i'm feeling au naturel... if you know what i mean.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.” -Thomas Edison

Yesterday, I went to see a Naturopathic Physician (NP). NPs are the general practitioners (GP) of the holistic world. They assess your complete self and guide you through the steps toward healing. If you’re like me, you didn’t know that these people existed. I thought I would have to see a nutritionist or something. But I discovered this particular doctor just like I discover most things: Google. It’s a wonderful thing. I found a website for a practice that has an NP, Acupuncturist, Massage Therapist, and Counselor. Essentially, they have one expert to help you with each facet of your health. For now, I am focusing on working with the NP… mostly due to the fact that I’m not independently wealthy. I got really excited when I was reading their website and their philosophy. It was like they had been created just for me.

Then I read that they don’t accept insurance. I semi-expected that this would be the case. But seeing it in print outraged me. Why is modern medicine the only thing covered? I’m sure there are other people out there like me. Modern medicine doesn’t work for everyone. It’s really a shame. As soon as I got over the fact that this visit would cost me more than I earn in a day of work, I called to make an appointment. I got their voicemail so I left a message. Ten minutes later, the NP called me back! Now… tell me a time when your GP has personally called you? Probably the 4^th of never. This is part of the Naturopathic philosophy: to really take time for your patients and get to know them. We had about a 10 minute phone conversation. This is the same amount of time that I spend in the same room with my GP during an office visit! I already really like where this is going.

I brought my mom with me to my appointment. She asked if she could come and I said yes. Sometimes she worries more about my health issues than I do… and she has been really supportive in me trying anything and everything if it will help me feel better. We walked in to a normal looking office and couldn’t even sit down in the waiting room before the doctor called me back. She looked like I expected: healthy… and natural. I know that’s a weird way to describe someone, but that’s how she looked. She was very friendly and seemed determined to get my body straightened out. I immediately decided that I liked her. We talked for over an hour and a half! At my usual doctor, I spend this amount of time in the waiting room and less than 5 minutes with my doctor. Talk about a reversal!

I will go into the details of her recommendations as I implement them, but for now I just wanted to say a few things about the overall experience. First, it wasn’t scary at all. This doctor genuinely wanted me to get better and made sure she spent as much time as was needed to fully explain everything to me. She explained my disorders to me better than my GP did and then explained what she would recommend and why. It was almost like a tutorial in health. Now I feel educated about what’s going on with my physical self… and it’s a great feeling, let me tell you. Second, she has a suggestion for just about every problem. She literally can help you with everything from acne to depression to headaches to fibromyalgia. I was impressed.

I’m trying not to get too preachy about how great the experience was until I see if the stuff actually works. But I am ever so hopeful that it will.

I walked out of the office with a bag overflowing of supplements and herbs… and luckily herbs don’t weigh much. As I suspected, I will have to start taking them one at a time, so if something works (or doesn’t work), I will know which one it is. My NP told me not to expect all of them to work marvelously, because everyone’s body reacts to them differently. But if one doesn’t work for me, she has back-up plans. With that said, I’ll tell you what she recommended for me BUT that does not mean she would recommend it for you. She picked this plan because of how all of my conditions relate to one another. So you should really see a NP before you start this process. Naturopathic health is very much based on the individual. I venture to guess that very few people are my exact age, height and weight, and have the same conditions and family history as me.

So tomorrow I will begin this slightly complex journey with the suggestions for my IBS: Slippery Elm and Fishoil (EFA). Sidenote: one of my favorite parts about naturopathic health is the names of the supplements because (a) they are funny sounding and (b) I can actually pronounce them. I will go into more detail about what these supplements do and why she picked them for me later. Stay tuned.

I will leave you with two pieces of information that I learned from my baller NP:

1.      Everyone should drink 5 glasses of water per day. But you are supposed to add an extra glass for every medication you are on and for every 30 minutes that you exercise. According to this, my magic number is 10. Yeah, I definitely never drink that much water. Guess I’m starting now.

2.      If you get a little sleepy mid-day, don’t drink coffee or soda. You can buy packets of Vitamin C powder to put in your aforementioned water. I had one today (compliments of my NP) that was lemonade flavored. It was quite refreshing and delightful. It also didn’t result in a crash several hours later like caffeine often does.