Naturopathicphobia

Naturopathicphobia

First Published on Dadamo.com in 2005

 My state suffers from naturopathicphobia.  Our local medical society is so proud of sponsoring a candidate who blocked a bill to study the possibility of naturopaths coming to Virginia.  I have come to the conclusion that there are four possible reasons for this.

For one thing, I do not think that Virginia allopathic Western medical docs have a clue as to what a naturopathic physician is or does.  I’m sure they don’t understand their education or training.  Naturopathic physicians are well trained and have great knowledge of medical physiology.  See this link for a description of naturopathic physician.

http://www.naturopathic.org/content.asp?contentid=60

Secondly, there are people in Virginia that call themselves naturopaths who have an online education.  I think the physicians are getting confused by the title.

Thirdly, I think they are just plain threatened by what THEY don’t know.  Most of Western medicine docs are very intimidated with the knowledge of herbs that naturopaths use.  Western docs prefer synthetic drugs, because the FDA is totally trustworthy and only interested in the welfare of the patients.  (Did you ever hear of “gallows’s humor?)  I have repeatedly said that medicine as we know it has sold out to the drug companies.  It has been going on for 50 years plus.  And it is very insidious.  The university studies financed by the drug companies also supply the doctors to teach the required continuing education classes.  So the doctors feel they are up to date, when in essence they are being fed the drug party line.  Certainly the horse urine pills as estrogen replacement are a good example.  Given for 30 plus years, but never tested correctly, countless women have been harmed.

Lastly, when I taught my stress seminars, I always said that middle jobs were the most stressful.  Teachers and nurses are middle workers.  Having to answer to above and be responsible for the below employees takes a toll.  But now, with the big insurance debacle facing all of us, doctors now find themselves middle workers as well.

The insurance companies dictate how the doctor practices medicine including what procedures and drugs to prescribe.  This is affecting the doctors’ self esteem and their pocketbook.  Mal practice insurance is killing medicine especially in OB.  And the patients below are more informed and some don’t just line up and do everything the godlike doc says.

So basically this squeezes a physician from all angles.  You can see how doctors would not stand for an extra threat on their own upper middle tier by naturopathic physicians.  This would be an invasion to their new middle ground.

For me, it’s a darn shame that naturopaths are so feared in Virginia.  Maybe that is why I travel 400 miles to see a doctor.  But there are good reasons for those of us who choose naturopaths.  Some of us are more comfortable NOT taking synthetic drugs unless absolutely necessary.  Some of us don’t want to go like sheep to the slaughter for serious diseases.  When an illness strikes, some of us want to be understood and inside and out as an individual not as a disease diagnosis.  And a lot of us are interested in cause of disease in order to get to cure of a disease.  Western medicine deals with a DISEASE system and is not much interested nor has time for prevention.

However, it is very hard when common problems arise that would have fairly simple solutions, but I don’t want to go to the doctor and come out with a drug.  I have said to some, “Just give me a diagnosis not drugs.”

My Gyn doctor who was trained in Ireland is retired.  He compassionately took care of just about everything for me.  Besides the gyn stuff, he ordered all the blood tests I wanted even the far out ones.  He checked my chest wall as a surgeon would for breast cancer follow up.  He always encouraged me to do what I’m doing since it is working.  He understood my fear of some of his colleagues.  His partner took over, and I am very grateful for that.  I also have an open minded oncologist, and I had a very good surgeon before he retired.

So what can I do about this naturopathic phobia?  I can educate any physician willing to listen to me.  This is an almost impossible task and one that makes me shudder.  Having been educated in nursing school over 40 years ago, we were the nursing students who stood up and practically saluted a godlike doctor when they entered the room.  We gave them our seat, and bowed in their presence.   However, I’m stronger now.  I have more knowledge and a much bigger mouth.  I’ll see how it goes. . . .

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The above essay was written for dadamo.com in 2005.  Let us see what has changed.  Naturopaths are still not licensed in the state of Virginia.  I still see Dr. Peter D’Adamo in Connecticut, and credit him with keeping me alive all these years. With age and other conditions, he continues to be the only doctor I trust to treat me holistically, body, mind, and soul.  When my Ob-Gyn husband first met him in 1999, he said, “Dr. D’Adamo is a genius.”

I agree with that statement for sure.  But not only that.  He is kind, considerate, and a great human being.  I am blessed to have him for a doctor.