What does a Toronto naturopath do? What can this health care practitioner offer to patients in reaching optimal health?

A Toronto Naturopath is a healthcare professional with a special interest in a form of medicine, called naturopathic medicine, to reinvigorate your health.

As health care practitioners, naturopathic doctors have extensive training in illness prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. With this training, they can help manage a wide variety of diseases and health concerns, like type 2 diabetes, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue, while providing holistic treatments for illnesses.

A naturopathic doctor may also be able to help with illness prevention by teaching you about healthy diet choices and lifestyle habits. Here, we highlight 9 reasons why you should consider seeing a naturopath for the maintenance of your health and well-being.

1. Holistic Approach

Naturopaths use a holistic approach to health to address the causes of your health concern. Their treatment modality takes into account diet, stress levels and personal history. This approach – which includes natural solutions – is different from conventional medicine, which usually focuses on a medical doctor treating the immediate problem with prescription medication.

When using naturopathic therapy, all aspects of lifestyle are taken into consideration; this encompasses nutrition, exercise habits and mental well-being, as these can also affect our overall health status.

2. Diet And Lifestyle Modification

In order for the human body to reach a healthy state, it is important to adopt a diet with fresh organic fruits and vegetables because they’re rich in vitamins, minerals and other nutrients for augmenting your health. The types of food you eat should also reflect on your individual needs (low saturated fat/low simple carbs/low sugar, etc.), without neglecting the importance of physical activity.

Thus, it’s not uncommon for a naturopathic doctor to stress the importance of diet in the human body. For example, Toronto naturopaths often shares knowledge on the importance of diet and lifestyle modifications, which may assist individuals with a chronic or serious health condition.

3. Disease Prevention

Improving your health and preventing illnesses may occur through a wide range of methods, such as diet, lifestyle modification, supplements (if necessary), and naturopathic medicine.

One way to prevent disease is by seeing a naturopath who deals with various approaches (i.e. natural or traditional medicine) to help those struggling with chronic diseases. They work closely with his patients in order for them to be able to live healthily while taking control of lifestyle choices – which includes what to eat and when!

4. Chronic Diseases Management

Naturopathic doctors employ natural care therapies in managing chronic diseases. They believe that epigenetics – the study of how behaviours and our environment can cause physical health changes that impact your genes – and modifications to epigenetics can impact your wellness. For instance, changes to epigenetics could contribute to an unresolved faulty inflammatory response, which may lead to damage to the tissues and chronic inflammatory disease. This is all caused by the body’s inability to heal itself due to epigenetics modifications. So in order to practice disease management, naturopaths may conduct the following: a naturopathic medical history interview, physical examination, diagnosis of illness (lab testing), and a treatment plan. This plan may include diagnostic procedures with nutraceutical ( herbs, vitamins, supplements ) for acute or chronic health conditions.

5. Integrative Functional Medicine

Naturopathic medicine emphasizes prevention, holistic health principles, and the body’s self-healing abilities with natural therapies. In turn, these treatments may aid in managing chronic diseases and other illnesses (i.e. infections or acute problems).

A Toronto naturopath may use a synergistic approach to help improve bodily function, thereby reducing symptoms that interfere with the quality of life. Natural approaches may include: diet therapy; botanical medicines; physical medicine (cold laser, shockwave and hydrotherapy); exercise prescriptions for general wellness; meditation and acupuncture treatments for relaxation.

But when naturopaths also practice functional medicine, patients and naturopaths work hand-in-hand in planning and adhering to a natural treatment and lifestyle changes. Consequently, a patient’s participation empowers them to consider how their everyday life choices have an impact on health.

6. IV Therapy Vitamin Supplementation

Intravenous vitamin therapy is a speedy method for delivering essential nutrients and minerals. A naturopath or IV therapist may prescribe intravenous vitamin therapy for patients who are not responding to oral supplements.

IV therapy is usually used in the treatment of chronic fatigue, impaired immune function and other conditions that result from nutrient deficiencies or toxic overloads (i.e. anemia, intestinal malabsorption syndrome).

People with gastrointestinal problems may also benefit from IV vitamin supplementation. This treatment may be used as a preventive measure for those at risk of nutrient deficiencies from a chronic disease or diminished absorption from other medical treatments (i.e. surgical removal of parts the stomach and intestines, etc.)

Patients are screened at an initial consultation before an IV vitamin therapy course to determine which nutrients they may be deficient in. Screening may include blood tests, stool analysis, urine mineral analysis and food sensitivity testing.

Truly, IV therapy is one way that naturopathic doctors and/or IV therapists help people overcome illness-causing health problems.

7. Detoxification

Detoxification may encourage the elimination of toxins, replenish nutrients, and foster disease prevention. A naturopathic doctor may offer a natural detox program to patients as a naturopathic solution. There are many ways to detoxify the body and a naturopath can help you understand how your body responds.

The Toronto Functional Medicine Centre offers a holistic, nutritious diet approach that may help improve metabolism and promote detoxification. For heavy metal toxicities, chelation therapy may be recommended to help rid the body of heavy metals.

8. Food Sensitivities

Some food sensitivities may not be accurately identified through traditional medical skin allergy tests; instead, they may manifest as other symptoms such as skin rashes, stomach cramps, diarrhea, etc. A naturopathic doctor will analyze the foods that might cause these reactions and recommend avoiding allergenic substances if possible. This may be accomplished with an IgG food antibody assessment lab test.

9. Pain relief

Pain management with natural medicines alongside traditional methods may encourage optimal health and help relieve chronic pain. A naturopath can assess your condition and offer a customized plan; this could include acupuncture, herbal remedies, cold laser therapy, or naturopathic manipulation.

The naturopath’s goal is to get your body back into balance with natural therapies rather than medications, as they may house synthetic chemicals or result in unpleasant side effects. A naturopath will also provide you with naturopathic medicine education and a comprehensive treatment plan for living a positive lifestyle.

Next Steps for Visiting a Toronto Naturopath

We hope you’ll consider seeing a Toronto naturopathic doctor for your wellness goal or integrative and functional medicine treatments. This type of health care practitioner may offer you various physical, emotional and spiritual care with a naturopathic body of knowledge.

How can we help you reach your health goal with naturopathic care? At the Toronto Functional Medicine Centre, we’re passionate about helping patients augment their well-being with a holistic approach.

FYI: our naturopathic clinic also provides a variety of health treatments, including lifestyle counseling, stress management, nutritional counseling, Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, botanical medicine, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and functional medicine.

We can help upgrade your quality of life with a natural approach to healing. Call (416) 968-6961 to book an appointment with our Toronto naturopath.