Naturopathic Medicine [electronic resource] : A Comprehensive Guide / by Fraser Smith.

The nature of health, homeostasis, adaptation, biological plasticity, repair -- Disease (Theory of) -- Where does a naturopathic approach apply? -- Causes of ill health -- Assessment of the patient -- Therapeutics -- States of ill health – assessment and overall mitigation -- Systems Approach to Therapy -- Life-span considerations -- Naturopathic medicine in context -- The role of research and scientific inquiry in naturopathic medicine -- The role of informatics and artificial intelligence in naturopathic medicine -- Societal, global, environmental impact that naturopathic physicians can have -- Appendix A: Recommended resources for clinical/scientific information -- Appendix B: Professional associations and public interest groups related to whole health, complementary and integrative medicine, naturopathic medicine, etc.

This book offers comprehensive coverage of naturopathic medicine. The principles and values of this profession are already clearly stated (i.e., Find and Treat the Cause; Treat the Whole Person, etc.), but few are the textbooks that directly compare it to conventional or allopathic medicine. To paraphrase the historian of medicine Harris Coulter – in this approach the body reacts creatively to stressors – and the Empirical school or natural medicine approach is more focused on supporting adaptive responses than suppressing symptoms. This is not an attempt to argue that all health issues can get better on their own or that conventional medical interventions aren’t capable of producing stellar outcomes, but there remains a concurrent need for a naturopathic approach that helps rebuild the body. This book presents an approach in medicine that works to support adaptive responses of the body, reduce maladaptive responses, address determining factors of health, and sometimes create temporary homeostasis with agents such as drugs (or certain natural medicines). In terms of the basis of disease states, the book teaches about how the lack of coordination in the body’s bioregulatory systems can lead to disease, as well as the impact of irreversible degeneration, genetic damage, chronic stress, etc. The book takes the reader to some of the more common and well described reasons for these states of dysfunction, how to assess a patient, and how various natural therapies impact root causes of disease, the long term consequences, and the various clinical manifestations. The book then takes a systems approach – cardiovascular, pulmonary, etc. This is where most books on the subject start, but instead of breaking out a number of conditions and giving protocols of diet, supplements, herbs etc., the author examines how to restore stability and function to that system. Special topics are then covered, ranging from lifespan/primary care considerations to the role of research, the rise of advanced data analytics as decision assistance, to the environmental, cultural, and global determinants of health. Each chapter will additionally include tables that summarize key diagnosis or treatment points, arrayed in an order that reflects the model presented in the book. This is an ideal guide for students in naturopathic medicine, as well as physicians and medical professionals looking to learn more about this field aimed towards maximizing patient resilience.