First Do No Harm: Primum Non Nocere
Naturopathic doctors favor the use of non-invasive treatments that minimize the risk of harmful side effects. They are trained to treat patients safely with minimal risk and also refer to other health care practitioners when indicated. Methods of treatment that merely suppress symptoms are minimized, and those that support biological processes are utilized.

Identify and Treat the Causes: Tolle causam
Underlying causes of a disease must be unmasked for recovery to proceed.
Every illness has underlying causes that can emanate from myriad sources or levels, whether physical, genetic, emotional, psychic, social or spiritual. All levels must be addressed to direct treatment toward root causes.

Doctor As Teacher: Docere
The principal objective of Naturopathic Medicine is to develop a partnership with the patient. The primary role of doctor is for support for personal change via self-responsibility. Another name for this is personal integrity, at the most foundational level. The physician is a catalyst for change, supporting empowerment and motivation and offering knowledge, understanding and hope.

Treat the Whole Person: Tolle Totum
Each person’s health or disease is a condition of the entire organism, built upon complex interactions of physical, emotional, dietary, genetic, environmental, and lifestyle values.
Naturopathic doctors work to facilitate harmonious function of all expressions of health, with a strong emphasis on prevention.

Prevention The best cure
The ultimate goal of Naturopathic care is prevention of disease. This is attained through patient awareness of individual principles that guide each one to greater health. By assessment of risk factors, whether genetic, environmental or lifestyle-associated, appropriate interventions are employed to build health and avoid harm.

Wellness
Wellness is an approach to healthcare that emphasizes prevention. Wellness can also be defined as an absence of “dis-ease”. Wellness is best supported by conditions that promote optimal function such as: appropriate rest, play and lack of stress; adequate nutritional support for biochemical normalcy; supportive and nurturing social environments and interpersonal relationships; freedom from environmental toxins; and access to appropriate interventions if harm is being done in any of these areas. Building health is more effective than fighting disease.

Naturopathic doctors complete a four-year post-graduate program that consists of basic scientific coursework identical to the first two years of conventional medical programs followed by clinical training emphasizing the integration of conventional and natural therapies for the remaining two years.

Graduates sit for national medical board examinations and, upon successful passage of the examinations, qualify for a state license to practice naturopathic medicine. Naturopathic doctors are currently licensed as primary care doctors in nearly one-third of the states including Washington State.

Links:
www.bastyr.edu
www.wanp.org
www.naturopathic.org

Each state regulates and/or licenses the practice of naturopathic medicine differently. In Washington, “No person may practice naturopathy or represent himself or herself as a naturopath without first applying for and receiving a license from the secretary to practice naturopathy.” RCW 18.36A.030(1). The governing legislation can be found in the Revised Code of Washington. Under this legislation, more specific regulations are developed by the Washington Department of Health, and can be found in the Washington Administrative Code.

Generally, to become licensed, a naturopathic physician must have graduated from a state approved doctorate degree program in naturopathy and have successfully passed a state licensure examination, overseen by the North American Board of Naturopathic Examiners, which tests an applicant’s knowledge of both basic and clinical sciences. An additional test, issued by the Department of Health, covers the state law and administrative regulations as they affect the practice of naturopathy.

Washington’s close regulation of the field is one of the reasons that Washington affords its naturopathic physicians one of the broadest scopes of practice in the nation. In addition to the core therapies or modalities of naturopathic medicine, naturopathic physicians are currently able to prescribe a number of prescriptive medications and pharmacological substances such as antibiotics, birth control pills, thyroid medications, diuretics, and bio-identical hormones. At this time, the Department of Health is in the process of developing and adopting additional rules which will further broaden naturopathic physicians’ scope of practice and prescriptive authority.