How do you find a good naturopath?

[kmil1999]

I am just beginning to get into a more natural approach to health care again.  How do you find a good, reputable naturopathic doctor?  I went to one years ago that was supposed to be good but turned out to be a quack.  Also, I know they are not liscensed in Ohio.  How do they practice if they are not recognized?  

Thanks for the very basic questions,
Karen

[Paxiled]

The only question is if they're allowed to practice, not if they're licensed.  Most states used to ban them; this began with the robber barons in the late eighteen hundreds who decided the most money was to be made on allopathic medicine and got laws passed against most natural practitioners.  Yet, they still practiced.  In the Sixties and Seventies until the monopolization by Whole Foods, you'd go to your local health food store, and they'd usually have a list of people customers recommended.  If there's still a good small health food store in your area, that's one way.  There are also alternative newspapers or pamphlets that discuss alternative medicine.  You just have to find the network of people in your area who use alternative medicine, and get a referral, and then hope the naturopath is good, just as you would for a doctor.  You an also contact Bastyr University in Washington state and get a list of their graduates and where they practice.  it's not the only naturopathic college, but it's the best recognized and highest regarded.  Good luck.

[caregiver222]

There is a big problem because the AMA decided to close down the licensing of naturopaths. The last two states to recognize naturopaths as physicians were Florida and Utah. In Utah, naturopaths had the same drug prescription and surgical priviliges as M.D.'s, but those practising were grandfathered, and no new applications are being accepted.

[Paxiled]

Naturopaths aren't licensed by the AMA.  You're talking about something else entirely.  Some naturopaths, paricularly in California, are trying to get the right to prescribe medication and perform simple in-office procedures, but since they're not trained to do that, it's not uniformly accepted as a good thing by naturopaths.  The AMA isn't a state, it's a trade association, but it has been delegated much of the regulation of doctors.  Naturopaths have their own certification agencies, and are regulated differently.  They can practice, but they do what they've been trained to do, which is natural medicine, not surgery or pharmacology.  I don't know that it's illegal to practice naturopathy anywhere, but I know it used to be; it was also illegal to practice acupuncture, homeopathy, and herbalism.  But they were always done, and still are, and are now legal virtually anywhere by federal statute.

[caregiver222]

You are generally correct Paxilid, however in some states naturopaths have all the authority of an M.D., to perform surgery, and to prescribe medications. In Utah, all existing naturopaths were "grandfatherered" and have the same rights as an M.D., but "new" naturopaths are severely constrained in their treatment modalities.  I am aware the AMA does not "license" physicians, however their input into the state licensing boards is considerable. They run them.

[Paxiled]

No, you're correct, the AMA does license physicians by administering all the tests and running the enforcement mechanisms.  But the AMA doesn't license naturopaths, that's what I was saying -- they oppose their very existence.  In fact, the AMA was created to drive natural practitioners out of business, and succeeded for years.  And remind me not to see a naturopath in Utah!  It's odd, the one thing allopathic medicine does very well is surgery, and since surgeons do it so often they get quite good at it.  Hate to have an occasional type do surgery for me!  Or have someone who never took a pharmacology course prescribe me medication -- bad enough we let the ones who have do it.  I say, let naturopaths be naturopaths, let doctors be doctors, let surgeons be surgeons.

[Myown]

I think its just like finding a good MD - word of mouth. But if the "word whose mouth" that came out of never really faced a real health problem, sometimes the thumbs up referral is based on the doctors "nice personality" - because its just like your mechanic, if your car is new and all he has done is changed the oil, & if we like his personality, we say he's a good mechanic or at least until you hear a tap in the engine and he can't hear it, then thats where the rubber hits the road, so to speak.