Arrowwind, I've noticed you use the term "homeopath" rather than "naturopath". Does "homeopath" refer to a MD who practices homeopathy, or are you just referring to your naturopath as a homeopath? I'm just curious, because I've heard people say homeopath before, but I'm not sure how one can become solely a homeopath.

A natuopath or a medical doctor can practice homoepathy. Homeopathy is a very specific form of alterntive medicine. It is one of the most profound systems of healing and cure available on the planet. Not easy to master though. A naturopath just uses natural medicines and adheres to principles of wholism involved with diet, detox, drainage, spiritual and psychological balance, herbs, vitamins, hydrotherapy, etc. Most naturopathic schools make you do significant study in either acupuncture or in homeopathy in your 4th year. To be a master homeopath I think even more training is required IMHO, same with acupuncture.. they have schools to become a Doctor of Oriental Medicine OMD generally 2 or 3 years and schools to just study homeopathy, especially in Arizona. State regulations are highly variable. Being a licensed naturopath gives you the most flexibility but not necessarily all the training you need to master homeopathy or acupuncture which really requires extensive oriental herbal study to go with it.
You can read about homeopathy it here:
https://www.healthsalon.org/category/homeopathy/
and it is most specifically defined in these two articles here:
https://www.healthsalon.org/80/homeop...ined-part-one/
and
https://www.healthsalon.org/92/homeop...ined-part-two/

__________________
"The nurse should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, - receptive to Truth and Love" Mary Baker Eddy
Visit www.HealthSalon.org

Although an ND may not be a master homeopath, I personally think homeopathy is not the most important tool of healing. I think nutrition is the most important tool a ND can have. My way of thinking is, health issues in people go much farther than skin deep. Many people suffer illnesses purely because of their poor diet. Now, other things play a factor as well, but if you administer homeopathic remedies to a problem that runs deeper than just an abnormality, it may work temporarily and come back when the treatment is stopped, or it may not work at all. Change a person's diet however, and it can have significant effects even in the illest of people. After one's diet is properly set to get them the food they need, and to stop them from getting the food they don't, other treatments may be looked into to supplement the diet, i.e. homeopathic remedies. I completely understand why jfh claimed he's yet to find a remedy that works for him. If the body was at unease long before treatment, then something has been going wrong for a while. You stated yourself that some homeopaths have told you that some people are uncurable for various reasons. This is where the multiple treatment methods of a ND kick in. I don't believe that a person can be uncurable, unless that is really the case like having a disease with no known cure.

No offense Arrow, but I think that ND's have more than enough training in homeopathy to be a good doctor. Acupuncture is a different story. It is illegal to practice acupuncture in the state of Washington without a degree in it. Therefore I have seen many naturopaths employ acupuncturists at their practices.

jfh, going off of what I said, if homeopathy isn't working for you, don't give up on natural medicine. I would visit a local naturopath to see if they can offer you another form of help.

Arrow, I hope you are not offended by my opinions. But then again, they are just my opinions, so take from them what you want, and leave what you don't.

No I am not offended, I am just whitnessing your lack of experience. You came here asking many questions and not even knowing the difference between naturopathy, homeopathy etc. You have never even been to a naturopath.

There is no amount of nutrition that could have saved me and some other people I know from the problems they have had such as:

Nutriiton will not get rid of an infection over night.
Nutriton will not get rid of an infection in just a few hours.
Nutrition will not get rid of facial acne in 5 days
Nutrition will not get rid of chronic constipaiton over night
Nutrition will not get rid of ADHD in 2 weeks
Nutrition will not get rid of chronic insomnia in 3 days
Nutrition will not get rid blood born parasites
Nutrition will not reverse an allergic reaction to bee sting in 5 minutes
Nutriton will not get rid of postpartum depression
Nutrition will not get rid of a child's head banging behavior
Nutrition will not cure stage 2 skin cancer in three weeks
Nutriton will not get rid of chronic eczema overnight
Nutriton will not get rid of spinal scoliosis,,, and I did cure my son's diagnosed scolosis with homeopathy

All of the above I have seen cured with homoeapthy and the conditons never returned, ever... because bad nutriiton is ofen NOT the cause of disease. Someday you may come to realize that there are very complex energy systems in the body that homeopathy and acupuncture can address. If you go to naturopathic school you will certainly learn about this and then you can argue with your professor about it then if you like...When the energy system is corrected the immune system heals, the nutritonal issues resolve, many things are made right, and healing occurs.

Now go ahead and poohoo it, but if I were you, I would mark my words and keep an open mind as you persue your education because if you head to naturopathic school you will see things that will blow your mind.

You are obviously offended assuming that I am ignorant about these topics. I know very well the difference between a naturopath and a homeopath. I was asking you in order to see if you had been using the terms interchangeably like some people do. I have never been to a naturopath, but I have seen some great things done using ONLY nutrition for people in my family who have visited naturopaths. My brother for example, was diagnosed with Crohnes disease by allopathic doctors. They prescribed steroids and it would have pretty much went downhill from there. Fortunately, he visited a great naturopath at that time who put him on a diet that would change his life. Homeopathy would have done nothing in that situation. Using homeopathic remedies while still consuming what his body could not handle would have been detrimental to him. Sure, they would help in addition to his diet, but not alone. This is the beauty of naturopathy. Multiple healing methods combined do a lot better than one alone.

Now, have you been to a naturopath? Are they that much worse than homeopaths if you have?


