Naturopathic Medicine
MERGING TRADITION WITH SCIENCE
Naturopathic medicine, or Naturopathy, based on an individualised, patient-centred, science-based approach that address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. By integrating conventional health science with a wide range of natural therapies and traditional medicine, naturopathic treatments boost the body’s natural healing potential, restoring health and preventing disease.
Naturopathic medicine is fundamentally based on the belief that the human body has healing energy within, an innate ability to heal, if given the right nutrients and environment to do so. Naturopathic medicine practitioners support vitalism by assisting the natural process of health and healing using food, herbs, and nutrients, and to support the optimal functioning of the body.
The concept of vitalism has often been thought to be in contrast to the basis of conventional medicine – mechanism and reductionism. The vitalistic approach recognises that there is a logic to symptoms and diseases and that healing and treatment regimes are best when they support the natural healing ability of the body.
“Allied health care practitioners use remedial and compensatory models of care to sustain and maintain health and prevent deterioration of health conditions in the community. The Allied health community … has demonstrated its value to the health and disability system and developed novel models of care that meet the complex changing population health needs.”
Ministry of Health New Zealand. 2021. Allied Health Business Plan 2021–2023. Wellington: Ministry of Health.
Back to Home page
