Today my guest is naturopathic doctor Andrea Orlowski NMD. Dr. Orlowski received her doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in 1997. She continued her education to receive a master’s degree in Traditional Chinese medicine.

Margaret: Thank you for visiting with me today. I am interested in why you chose to become an NMD rather than any other kind of physician?

Dr. Orlowski: I’ve always been interested in healing. However I did not perceive Conventional medicine as often truly healing patients. My observations of conventional medicine are that it doesn’t always address the deeper causes of an illness. Many of the medications and treatments just alleviate symptoms and some cause further heath problems. In Conventional Medicine there is a lot of influence from pharmaceutical companies and an overall capitalistic philosophy where much of it revolves around the profit margin rather than focusing on the true needs of the patient.

The philosophy of Naturopathic Medicine is as follows:

1.) First do no harm, never give the patient something that will ultimately make them worse.
2.) Work with the healing power of nature. This means utilizing plants, foods and natural medicines provided to us by the earth in their whole, balanced form and also recognizing our bodies natural tendency to return to homeostasis, or perfect health as long as the blocks to healing our removed.
3.) Treat the whole person, we are not a bunch of unrelated parts, but one organism and all aspects of health must be addressed physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
4.) Prevention is the highest form of cure. It is better to recognize that the path we are on is taking us to a place of illness and change it than to wait until we are sick and try to fix it.
5.) Doctor as teacher. We teach people how to live healthy and self correct.
6.) Find the cause of the illness. Do not just treat the symptoms. For example giving iron to an anemic person will bring their iron level up, but it is better to understand why it was low in the first place. Was there a digestive problem that interfered with absorption? Was there blood loss? Why? Treat these issues and you can permanently solve the problem.

The philosophy of Naturopathic Medicine reflects my own philosophy of healing which is why I choose to become a Naturopath.

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