Naturopathic?

[PsyDStar]

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Does anyone know about the ND??? It seems like it is expensive and that compensation may be modest for new graduates... is it reasonable (if it is truly what one desires... which I am not sure that I do at all) to assume one could afford an ND paid totally by borrowed money (meaning, would one be able to assume an adequate cash flow after graduation to make loan payments?)

Any thoughts?

Is the ND really just a joke? I have heard that its importance and popularity are growing (though many states do not maintain licensure or related regulatory bodies specifically addressing the ND and his/her practice). Any comment?

 

[inside_edition]

Does anyone know about the ND??? It seems like it is expensive and that compensation may be modest for new graduates... is it reasonable (if it is truly what one desires... which I am not sure that I do at all) to assume one could afford an ND paid totally by borrowed money (meaning, would one be able to assume an adequate cash flow after graduation to make loan payments?)

Any thoughts?

Is the ND really just a joke? I have heard that its importance and popularity are growing (though many states do not maintain licensure or related regulatory bodies specifically addressing the ND and his/her practice). Any comment?

you might want to look into ayurvedic medicine, although it is not fully practiced in this country due to tight medical regulations. personally, I use ayurvedic medications over the typical medicines prescribed/recommended by an MD

 

[jillibean]

A lot of MD/DO schools are now offering coursework in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. IMO, it would be a much safer investment to go that route than to an ND school.

 

[HumbleMD]

Oh brother. Let's go chiropractic while we're at it. Alternative meds have many positive tenants, but for heaven's sake, are not exhaistive. How exactly is yoga and diet going to help me if I have a brain anurism?

 

[jillibean]

Oh brother. Let's go chiropractic while we're at it. Alternative meds have many positive tenants, but for heaven's sake, are not exhaistive. How exactly is yoga and diet going to help me if I have a brain anurism?

Two of the main causes of cerebral aneurysms (high B/P and arteriolsclerosis) could be prevented/improved with diet and excercise:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_aneurysm

That said, there are some really interesting and effective treatments in Complementary/Alternative Medicine and I think I heard somewhere that ~60% of Americans use some form of CAM.... so that will impact you as an MD.

Also, apparently the NIH sees some value in CAM since they now have a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine:
http://nccam.nih.gov/

 

[HumbleMD]

Two of the main causes of cerebral aneurysms (high B/P and arteriolsclerosis) could be prevented/improved with diet and excercise:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_aneurysm

That said, there are some really interesting and effective treatments in Complementary/Alternative Medicine and I think I heard somewhere that ~60% of Americans use some form of CAM.... so that will impact you as an MD.

Also, apparently the NIH sees some value in CAM since they now have a National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine:
http://nccam.nih.gov/

As stated, the preventive sides of CAM are fantastic. I do yoga weekly myself, keep a very balanced diet, etc, and am also a big proponent of midwives, breastfeeding, and many other more traditional, less "scientific" practices (I'm also a devout man of faith). But if I have something serious going on (preventive measures don't prevent everything), and need surgery, I'm going to go in for the surgery rather than try and stretch away a tumor, or chiropract away a brain aneurysm.

 

[8744]

you might want to look into ayurvedic medicine, although it is not fully practiced in this country due to tight medical regulations. personally, I use ayurvedic medications over the typical medicines prescribed/recommended by an MD

It's not fully practiced because it's a load of crap.

 

[KittycooMD]

As stated, the preventive sides of CAM are fantastic. I do yoga weekly myself, keep a very balanced diet, etc, and am also a big proponent of midwives, breastfeeding, and many other more traditional, less "scientific" practices (I'm also a devout man of faith). But if I have something serious going on (preventive measures don't prevent everything), and need surgery, I'm going to go in for the surgery rather than try and stretch away a tumor, or chiropract away a brain aneurysm.

Humble:
First off, I think I said this before, but I love your avatar! I think he's cute and looks quite humble 🙂
As for the ND thing though, naturopaths do more than just "prevent" stuff. I'm certainly no expert, but my best friend's mom is an ND and she works very closely with MDs all the time. Naturopaths are also NOT fully against meds if that's what a patient really needs. A naturopath won't say, "oh, you have cancer? take Vitamin C!" If something is beyond the naturopathic realm, they (at least the good ones!) readily admit it.

