“A different kind of doctor, a different kind of medicine”
By Dr. Ayanna Quamina, ND
I've always known I wanted to be a doctor. However, my career got sidetracked in high school after interviewing other doctors who'd advised against doing medicine, because I "wanted to help heal people".
Fast forward three years and I found myself in Los Angeles, frustrated and uninspired from working in the music business, and realizing they weren't interested in supporting the people who actually made the music. I remember sitting at my cubicle one night, searching the internet for my perfect career, and finding Naturopathic Medicine. I was so excited! After years of going back and forth, I'd finally found what my heart and intellect had been looking for. I moved back home, applied to my school of choice, and I've been helping people heal for the past 16+ years.
Naturopathic medicine is a distinct health care profession that emphasizes prevention, treatment, and optimal health. We use therapeutic methods to encourage each patient's own self-healing process, all based on a combination of modern and traditional protocols.
We are all honor-bound by Six Principles of Naturopathic Medicine - the foundation of our medical education and patient care:*
First Do No Harm (Primum Non Nocere): Naturopathic physicians follow three guidelines to avoid harming our patients:
Utilize methods and medicinal substances that minimize the risk of harmful side effects, and use the least force necessary to diagnose and treat
Whenever possible, avoid the harmful suppression of symptoms
Acknowledge, respect, and work with each individuals’ self-healing process.
The Healing Power of Nature (Vis Medicatrix Naturae): Naturopathic medicine recognizes that there is an instrinsic self-healing process in everyone. We work to identify and remove the obstacles for healing and recovery, and our overall intention and approach is to support the self-healing process.
Identify and Treat the Causes (Tolle Causam): Naturopathic physicians identify and remove the underlying causes of illness instead of just eliminating or suppressing the symptoms.
Doctor as Teacher (Docere): We educate our patients and encourage autonomy and self-empowerment of their own health. We also recognize the therapeutic value of maintaining a positive doctor-patient relationship.
Treat the Whole Person: Naturopathic physicians treat each patient by taking into account their individual physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, and spiritual factors. We understand that all of these areas can play an important part of each person's overall health.
Prevention: Naturopathic doctors (NDs) emphasize the prevention of disease by assessing each patient's overall risk factors, heredity, and susceptibility, and we identify and assess appropriate interventions with our patients to help prevent future illness.
There are many things NDs have in common with other medical practitioners, like MDs or DOs:
1. We attend a four-year accredited, graduate level medical school
2. We spend the first two years learning the same biomedical sciences, and the second two applying what we've learned in a clinical setting
3. We take professional board exams, have a regulatory medical board, and have to complete at least 25 hours of continuing education every year in order to maintain our license or registration
We also have some differences:
1. In addition to the biomedical sciences, naturopathic medical curriculum includes clinical nutrition, physical medicine, acupuncture, homeopathic medicine, botanical medicine, psychology, hydrotherapy, and counseling.
2. Each state has its own regulations that define the scope of practice for the Naturopathic doctors that practice there. For instance, an ND practicing in California can prescribe pharmaceutical medication and give IV treatments, whereas registered Minnesotan NDs order diagnostic labs and tend to focus more on nutrition, counseling, and supplementation.
We are also different from other alternative practitioners. Over the years I've been called by multiple titles like naturopath, homeopath, naprapath. Unfortunately, all of these are incorrect.
Naturopaths are alternative practitioners, but their background and education are vastly different from a Naturopathic doctor.
Homeopaths treat their patients with one modality (homeopathy); We use homeopathy, but it's usually mixed in with other tools to help treat our patients.
A naprapath is a specialist that uses manual techniques to treat muscular and connective tissue conditions. We use manual techniques along with other modalities.
Naturopathic doctors are trained to treat all medical conditions, and can see all ages and backgrounds, but most tend to focus on a particular population or treatment area. Some of the most common conditions I treat are those related to digestive symptoms, hormone imbalance, diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol imbalance, mental health, stress management, and sleep support, among others.
So, why would you see a Naturopathic Doctor?
1. You want a doctor who will treat you, not just your illness
2. You want personalized treatment
3. You want to treat the root cause of an illness, not just the symptoms
4. You want to actively participate in managing your own health
5. You have a condition or diagnosis and want options other than pharmaceuticals
I absolutely love working as a Naturopathic Doctor. It brings me so much joy to teach my patients about their own bodies, to empower them to make supportive decisions in reaching their health goals, and to see them GET BETTER.
One of the best moments of my chosen career is when a patient realizes that their symptoms are gone, their labs have improved, family and friends have noticed their positive changes, and their other doctors have lowered or even removed their medication.
And although it took work, it was often faster and easier than they thought.