Naturopathic Prescribing Rights

Estimates show that 20-30% of the Canadian population does not have a family MD. Accordingly, Naturopathic Doctors have an opportunity to provide primary health care to many people who do not have a family doctor. With talk of a new version of Bill C-51 being reintroduced to parliament, this position of primary care provider may become even more integral to naturopaths over the next several years.

Consequently, CCNM, the Ontario Association of ND's (OAND) the Canadian Association of ND's (CAND) and the Board of Directors of Drugless Therapies-Naturopaths (BDDT-N) recently collaborated to submit a proposal to the Health Professions Regulatory Advisory Council (HPRAC) requesting ND's privilege to prescribe drugs. If successful, this will ensure botanicals and other restricted substances will always be attainable and may include some emergency prescription pharmaceuticals as well. Consequently, with careful planning, this is yet another reason for growth of the profession.

You can read the submission online at www.ccnm.edu or HPRAC.

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Maintaining Naturopathic Standards

Naturopathic Medicine in Canada is continually growing and gaining public support as a viable method of true health care. This trust begins with the quality of Naturopathic Doctors. Today representatives from the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education visited our school. The goal of this council is to provide the public with a standard of quality assurance in regards to the education of Naturopathic Doctors.

In an open discussion, students expressed their concerns about CCNM including the tremendous intensity of our 2nd year program as well as some disappointment that certain areas of wholistic medicine were not included to a greater extent in the curriculum. Many ideas were put forward including making naturopathy a five year program or including the opportunity for specialization. It was apparent that it is difficult to please everyone's expectations as each person has a different context. In regards to including even more areas of wholistic medicine in the curriculum, our program is already really packed over the 4 years. However, I can certainly understand that my colleagues want to learn about "energetics" etc. in the safe environment of an academic setting because there is so much misinformation out there.

As a student, I take pride in the fact that every step of naturopathy is evaluated and continually improved when necessary. I recognize the effort it takes to guide the focus of our education. Naturopaths in Canada are Doctors and as such have an education that prepares us for work as a primary care practitioner (although one may choose to specialize). Accordingly, I value the efforts of the Council of Naturopathic Medical Education which continures to increase the strength and integrity of the profession.

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Naturopathic Movies IX

Side Effects

This movie stars Katherine Heigl (of Grey's Anatomy) in a documentary meets chick-flick style film. The plot is closely based on the true story of the writer/director's 10 years experience as a drug sales rep. The movie shows how a 23 year old political science major was not at all qualified to "educate" doctors on the pharmaceutical drugs that she sold and yet she became the top selling rep in her company. There were several excellent scenes in the movie that brought some issues of contemporary medicine to the forefront.

This small independent film offers a humorous view of a tremendously unethical problem. Here is The Trailer.

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Naturopathic Movies VIII

Here are 2 movies that reframe the process of natural childbirth in a positive light:

1. The Business of Being Born

Check out www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com for more information and take a look at one of my earlier entries on Childbirth if you are interested.

2. Orgasmic Birth

I found the movie title initially shocking but the documentary is quite fantastic. Check out www.orgasmicbirth.com for a full movie review.

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Quote of the Month

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

Mark Twain

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Homeopathy in Naturopathy

Today we had a guest presentation by Dr. Peter Fisher who is a Physician to her Majesty the Queen of England. Dr. Fisher practices Classical Homeopathy, although he does not like some of the connotations associated with the word "Classical." Dr. Fisher is also an editor for the journal Homeopathy and has a vast knowledge of the homeopathic research published in conventional medical journals.

It is such a privilege to get to see international speakers who broaden the understanding of a subject. I really appreciated his perspective on the effectiveness of homeopathy compared to placebo while showing meta-analysis demonstrating both the successes and failures of homeopathy.

Dr. Fisher stated that although the idea of homeopathy "is implausible," there are some theories on how it works. The most prevalent being the, "Memory of Water." I was intrigued by his DVD analogy. If a chemist were to analyze the petroleum constituents of a DVD disc, this would give no indication of the information stored on the disc. Likewise, when the chemical constituents of a homeopathic remedy are analyzed, water, alcohol, and sugar are the most likely chemical constituents found. And, just like the DVD, these give no indication of the information stored within the remedy. An interesting comparison!

Another topic that came up was the idea of homeopathic vaccinations. Dr. Fisher stated that there was not a shred of evidence that Homeopathic immunizations taken from nosodes work (nosodes are remedies made from diseased tissue). A Homeopathic professor at CCNM agreed but stated that there was some evidence that individualized treatments based on the totality of symptoms were often effective. Dr. Fisher noted that Edward Jenner came up with the first vaccine using the cow pox virus in 1796 just a few years after Samuel Hahnemann discovered Homeopathy. He said that Hahnemann was excited about medical vaccinations (at least in their intent).

This issue of vaccination is such a hot topic lately, that I will be posting some links to interesting information at a later date.

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2nd Year Update in Naturopathic Medicine

One thing that pleasantly surprised me about CCNM was that change can happen quickly in response to student feedback. As such, this was the first time that a "midterm exam week" without classes was implemented. So, our class just finished a mental marathon with nine exams in one week (10 if the practical exam in Homeopathy is counted separately). Unfortunately for my year, the change nearly killed us! The second year is notorious for being the crux year in Naturopathy, but this new format made things exceptionally difficult by condensing all the MT exams into one week. However, I believe our suggestions will lengthen "exam week" or provide some other beneficial solution for future years.

Otherwise, the second year is amazing. This is where we really get introduced to the skills of a primary health care practitioner and also begin other exciting complimentary modalities like acupuncture.

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