Naturopathic Health Care

Your body possesses an incredible ability to heal. Symptoms act as signals indicating internal imbalances. By employing food, herbal remedies, and nutritional support, our goal is to restore your health. We craft personalized treatment plans designed to re-establish your body's natural equilibrium, resulting in a safe, gentle, and effective treatment that enhances your body's resilience against illnesses.

My medical approach revolves around addressing systems and functionality to alleviate both diseases and symptoms. Often, chronic health issues stem from multiple underlying factors, interconnected within our nervous, hormonal, and digestive systems. This approach offers holistic insights into the influences on our biology, covering lifestyle, environment, and genetics, encouraging internal balance.

Health and wellness is an active processes that each of us embraces throughout life. By adding and encouraging healthy lifestyle practices throughout your journey towards health will help you maintaining wellness.

Nutritional Medicine

The foundation of a healthy body is a healthy diet.

Simple changes in diet or targeted supplementation of specific nutrients can resolve persistent health problems.

Many chronic health conditions prevalent in today's society, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and gastrointestinal disorders, stem from poor dietary and lifestyle choices. Altering our diet often holds the power to reverse or alter the trajectory of an illness and restore health.

Advancements in genomics (gene analysis) have allowed us to comprehend biochemical individualities, enabling us to utilize nutrients like vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids to balance our biochemistry and regulate bodily functions.

Ongoing research continues to unveil the role of specific nutrients in fundamental biological processes, including enzymes, cofactors, hormones, connective tissues, and neurotransmitters.

Herbal Medicine

Plants have been used for millennia for their healing properties.

Many herbs have undergone extensive research, with their active compounds scientifically identified. Forty percent of the drugs in the Western world are derived from plants, including the top twenty best selling prescription drugs in the United States today. These pharmaceutical medications are derived from synthetic versions of natural compounds found in plants.

For instance, the heart medication digitalis originates from the foxglove plant, while aspirin stems from salicylic acid found in many foods and plants like white willow bark. The history of aspirin actually dates back more than 3500 years, when willow bark was used as a painkiller and antipyretic by Sumerians and Egyptians.

By combining ancient wisdom with contemporary herbal research, we prescribe plant-based medicines to enhance your body's inherent healing capabilities. Medicinal plants are chosen for their low toxicity, non-accumulative nature in the body, and lack of addiction or withdrawal symptoms.

Herbs are employed to fortify immune function, enhance digestion, regulate bodily functions, combat bacteria, viruses, and fungi, alleviate tissue irritation, soothe nerves, and relax muscles.

Naturopathic physicians uniquely possess training in both pharmaceutical medicine and botanical medicine, setting them apart as practitioners proficient in these both of these areas.

Naturopathic Doctor

A naturopathic doctors has a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine (ND) degree from a four-year graduate level naturopathic medical college.

In states where they are regulated, naturopathic doctors must pass a national examination, kept their state license current with yearly continuing education, and their actions are subject to review by a State Board of Examiners.

Naturopathic doctors (NDs) are trained primary care physicians that specialize in natural medicine. They are educated in the conventional medical sciences, but they are not medical doctors (MDs).

Naturopathic doctors treat disease and restore health using therapies from the sciences of clinical nutrition, herbal medicine, homeopathy, physical medicine, exercise therapy, counseling, acupuncture, natural childbirth and hydrotherapy. NDs tailor these approaches to the needs of an individual patient.

Naturopathic doctors cooperate with all other branches of medical science, referring patients to other practitioners for diagnosis or treatment when appropriate. In practice, naturopathic doctors perform physical examinations, laboratory testing, gynecological exams, nutritional and dietary assessments, metabolic analysis, allergy testing, and other diagnostic tests. They are the only doctors clinically trained in the use of a wide variety of natural therapeutics. They combine and tailor these treatments to the needs of the individual based on the philosophy that acknowledges the patient as a participant.

NDs are part of a medical movement that is shifting our scientific model to focus on systems and function to solve disease and symptoms. This model provides a way of understanding all the influences on our biology – lifestyle, environment and genetics.

Appointments at Lawrence Natural Medicine

1st Appointment • During our initial meeting, we'll delve into your health history and current concerns.

Working with a naturopathic physician doesn't mean overwhelming yourself with drastic lifestyle changes all at once. Instead, we embark on a journey of achievable steps that gradually become your new habits and lifestyle. We begin by taking small, manageable steps tailored to you. This could involve starting with functional lab testing or addressing any nutritional deficiencies before discussing dietary or exercise adjustments.

The first appointment will be tailored to you and therefore, will be different for each person. Possible areas of focus on the first meeting may include: dietary patterns, sleep and energy levels, personal and family health history, physical examinations, and laboratory testing. Your first treatment plan may include: dietary suggestions, herbs & supplements, stress management suggestions or an exercise plan. Your healing process has begun!

2nd Appointment • Includes: evaluation of progress, review of test results or follow-up treatment recommendations Viewing health as a practice is beneficial; it involves dedicating time, exercising patience, and consistently embracing new habits to restore well-being. I find it valuable to engage in discussions about the body's mechanisms and explain my treatment recommendations.

Understanding the intricacies of how our body functions—its physiology and biochemistry—empowers you to actively engage in your own health journey.

Follow-up Visits • A follow-up visit, typically scheduled within two to six weeks, is essential to monitor and ensure the expected progress of your health. Adjustments to your treatment plan may be made during these visits, tailored to your evolving needs.

Our objective extends beyond immediate health improvements; we aim to prevent future illnesses. Proactively maintaining your health is more efficient and cost-effective than addressing illnesses once they take hold. Periodic preventive healthcare visits help us stay abreast of your evolving needs and advancements in your care.

Once you've started using naturopathic medicine, we encourage you to consider us for acute issues like colds, flus, bladder infections, and similar concerns. We've found that consistent use of natural medicine yields good results.