  That was, in fact, something of the headline with which the media ran after the study was published.  Reading through the study, however, one learns that the sperm used in the study were exposed in vitro.  In other words, herbs in whatever form were mixed with sperm in a test tube and the effect was recorded.  This is wholly different than how a plant, ingested and in its whole form, would affect the body. 

 

Another issue with relying on published studies as the only measure of validity is that for each study that says one thing, inevitably there is another that contradicts it.  Now, one might ask how that can be, as these studies are purportedly only looking for scientific truth, but see above for all the many reasons this might be so.

 

Putting the issue of research (or lack thereof) relative to natural health therapies aside, I can personally attest to being let down, time and time again, by standard allopathic medicine.  I have a long and complex history of autoimmune issues, and I have no doubt that each failure by allopathic medicine to address the cause of the original issue only led to further and more complex issues.  Perhaps the doctors did not know the latest research?  Perhaps they had read the wrong study?  Maybe they had read conflicting studies and weren’t sure which one to believe?  Maybe they don’t read studies, because they don’t have time, and they are relying instead on the pharmaceutical reps who hand-feed them the information their sponsoring company wants them to dish out, along with samples and other goodies.

 

When I informed my rheumatologist that I was more interested in treating my Rheumatoid Arthritis with diet, I was directly told that there was no data linking diet and arthritis.  I merely blinked at her, because I was unaware that fifteen pages of study after study listed on PubMed qualified as “no data.”  Clearly, she had not had time to even look to see if there WAS data, much less read the studies to find out if they revealed anything relevant.

 

When I finally turned to a naturopath for guidance in turning my health around, for the first time I felt like the ‘authority’ to whom I was turning really got it.  What we discussed during appointments made sense to me, and if they didn’t make sense right away, I did some reading and research on my own and discovered that the more I understood, the more it did make sense.  And the most significant difference was that when I tried a therapy recommended to me, it actually helped me, rather than simply masking symptoms.

 

For this reason, learning a new way to look at health and how easy it can be affected with natural therapies (diet, exercise, herbs, vitamins and minerals, sunshine, pure water, etc.), and seeing it proven in myself, I knew this was something I was interested in pursuing, with the goal of continuing my own journey to health and helping others do the same. 

 

Does that mean all therapies listed as “natural” are beneficial?  No.  There are lots of quack treatments that try to cash in on the increasing number of people who are turning to alternative medicine as they are ever more dissatisfied with the standard of care they are receiving in the allopathic community.  Treatments such as detoxing foot pads, for one.  Obviously, we must still be discerning when looking for complementary health options.  Does that mean we should turn away from all allopathic medicine?  Absolutely not.  John Wayne Bobbitt would have been crazy to find an herbalist or acupuncturist rather than a surgeon when he had his unfortunate separation, for lack of a better term.  But we should not be discouraged from seeking to heal ourselves using the best of both worlds wherever we are able, and the majority of our choices regarding health care should start with the least invasive and most natural treatments available to us.  This is where naturopathy and herbalism come in.

 

As for the science behind it, perhaps one day it will catch up.  We are only just beginning to learn about energy and frequencies of the human body, quantum physics being a relatively new discipline, but it’s what practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine have been telling us for hundreds of years.  Can it be proven in a laboratory? Perhaps not yet, and that doesn’t make it any less real or valid.