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Naturopathic Medicine is a system of medicine whose primary goal is to address the cause of disease not merely to suppress symptoms. This is accomplished by treating the patient as a whole person and by removing obstacles to healing while stimulating the body's ability to heal itself. The first Naturopathic Medical School was started in 1903 in New York by Dr. Benedict Lust. Although the official beginning of Naturopathy was only 100 years ago the philosophies and practices stem from healing arts passed down through the ages. These clinically effective practices were combined with the modern technological and scientific advances of the past century using the best of both systems to appropriately *diagnose and treat patients in a primary care setting.

Currently Florida has only 5 NDs licensed from before 1959 when the Florida legislature discontinued the licensing of new Naturopathic Physicians. Efforts are underway to introduce legislation that will reopen licensure to those people who have successfully completed a 4 year post-graduate Naturopathic Medical School and who have passed the National Board Exam for Naturopathic Medicine.

*(The ability to diagnosis & treat specific illness or injury is legislated from state to state.)

Despite the large variation in the scope of practice and the modalities of treatments used by Naturopathic Physicians Naturopathic Medicine has 6 principles that guide the direction of the treatment and healing:

• The healing power of nature
• Treat the whole person
• Identify and treat the cause
• First do no harm
• Prevention is the best cure
• Doctor as teacher

By using these principles the Naturopathic Physician will work to address the underlying causes of imbalance allowing the body to heal itself.

Education:
A Licensed (or Licensable) Naturopathic Physician (N.D., N.M.D.) attends a four-year post-graduate level Naturopathic Medical school and is educated in all of the same basic sciences and as an MD but also studies holistic and nontoxic approaches to therapy with a strong emphasis on disease prevention and optimizing wellness. In addition to a standard medical curriculum, required training includes Naturopathic philosophy, clinical nutrition, homeopathic medicine, botanical medicine, Naturopathic Manipulative therapy, psychology, counseling and mind/body medicine. A Naturopathic Physician takes 3 days of rigorous professional board exams so that he or she may be licensed by a state or jurisdiction as a primary care general practice physician. There are currently only four 4-year Naturopathic Medical schools in the US.

For more information about Naturopathic Medicine go to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians web site.