More people are turning to naturopathic medicine and homeopathy to relieve ailments
Some may be skeptical that plant- and mineral-based remedies can relieve the symptoms of headaches, ADHD and everything in between.
But for a 9-year-old girl who developed insomnia and permanent blinking ticks due to taking Ritalin for just one week, homeopathic treatment helped dramatically when conventional medicine and treatment had failed.
Her ADHD symptoms were reduced by 75 percent, and her ticks are almost gone after just two months of treatment via homeopathic remedies.
Homeopathy takes a holistic, non-toxic, natural approach to increasing health and wellness, whether you’re looking to cure the flu, relieve a headache or cure an ear infection.
The remedies’ main ingredients are comprised of plants and minerals, and they’re FDA approved — homeopathic medicine being the only system of natural medicine regulated by the FDA.
The remedies are so safe women can treat severe nausea during their pregnancies without having to worry because of the natural ingredients.
Women can also treat PMS, menopause and other menstrual irregularities.
Homeopathy takes a “like-cures-, like” approach. This means that what a medicine can cause in a healthy person, it can cure in someone who’s sick.
Jamie Oskins, a naturopathic physician at the Arizona Natural Health Center, explains it further by using red onions as an example.
“We’ve all cut an onion and got the burning eyes or the burning nasal discharge,” Oskins says. “If somebody has symptoms that match the red onion, there’s a homeopathic remedy to treat things like hay fever or the common cold with the same symptoms.”
This natural form of medicine helps stimulate the body so it can heal.
“Sometimes your body gets off track, and homeopathy stimulates your body to get back on course,” Oskins says. Homeopathic treatment also is individualized to each patient’s symptoms, with a level of detail somewhat irrelevant to a conventional doctor, Oskins says.
Homeopathy is a type of treatment, under naturopathic medicine, that concentrates on healing and treating a patient’s entire being.
“Naturopathic physicians really treat the root cause of the problem and not just the symptoms,” says Marianne Marchese, naturopathic physician and adjunct clinical faculty at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe. “Instead of just giving them a drug or herb for the headache, I actually figure out why they are having headaches.”
While homeopathy is the most common alternative medicine used in the world, according to Oskins, interest and awareness in naturopathic medicine and homeopathic treatment has increased. In fact, it has trended over the past four years in the Valley and business has doubled, according to Marchese.
“People are definitely looking for alternative and conventional medicine instead of just drugs,” Marchese says. “For example, people are really looking to increase their knowledge to improve their health on their own, or they look for natural medicines instead of medication to treat or prevent their own conditions.”
For more information about homeopathy, visit www.aznaturalhealth.com or call (480) 456-0402. If you’d like more information about naturopathic medicine, call the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine at (480) 970-0000.
