Naturopathy

Your naturopathic practitioner guides you on the path to health by focusing on arousing within you the resources that inhabit you so that you are able to become, on a daily basis, an actor in your health. For more information, do not hesitate to contact our expert naturopaths via the secure form for advice tailored to your situation.
Where does Naturopathic medicine come from?
The Greeks were the heirs of the medical knowledge of Pharaonic Egypt and Mesopotamia. Hippocrates, called the “father of medicine”, laid the foundations for a scientific medicine devoid of magico-religious practices from the 4th century BC called “Naturopathy”.

Hippocratic Naturopathy develops the humoral theory of the body, based on the four constituent elements of the world: air, water, earth and fire and on the four humors circulating in the body: blood, bile, atrabile and phlegm, themselves related to four organs (heart, liver, spleen and brain).

In this system, the four qualities of hot, cold, dry and humid are assigned to the elements, humors and organs. Foods and remedies are themselves classified according to these qualities, which makes it possible to outline therapeutic connections.

Subsequently, Dioscorides (60 AD) significantly enriched the work of Hippocrates by writing a work, taken up and commented on by Matthiole, which will be a reference for fifteen centuries in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. . Galen (131-201 AD), another Greek who would become the physician of Marcus Aurelius, was one of the first to lay the codified basis for the preparation of remedies. It is from its name that the “galenic” derives; current pharmaceutical science focused on the preparation, presentation and storage of drugs.

Naturopathy is an ancient medicine that is effective in many cases, advocating the use of herbal remedies as well as many natural techniques.

Where modern allopathy with all its panoply of extremely sophisticated chemical molecules did not flourish until after World War II, and is therefore barely 70 years old; Naturopathy, on the other hand, is a thousand-year-old practice whose knowledge has been built up empirically.
What is Naturopathy today ?
The principles which govern Naturopathic practice today owe a great deal to the “Hippocratic corpus” which formed the basis of Western medicine.

Today, Naturopathy is about “regaining health in a natural way”. This is called “preventive medicine”.

Nowadays, Naturopathy focuses on traditional methods, principles and practices that act on the prevention, understanding and holistic diagnosis of disease and its treatment. Its purpose is to facilitate the body’s ability to restore and maintain optimal health.

When, for example, you take a pain reliever for a headache, you may be missing the onset of dehydration, when a simple intake of water could have eliminated not only the pain associated with the headaches, but also the root cause, namely dehydration.

It is by rebalancing the various systems that make up the body that we can maintain optimal quality of health.

Where the doctor prescribes medication to alleviate or resolve a symptom, the Naturopath will focus on the cause of the symptom and consider a way to help the body regain harmony.

Fever, for example, is an increase in the number of white blood cells used to fight an infection. This proliferation of small soldiers will lead to an increase in body temperature. The doctor will recommend lowering the fever using paracetamol or ibuprofen and will contain the infection with antibiotics. However, taking this medication will prevent the white blood cells from learning to understand the infection on their own. And if this infection recurs, the body will not be able to fight it again. The Naturopath will then favor maximum rest of the body while the infection disappears and will try to cool certain areas in order to limit the discomfort caused by the fever.

Naturopathy is reserved for anyone who wishes to invest in becoming a better player in their health.
What is the role of a Naturopath ?
The Naturopath is a practitioner intervening in addition to traditional medicine. Its objective is above all to guide its patients towards a better quality of life and a better understanding of their body in order to bring them well-being and relieve them of chronic diseases.

The practice of the Naturopath is guided by the idea that the disease reflects an imbalance in the hygiene of life: way of living, of eating, of taking care of oneself.

The dysfunctions of the body are mainly due to the abuse of food, alcohol, drugs, lack of physical exercise or sleep. This is why, in addition to prescribing a natural treatment, he can give recommendations about diet and lifestyle (sleep, exercise, relaxation, etc.).

The practitioner takes care to help each person to identify the causes of their health problems, to understand the process of the disease which affects them in order to empower them and give them the necessary means for their process of well-being.

Representing the 3rd world traditional medicine, alongside Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine according to the WHO (World Health Organization), Naturopathy is a medicine, which takes into consideration all aspects of the person and seeks to act, not on the symptom, but on the cause!

In short, a Naturopath is a therapist with specific training to provide patient care by stimulating the body as naturally as possible. It uses various natural and ecological means such as drainage, purges, massage, diet, exercise, stress management, supplementation, etc. in order to treat certain health problems. Some Naturopaths also have training in homeopathy and / or another discipline of natural medicine.
What is the difference between an attending physician and a Naturopath ?
The difference with traditional medicine? One works on the symptoms, the other on the cause. In other words, you come to see a Naturopath to avoid getting sick or to learn how to heal yourself naturally.