Naturopathic Philosophy

Most of us have forgotten what vibrant health feels like. It comes on slowly; we start loosing our edge. Our energy is lagging, we’re not waking up refreshed in the morning, then the stiffness and body aches start showing up. Or maybe it’s allergies or digestive difficulty. We go to the doctor and he tell’s us we’re just getting old or it’s all in our heads. But we know better. So he prescribes some anti-inflammatory medication for our pain, or an antihistamine for our allergies. Most people just resign themselves, pop a few pills, consider it normal and get on with life as best we can. Don’t listen to those kinks of recommendations! Treating symptoms is not the answer. You don’t have knee pain because you have a Tylenol deficiency. Your trouble sleeping is not a Zimbalta deficiency. By putting into practice the principles I will share with you, without drugs, you can achieve a level of health and vitality that few people even know exists. Most of us haven’t felt that way since we were kids. Think back to when you were 17 or 18 years old, bursting with energy day and night, full of ambition and optimism, mental clarity was a given, free from digestive difficulty, anxiety, allergies or aches and pains. I’m here to tell you that our bodies are designed to experience close to that level of vibrant health and vitality throughout life, and well into our golden years.

It doesn’t take your life savings to recapture your vitality and build health into your life. What it does take is a natural-health lifestyle based on solid information, a little personal responsibility, and a commitment to change. For those us that are over 40 and refuse to accept a future that includes Metamucil mornings and Viagra nights, the only effective way to recapture our youthful vigor and vitality is through a naturopathic, holistic approach to building health from the inside out.

My training is in Naturopathy. So just what is Naturopathy anyway? I’m glad you asked. Naturopathy is a health-building system that is based on the belief that the human body has an innate healing ability. Naturopathic doctors (NDs) teach their clients to use diet, exercise, lifestyle changes and cutting edge natural therapies to enhance vitality and increase a person’s ability to combat all challenges, including aging. The focus is on building health not treating disease. A person is a complex, interrelated system, not a clogged artery or a tumor. Naturopathy takes into account the whole person (body, mind, heart and soul). As apposed to modern medical science that has gone headlong into the idea that human beings are nothing more than a physical body, a collection of atoms and molecules if you will. Medical students spend much more time dissecting cadavers than the do learning about people. Which explains their sad devotion to the use of chemicals (drugs) to try and correct our “chemical imbalances” (symptoms). The body is very capable of doing that on it’s own. We simply have to supply the raw material and get the obstacles out of the way. That’s where naturopathy shines.

The field of naturopathy is based on six timeless principles:

1. The body knows how to heal. Every one of our 75 trillion cells has the ability to perform it’s job perfectly. Our bodies have a remarkable, God-given instinct for self-healing. This means every one of us has the ability to be in perfect health. By finding and removing the barriers to this self-healing—such as poor diet, hidden internal stressors, or unhealthy habits, naturopathy offers help like no other field can. By adopting a naturopathic lifestyle we can literally turn back the clock as far as our energy, strength, endurance, sexual potency, mental clarity, physical appearance, joy and zest for life are concerned.

2. First do no harm: By definition, all drugs have side effects. Therefore, in naturopathy the use of drugs is strongly discouraged. In naturopathy, low-risk procedures such as lifestyle modification, and detoxification are used. In addition, natural healing compounds with few or no side effects such as dietary supplements, herbal extracts and homeopathy are employed.

3. Identify and treat causes. Symptoms will only return unless the root problem is addressed. For instance, you can drink coffee as a remedy for lack of energy, but when the caffeine wears off, the fatigue will return because the underlying cause of the fatigue has not been addressed.

4. Treat the whole person. Human beings are far more than a random collection of atoms and molecules that came together by mindless chemical processes. We are created in the image of God, and yes, we are housed in a body, but we are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience. And we each have a unique physical, mental, emotional and spiritual makeup.

5. Prevent illness. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” The best cancer treatment works 100% of the time. Are you ready for this? It’s called not getting it in the first place. Taking personal responsibility for our own health and being proactive saves money, pain, misery and lives.

6. Educate clients. In naturopathy, the practitioner is an educator. NDs teach their patients how to eat, exercise, relax and nurture themselves physically and emotionally and spiritually.

I am a Naturopathic Doctor, and I would like to teach you how you can literally turn back the clock and recover your lost vitality. You see, we’re not designed to spend the last 10 or 15 years of our lives in an assisted living facility, and start pushing up daisies at the ripe old age of 75. According to the bible, human life expectancy should be around 120 years. (Genesis 6) Now I’m not saying we can expect to live to 120 today. Our world is far too toxic and our lifestyles are too stressed and fast-paced, but we can expect to extend our productive years and the quality of our lives well into our 80s and even 90s and then rapidly decline and pass peacefully in our sleep.

We’ve become conditioned to expect our health and vitality to gradually diminish with age. Sort of like a flashlight that’s been left on. As the batteries slowly drain, the light beam or our vitality gets weaker and weaker. I’m saying that things are not supposed to be that way. Think of your vitality as a candle. When you first light the candle, it has a given amount of brightness. As the candle burns smaller, the flame continues to burn just as bright as it did when it was first lit. When the candle burns to the end, the flame will flicker a few times and rapidly extinguish. Our vigor and vitality are supposed behave more like a candle than a flashlight. A naturopathic lifestyle can absolutely add years to your life. But I want to help you add life to your years so that the quality of your life is dramatically enhanced along the way.

The bottom line is this: we’re not going to find our youthful vitality under a knife, or in a pill, a potion or lotion. We’ve got to get back to basics. We’ve got to adopt a naturopathic approach to living. Only then can we expect to enjoy life as it should be.

Yours in health,

David Sandstrom ND, CNC, MBA

561 889-8704