Urban living comes with some unique health challenges: the fast-paced stress, exposure to pollutants, and lack of access to peaceful green space to name a few. While the impact of this may build up slowly, many urban residents do feel the extra stressors negatively impacting their health.
With conventional medicine, reporting a specific symptom to your healthcare practitioner will give you access to prescribed medication of specialist treatment that deals only with that one symptom. With naturopathic healthcare, we take the opportunity to discuss a much wider range of impacting factors, taking a holistic approach and helping you to treat the root cause.
Naturopathy and conventional medicine are not mutually exclusive, it’s possible in some cases to combine both techniques for a broader treatment of your ailments. So, what is the difference between naturopathy and modern medicine? And how do they compare for urban residents?
What Is Conventional Medicine?
This is also known as western medicine – where the focus is rigorously scientific and often confines treatment to very specific symptoms. Treatment may involve prescribed medication or referral to specialised health services. There are both advantages and disadvantages to this healthcare approach. While prescription medicines can act quickly, they can often come with side effects. In some cases, these side effects may need further medications/treatments to counteract their effects.
Modern medicine advocates the use of technology and specialised equipment for diagnosis of the immediate problem – which is incredibly helpful. However, blinkered focus on one symptom and its origin often fails to consider the patient as a whole person. That is, it doesn’t give time or energy to assessing the patient’s lifestyle or other contributing factors (for example, living in a polluted environment) to their health concerns.
What Is Naturopathy?
Naturopathic medicine holistically assesses each patient to discover the relevant factors that may have caused the illness in the first place. Taking a broader view additionally helps patients to be proactive about their healthcare, by emphasising how a healthy lifestyle can act as an illness preventative (rather than waiting for symptoms to arise).
By focusing on the whole person, diagnostic investigation helps you understand and treat the root cause – rather than reacting to symptoms one at a time. However, naturopathy requires some commitment from the patient as treatments are designed for improved health in the long term, rather than acting as a quick fix.
Naturopathy focuses on the use of herbal medicine, nutritious diet, and an appropriate level of exercise that suits your unique needs. These rarely come with side effects; however, your naturopathic professional will discuss any possible drug interactions so they can avoid recommending anything that may cause harm. Natural treatment is a tailored, personalised process that puts you and your lifestyle at the centre of treatment. This can take some time to establish, making it unsuitable for emergency situations, and the treatment courses are not always covered by health insurance.
Can I Combine Natural and Conventional Treatments?
In many instances, the answer is yes. However, although natural remedies are often considered innocuous, certain herbal remedies may interact with some prescribed drugs causing unwanted effects. Please ensure you inform your naturopath of any other medicines or supplements you are taking, so they can chart the best course of treatment for your safety and wellness.
For example, urban living can impact your hormonal balance. Light pollution impacts melatonin production, which can then lead to other hormones behaving unexpectedly. This can lead to an unbalanced level of cortisol (stress), thyroid hormones (metabolism), as well as the fertility hormones. Endocrine disruptors (in chemicals and plastics) are more prevalent, while air pollution can further impact your respiratory system.
Conventional treatments will give you treatment to rebalance these hormones, while naturopathic remedies can offer ways to decrease the physical impact of stress, help to rebalance your nutritional intake to support your whole body against the effects of urban stressors. Naturopaths can also offer detoxification programs and light therapy to help restore your circadian rhythm.
Together these treatments can give you immediate relief from hormone imbalance, while also helping you to adapt your lifestyle for better all-round support.
Why Choose Naturopathy Over Modern Medicine?
Healthcare is full of jargon – much of it is largely unexplained to patients, with people being expected to take the professional’s word that a course of treatment is the best option.
So, when people ask ‘what is the difference between holistic medicine and conventional medicine’? The first, major, difference is that holistic practitioners emphasise the principle: Doctor as Teacher. This means that we include our patients at every step of the journey. We share our knowledge and encourage discussion while helping to educate you on your wider health and the steps you can take to protect it.
Often, it can feel very clinical and lacking compassion when you visit the doctor (though, not always). The control is very rarely placed in the patient’s hands. However, with naturopathy we recognise that each individual patient has a unique case and a naturopath must ensure that you are fully comfortable making an informed decision – this is your health after all.
What Health Concerns Can Naturopathy Help With?
Living and working in large cities brings us a life of fast-paced convenience, however, it can also lead to diverse health problems.
For instance, we see many patients each year who report stress and anxiety symptoms. Over time, work pressure, financial strain, sensory overload, or even the isolating effects of large, faceless crowds can cause debilitating effects. Naturopathic treatments may involve the use of adaptogenic herbs to strengthen your body against the physical effects of stress. You may be recommended mindfulness or meditation techniques to restore your inner balance.
Environmental toxins are another worry in some of our patients. Here, we may recommend some detoxification programs, supplements to improve and support your innate filtering system (e.g. liver/kidneys), or perhaps a recommendation to adapt your environment of lifestyle for a better quality of life.
Digestion and IBS can also be successfully targeted by a natural approach. Comprehensive analysis of contributing factors may identify infection, while a probiotic recommendation can help restore your gut balance of friendly bacteria. Your naturopath may even recommend a food intolerance test to rule out any sneaky allergies or intolerances that could be the root cause of your discomfort.
Why Choose Naturopathic Wellness
Conventional treatments are often attractive because they are viewed as 1) fast ways to deal with a particular symptom; 2) funded by insurance. However, they don’t often look beyond the symptom to investigate the root cause. Nor do they help support your health proactively in the long term. Conventional medicine can be very reactive.
If you would like to make a real, positive, and lasting impact on your health by leaning on the power of nature, then naturopathy is the way to go. By framing your symptoms as part of your whole body, and as existing in a particular time and place, a real sense of the root cause and targeted treatments can help support your good health in the long term.
At Naturopathic Wellness, we’ve chosen to offer a wide range of treatments to offer our patients the most comprehensive selection of strategies to combat their symptoms and improve their overall health outlook. We offer treatment for a wide range of concerns, including (but not limited to):
- cardiovascular
- respiratory
- Digestive
- Urinary
- Reproductive
- Musculoskeletal
Our vast knowledge and experience benefit our patients by helping to educate and inform about natural interventions so that you can regain control of your health.
Living in an urban environment shouldn’t put your health at a disadvantage – with Naturopathic Wellness you’ll be well equipped to combat your symptoms and support your body to great health. We understand you may lead a busy life, that’s why we now offer remote, online appointments as well as the option to speak with our team face-to-face. Press the Book Now button to cook your first appointment and take the first step to better health.
