Exploring Naturopathic Medicine: A Patient-Centered Root-Cause Approach to Whole Person Health

Hosted by: WholisticMatters

About this Episode

Exploring Naturopathic Medicine: A Nature-Based Patient-Centric Approach to Whole Person Health

Dr. Daina Parent, Naturopathic Physician and Clinical Educator at Standard Process, interviews Dr. Michelle Simon, Naturopathic Physician, PhD in Biomedical Engineering, and President and CEO of the Institute for Natural Medicine. In celebration of Naturopathic Medicine week, we’re sharing this special episode that explores the philosophy of Naturopathic Medicine and it’s nature-based patient-centered approach to whole person wellness.

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Highlights of the episode include:

What is Naturopathic Medicine?
The role of nutrition and diet in Naturopathic protocols
What Dr. Simon looks for in supplement companies in order to feel comfortable using them in patient protocols
Food as Medicine Research – health benefits of whole foods
How to educate patients on how to read nutrition labels on food and supplements

Podcast Summary

1:45 What is Naturopathic Medicine? The Six Principles and the Therapeutic Order is what guides their treatment, including diet, lifestyle, natural therapies, supporting natural ability to heal, seeking the root cause and treating the whole person; patient-centered focus
6:15 What interested Dr. Simon in becoming a Naturopathic Physician
8:30 How the field of Naturopathic Medicine continuously evolves
9:30 The art of the profession – the personalization of the treatment plan, meet the patient where they are at
11:45 The role of nutrition and diet in therapies
13:45 What Dr. Simon looks for in supplement companies in order to feel comfortable using them in patient protocols
17:45 How Naturopathic Medicine fits into our current medical system and with other healthcare practitioners
23:20 Institute for Natural Medicine focused on public education about natural medicine options
28:00 Food as Medicine Research – health benefits of whole foods
29:15 Kids Naturally Well Program – teaching 4^th grade children how to understand health and identifying healthy foods
30:25 How to educate patients on how to read nutrition labels on food and supplements
32:30 Dr. Simon’s research at INM, Food as Medicine in partnership with Bastyr
34:45 2020 Case Study that highlights the power of the Naturopathic Medicine approach; 25-year-old male with history of anxiety, poor limited diet, low glutathione, and low B vitamins due to MTHFR gene lead to inability to handle intense viral infection; diet, lifestyle and proper supplementation helped him to fully recover
43:05 Naturopathic is the engineering of whole health and the ability to connect with patients on a deep level