Natural medicine is a prevention medicine. With good nutrition many of these problems may not have come about. Poor nutrition is the leading contributor of premature death in the U.S. Poor nutrition IS often the cause of disease.

Please don't respond with personal attacks, like "[I] don't know the difference" and "[I] have never even been to naturopath before". I have never been to a homeopath either, this makes the playing field level for me. I am trying to be as polite as possible, having a conversation where we can both leave having learned something from each other. I am not trying to argue on this forum. Had that been my goal I would have went to post at an allopathic forum.

I joined this forum just so I could respond to this! I decided to go to school to become a naturopath (after I get the appropriate science lab coursework done) and I'm not new to the disdain against natural/holistic/alternative medicine. I'm getting my bachelor's in alternative medicine right now and so I have become... desensitized to criticism? Maybe it's because I'm so secure about the workings of nutrition, homeopathy (even though I've never had it done) and counseling that I'm able to read articles and comments in science-centric websites like it was nothing, if not laugh at them. I was just reading an article this morning about how naturopaths hate science and how unscientific they (we ) are with our acupuncture woo, homeopathy woo, and nutrition woo. How is nutrition "woo"? You can't disprove what nutrients do for the body! It's food!
We're just coming from two different perspectives. Chinese Medicine has at least 2,000 years of observation and pattern-deriving from it. Homeopathy was officially "established" some 200 years ago but the concept of it is not new and is also based on provings, research and observation. I'm telling you, the more advanced technology is going to get, the more able it will be to "discover" things that have already been known.
Anyway, for the spiritual/religious aspect, yes, that's a big part of what a lot of holistic practitioners stand for, but you don't need to believe in any higher power to believe in the power of naturopathy. We human beings evolved to adapt to what was around us. Give me the name of a society that thrived on soy lecithin, high fructose corn syrup and aspartame and I'll eat this laptop.
There's a lot more I could go into, but I gotta get ready for work. Glad I could join in this discussion!

And we're glad to have you join the discussion c0cc0. And don't forget Ayurvedic knowledge either. It might be older than Chinese Traditional medicine and protocols.

__________________
- Jim
https://www.natmedtalk.com/blogs/jfh

Oh, definitely, I can see the parallels between Ayurveda and CM and I believe that Ayurveda was older and may have even had an influence on CM.

I was chatting today about naturopathy and the hatred of it by the medical world, and this guy who was working in neurology for a while said that chiropractors went through the same thing before they were able to get where they are now as far as licensure and whatever. So, I honestly feel that it's only a matter of time...

Yes, I agree. That's what I said in an earlier post. My experience is that, as you said, it is only a matter of time. But it will take more time, because the field is subdivided into several disciplines. So was chiropractic, to some extent, but not as broad as naturopathy.

Ok, I just had to comment. I am not a Naturopath, or in any way tied to them. I am an engineer, and a firm believer in the sciences, but I think Fukurou, you have got the right mindset to become an excellent Naturopath. Your focus on Nutrition ties to what I would consider a key point - our bodies our fueled by what is put in them, and the trend today is showing that diseases and issues are caused by environmental factors so as you said, proper lifestyle habits would have prevented that list that was presented to you as being cured. Why cure it if you can avoid it in the first place.

Even though I am hugely skeptical of some things that Naturopaths/Homeopaths do, I have seen the effects of a balanced lifestyle (being an Ironman competitor I can guarantee you nutrition has a huge roll).

I'd say go for it, but remember, don't compromise your beliefs to do it, focus on what you feel is right - there is more than enough good that can be done out there !

You are the one who asked what the difference is between homeopathy and naturopathy,not me. You come here and test me? Why? I am not testing you. I am telling you what I know from the result of a lifetime dedicated to finding answers. When someone starts to try to discredit homeopathy I must respond vigorously because I know first hand its healing potential and I have seen it save lives and I am fully aware of the kind of ignorance that attempts to silence homeoapthy and I will not let those voices stand in my presence uncontested and that is that.

Homeoapthy can correct many things that nutritional work alone cannot correct.. Natural medicine can be preventative medicine but that is not all that it is. It is medicine... Period...

Diet may cure crohns, but homeopathy will cure the underlaying cause. If you fix your problem with diet then later resume the bad diet and have crohns again it just goes to show that you are not cured... Diet alone does not generally cure crohns... it hides it. Homeoapthy states that a healthy body can eat any common food.. unless there is a genetic disorder.
Homeopathy can and has cured cases of crohns disease and the patient goes on to eat what ever they like... and this is the difference between homeopathy and nutritional therapy in many cases.

If you go to a naturopathic school, the last time I checked, about 5 years ago, all students in all the available schools for a licensed ND degree in the USA were requried to choose an emphasis in the final year, either in Homeopathy or in Acupuncture. This is how important these two diciplines are regarded..

Unfortuantely, one year for either of these studies is not sufficient to excell in the work... so most naturopaths are not very good at either of these unless they do a lot of independent study.

To be a licensed Homeopath in Arizona its a 3 year program. To be a doctor of Oriental Medicine is a three year program minimum.

I once did a search on Homeopathy and Crohn's Disease and found little or nothing that indicate it had been successfully used for this disease. I have heard of a few failures. I have to add that there is not much info at all on the subject that I could find.

I would like to know if there is a specific homeopathic treatment for this, if you have access to such information. I have little in the way of homeopaths around here.

I have Crohn's and have it well under control, mostly using MMS, but I doubt it is cured. I like to use any method that may help.

Dan