Principles of Natural Medicine

1. The healing power of nature - Vis Medicatrix Naturae

There is a self ordering, self healing creative force present in all life. Promote vitality, live in harmony with the laws of nature, and remove obstacles or drains to vitality.

2. First, do no harm - Primum Non Nocere

Always choose the most gentle, most nourishing, least harmful forms of therapy. At the very least, a practitioner should not inflict pain, reduce vitality, or cause any harm or side effects to worsen a person's condition.

3. Whole Cause - Tolle Causum

Therapies must be holistic, not reductionistic in order to have any real or lasting healing. Therapies implemented with a consciousness of the whole body, its environment, and psychological landscape, will be more powerful than therapies directed at only one system.

4. Whole Individual - Tolle Totum

Aim to treat the entire individual, not a pathological condition. For example, a naturopathic physician never treats "asthma", only a person with asthmatic symptoms. Treatment must be individualized to be the most effective.

5. Doctor as Teacher - Docere

A physician should educate patients as to the cause of illness and teach them the tools for self-healing, such as nutritional and lifestyle support, so that ailments can be prevented and future doctor visits avoided. Physicians should inform patients of all treatment options so they can discern palliation, suppression, and real healing for themselves, but respect and support an individual's right to choose their own path.

Resources

National University of Natural Medicine NUNM located in Portland, Oregon​​.

Find accredited Naturopathic schools Association of Accredited Naturopathic Medical Colleges (AANMC)

Find an N.D. here, AANP.

NDNR, North America's premier publication of Naturopathic Medicine. ​​

Curious about licensing exams?

North American Board of Naturopathic Examiners