Naturopathic Medicine

In February, I also began to see a Naturopathic Doctor. I got her name from my Pilates instructor, who has battled health issues and is into alternative health as well. I had to travel over an hour each way to meet with my new naturopath, but it was a really great experience.

Terry's expertise is in Naturopathic medicine, Chinese medicine, and acupuncture. She works with her patients to figure out the reasons behind their symptoms and then to figure out how to solve their health problems. This whole approach is so different from Western Medicine because the focus in Naturopathy is wellness and it is important that the patient is very involved in their treatment. In Western Medicine, the focus is on disease and drugs, and patients participate very little in their own treatment. I was ready to get involved in my healing.

Meeting with Terry is great because it's not that nervous feeling of "Going to the Doctor". You don't have to wait in a gross sterile waiting room full of unhealthy-looking, obese or old people who look like they're going to cough up lungs or keel over at any minute. You don't have to put on a paper gown and then try to remember all your questions in the meager 15 minutes your Western doc has allocated for you in order to make enough money.

Her office is in her home, and she has chickens roaming outside, glass jars full of beans and whole grains in her kitchen, and peppermint soap in her bathroom. She asks a lot of questions about mood, sleep, digestion, menstrual cycles, and similar, to try to see what needs to be worked on. I've been seeing her about every three weeks now, and going to visit the Naturopath is sort of like an appointment at a spa.

It's not for those who just want to pop a pill. You have to be ready to be really involved in your own treatment, and be ready to cut things out of your diet (which I was already doing) and just in general be open to a new way of health. Unfortunately, my health insurance doesn't pay for "alternative health" costs or acupuncture, but her office visits are very reasonably priced, considering that I usually spend about 2+ hours there each time.

In general, she thinks that my digestive (and therefore, my skin) issues are related to what is referred to in Chinese medicine as "blood stasis". This means that the energy (qi) in my body gets stagnant and that I need to get it moving in order to bring the energy to the places where it needs to be. For those unfamiliar with Chinese medicine, this probably sounds pretty weird, but if you look at it as a circulatory issue, just think that getting blood moving can help with everything--better digestion, sleep, mood, sex drive, etc. Since skin problems are a reflection of what is wrong with the gut, it's very important to get the digestive issues handled first. It can take a long time to get skin to its optimal health, many months is not unusual. But like anything worth doing, the time has to be invested.

I'll definitely be posting more about naturopathy and acupuncture, this is just the beginning. I am not really sure yet how detailed I want to get in this blog, as some of the things are rather personal. However, I would love to hopefully help other people who are going through similar changes as I am so I may want to be more open. Time will tell!