Naturopathic doctors take a holistic approach to your health and wellness by combining modern conventional medicine, complementary and alternative modalities, and traditional healing practices. Thanks to the naturopathic doctor on our team, McWhorter CNR is excited to expand its services in laboratory testing, nutritional counseling, natural medicine, mind-body medicine, and integrative approaches to mental health. Our naturopathic doctors in Denver always seek to ‘treat the whole person’ because every patient and each body is unique and deserves to have a tailored and targeted treatment plan.
What is Naturopathic Medicine?
Naturopathic doctors provide evidence-based holistic care using conventional, complementary, and alternative treatments. During their 4-year program in Naturopathic Medical school, naturopathic doctors receive comparable training to M.D.s and D.O.s in the sciences, pharmacology, outpatient care, and primary care. Additionally, these doctors receive extensive education in:
- Behavioral medicine
- Nutrition
- Herbal and Botanical Medicine
- Manual Therapies
At McWhorter CNR, our naturopathic doctor in Denver provides personalized care that combines the rigors of modern medicine with the wisdom of the natural world. We concentrate on whole patient wellness to promote better health, prevent disease, and address any underlying causes of your health concerns or conditions.
Naturopathic Medicine is guided by its established principles and an approach to treatment called the “Therapeutic Order.” McWhorter CNR is bringing this revolutionary care within arm’s reach of those living in the Denver Metro Area.
6 Principles of Naturopathic Medicine
All naturopathic doctors in Denver and across the globe are guided by 6 key principles:
- Docere: “To Teach” – A naturopathic doctor is first and foremost a teacher, and their knowledge is medicine.
- Preventare: “Prevention” – In Naturopathic Medicine, physicians prioritize the idea that ‘prevention is better than cure.’
- Tolle causum: “Treat the Cause” – Rather than just suppressing the symptoms or providing relief, naturopathic doctors treat the cause of disease.
- Tolle totum: “Treat the Whole Person” – This includes the mind, body, spirit, and social/environmental factors.
- Vis medicatrix nature: “The healing power of nature” – Every living thing possesses the ability to grow, heal, self-regulate, and thrive. Naturopathic doctors seek to tap into this capacity so that patients are able to overcome health challenges with minimal external interventions.
- Primum non-nocere: “First, do no harm” – Every naturopathic doctor will follow this oath.
Naturopaths use these principles during the “Therapeutic Order” to minimize the risk of harm, reduce the need for treatment, and improve outcomes.
What is the Therapeutic Order of Naturopathic Medicine?
The Therapeutic Order is best defined as a treatment philosophy that prioritizes ‘low force’ interventions over ‘high force’ interventions by focusing on the individual’s uniqueness and capacity to heal. By using a ‘low force’ approach, naturopathic doctors in Denver seek to prevent the adverse events and side effects often associated with ‘high force’ treatments.
This order breaks down into a hierarchy of ‘low force’ to ‘high force’ interventions, which helps guide personalized treatments to resolve symptoms and address underlying causes while using the least force necessary. These levels break down as follows:
- Lifestyle: At this level, the priority is to address unhealthy lifestyle factors, which are an ‘obstacle to cure’ and ensure that each patient has what they need to be healthy. This often includes things like nutrition, physical activity, hydration, safety, social connections, etc.
- Self-Healing Capacity: Your psychological and spiritual states have a significant influence on your immune system, metabolism, and your body’s ability to heal. Modalities such as counseling, behavioral medicine, and energy-based treatments can enhance our innate capacity to recover from physical and psychological conditions.
- Functional Support: Before treating disease, it is important to ensure that every system of the body has what it needs to function properly. Nutritional counseling and supplemental support ensure that the body has the fuel and the building blocks necessary for healthy function.
- Physical Medicine: Muscle tension, skeletal misalignment, and structural pathologies can reduce healthy daily functioning and your ability to do the things you enjoy. Manual therapies such as stretching, soft-tissue work, and skeletal mobilization can help to restore or optimize healthy function.
- Natural Symptom Control: In the case of acute illness or advanced disease, it is necessary to reduce the pain and discomfort that an individual is experiencing. Naturopathic physicians prefer to use natural compounds to achieve this when scientifically proven options are available.
- Synthetic Symptom Control: When natural options for symptom relief are not available, naturopaths recommend pharmaceuticals to provide the control and relief patients need. They seek to use the safest medication at the minimal effective dose.
- High Force Interventions: Tools such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgical procedures are essential for treating advanced disease and injury. These interventions also come with significant risks and side effects. This is why naturopathic doctors seek to prevent the need for these types of high force treatments but support their use when they’re truly necessary.
Get Started with Naturopathic Medicine in Denver at McWhorter CNR
Whether you’re struggling to find lasting pain relief or can’t reduce symptoms of a physical or psychological condition, our team at McWhorter CNR can help. We are proud to be a leading practitioner of Naturopathic Medicine in the Denver metro area and will take a holistic approach to your health care needs.
Contact McWhorter CNR today to learn more about our naturopathic doctors in Denver near you and schedule your consultation with our holistic care team.