To the OP:
Maybe you can look at this website (if you haven't already):
http://www.naturopathic.org/

 

[psipsina]

Humble:
First off, I think I said this before, but I love your avatar! I think he's cute and looks quite humble 🙂
As for the ND thing though, naturopaths do more than just "prevent" stuff. I'm certainly no expert, but my best friend's mom is an ND and she works very closely with MDs all the time. Naturopaths are also NOT fully against meds if that's what a patient really needs. A naturopath won't say, "oh, you have cancer? take Vitamin C!" If something is beyond the naturopathic realm, they (at least the good ones!) readily admit it.

To the OP:
Maybe you can look at this website (if you haven't already):
http://www.naturopathic.org/

I wrote a big long post elaborating on this and my computer ate it. . . .anyway, CAMs are really really good at dealing with all of the things that western medicine struggles most with such as chronic pain and dieseases. I saw a ND after I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis by a MD and was told that the only option was some pretty heavy duty drugs that made me fill like poop all the time. Anyway, I did some reading and found some articles about diet and RA and the MD had no clue what I was talking about (even though some of the articles were in the journal or rheumatology, lol) and I went to a ND who found an imbalence in my gut bacteria and some IgG mediated food allergies and we altered my diet and added some supplements and then tried weaning off the NSAIDs and steroids and it totally worked. Its been half a year and I have no symptoms without the drugs that made me feel awful. My ND is actually has a great sense of humor about me becoming an MD, and even though he did try to recruit me to their side, he understands that my major interest is in surgery and this is western meds strongpoint. I hope to learn more about CAM so I will be able to refer my future patients to other practitioners when these treatments would benefit them. For instance, accupuncture has been shown to reduce surgical recovery times, how cool is that?!? anyway, I need to stop rambling and continue studying for my huge head and neck exam tomorrow, but the point is that CAMs have alot to offer, especially for the weakpoints of western medicine. The ideal future would be NDs and MDs working together to offer a more complete form of medical care for their patients. If the OP is intersted in the care of patients with chronic type disorders I would definitely reccommend looking into getting a ND.

 

[MossPoh]

I think you need to elaborate when you use CAM....because the standard definition involves prayer, and lots and lots of parts don't work at all. Certain things do but things like homeopathic remedies are dodgy to say the least.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

Is the ND really just a joke?

Simply put....yes.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

you might want to look into ayurvedic medicine, although it is not fully practiced in this country due to tight medical regulations. personally, I use ayurvedic medications over the typical medicines prescribed/recommended by an MD

And this, along with your apparent failure to grasp the basics of English as evidenced by your VR score, is why you are someone of questionable intelligence so far as I am concerned......although seeing as your lifespan will probably be shortened by poor judgment, I don't think I really need to say anything else. Not being around to see your grandkids will probably be punishment enough.

 

[psipsina]

I think you need to elaborate when you use CAM....because the standard definition involves prayer, and lots and lots of parts don't work at all. Certain things do but things like homeopathic remedies are dodgy to say the least.

I've used homeopathic remedies and had them work. And as the proffessor who heads our intergrative medicine interest group at my medschool says, if it helps the patient, who cares what the mechanism is. Even if its just placebo, it works and in the end we are just trying to find things that work for our patients. I find western med practitioners get all huffy when we don't know the mechanism, and while it would be intellectually interesting to know the mechanism, not knowing it hurts nothing but our ego if it is helping a patient, especially patients who have nowhere else to turn with chronic diseases that western medicine sucks at treating.

Anywho there is a whole lot of cam that is really really effective, the food allergies and attention to gut bacterial balences is really interesting, guided imagery and breathing techniques for anxiety and hypotension, reiki and qigong chi manipulations, accupuncture, aromatherapy, flower escence therapy (I acutally use this stuff for my husband's roadrage, works wonders), the application of suplements/nutritional alterations, yoga/qi gong/tai chi for axiety/stress/immune support/depression/hypertension, . . . all these things are what I've been taught CAM is (via medschool classwork) and none of these things involve prayer as you suggested. I suggest you check out http://nccam.nih.gov/health/ to look into the things CAM can offer your future patients.

 

[DropkickMurphy]

*points*

 

[Haemulon]

Show me the evidence. Show yourself. Seriously, if an alternative therepy passes a thorough series of clinical trials and has demonstrated effectiveness through truly empirical and randomized/controlled studies, then I suspect they would cease to be considered "alternative". I for one will go the route of the tried, true, and peer-reviewed, imperfect though it may be. Until then, i'll leave the alternative practices to those outside of evidence-based medicine. I'm not saying that there is not some usefullness to some of these different approaches, I just want the trials to back it up and establish its efficacy and safety in an objective way.