Our Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Naturopathy Answered

Naturopathy often succeeds when other types of therapies don’t because it takes a ‘big picture’ (holistic) approach to your health. This goes beyond focusing on your symptoms, to determine the underlying causes of your health problems. This is why naturopathy is highly successful. Western medicine practitioners often prescribe drugs that will suppress disease symptoms. When disease recurs the same drug is often prescribed again. This cycle does nothing to resolve the underlying causes for the disease.

Naturopathy is valuable for both chronic and acute problems, but can be particularly useful in resolving long-standing problems that have resisted other forms of therapy.

Most problems begin to improve within a few days to a couple of weeks. The length of time varies depending on many factors, including the type of problem you’re facing, how long you’ve been dealing with the problem, how old you are, what your stress levels are and what your general health is like. Some complex issues take more time to resolve.

Naturopathic medicine encourages the body to return to its normal healthy state by enhancing or moderating certain natural processes within the body. This process can involve a combination of herbs, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes and correct nutrition, all of which can play an important role in maintaining healthy biochemistry and physiology.

Unlike Western medicinal approaches, naturopathy tackles disease and body function problems by improving how your organs, glands and systems (such as nervous, immune and gastrointestinal) work. This is the most effective and safest way to resolve most health problems.

No. Naturopathy is increasingly becoming the first choice of therapy for people who want more than just short-term relief from symptoms. It’s natural, safe and emphasises long-term solutions so you can enjoy life with better health.

Naturopathy has been practiced for centuries. Modern naturopathy continues to grow and evolve because of increased research and greater financial investment by industry. It has proven itself, time and time again, as an effective alternative to Western medicine.

Here are some tips:

• Ask about education and qualifications from a reputable university or college.
• Ensure the naturopath is a member of a professional association.
• Ask how many years the naturopath has been in business.
• Ask if the naturopath has experience with your particular health issue.
• Find out if the naturopath belongs to any private health funds.

The major difference (but not the only one) is that naturopaths work with what is called an holistic approach. This is a rational, logical approach to health care that goes beyond just treating the symptoms you’re suffering. We look closely at your major concerns, but we also go beyond that by examining your general health in detail, to form a bigger picture.

Far too many health practitioners focus on a patient’s symptoms and prescribe something that might get rid of them temporarily. However, the symptoms will often return if the causes of the problem are not treated.

We can formulate a treatment that goes beyond fixing the problem in the short term. Our holistic approach is designed to be long lasting and to stop your health issue from recurring.

It’s difficult to say until we determine what your health issues are, how acute or chronic they are and what treatment is needed to fix them. This involves examining the factors that could be contributing to why you’re not feeling 100 per cent. It also involves how well you comply with the therapy advice you’re given. Those who follow the treatment protocols closely get much quicker relief and results.

We always aim to keep the number of consultations to a minimum so the therapy is as affordable as possible.

Generally you won’t have to. You can usually stop your treatment once your health issue is resolved. However, many people feel so much better after taking supplements that they decide to continue with a maintenance regime.

At Kingston Natural Therapies, we’ll advise you on the best approach to ensure long-lasting health.

Eating well—a balanced diet—is always advisable. However, with the way many foods are grown or processed these days it’s very difficult to meet all of your nutritional needs without extra support. This is especially true because of our busy lifestyles and stress levels.

Many people need an extra nutrient boost in some form, depending on their individual health pattern and diet regime. During your consultation we can design a tailored program that will suit your individual needs.

These places certainly sell a wide range of remedies and supplements but they are, in general, not of a high quality and the dosage advice is usually insufficient for effective treatment of disease.

At Kingston Natural Therapies, our remedies are ‘Practitioner Only’ blends which are more potent and better quality than those sold to the general public. We stock a broad range of products from reputable suppliers such as Metagenics, Mediherb, Eagle, Orthoplex, Thorne and Bioceuticals.

Yes—it’s always possible to improve the function of your nervous system and improve your tolerance to stress. We all inherit health patterns and health issues, but this doesn’t mean we’re helpless and have to accept that this is our fate. The key is to identify and change the circumstances causing the problem. These could be nutrient deficiencies, poor glandular function or other problems such as high stress. A treatment plan can then be developed that will address underlying contributing factors.

Many people think they can’t change their nervous disorder issues if they’ve inherited them but this isn’t true. It’s always possible to improve quality of life.

Yes. A naturopath treats long-term disease differently. We employ nutritional supplements, amino acids, herbal medicines and good nutrition—all of which the human body can tolerate. This approach involves addressing the underlying reasons your nervous system isn’t functioning as well as it should.

Once we understand the causes we develop a program that you can manage yourself to improve your health.

Yes. This is why more and more parents are using these types of remedies for their child’s health problems. Our remedies are flavoured to appeal to children and many come in powdered form, making it easy for you to mix in with yoghurt or other food. We stock children-specific remedies that are specially formulated to ensure appropriate nutrient mixtures and dosing.

We have a good rapport with young people of all ages and are expert at explaining to them, in language they can understand, why it’s important to get better and how they can help themselves do so. Once children start feeling better, which is often quite quickly since their bodies often have less complicated health patterns than adults, they can see the difference and become motivated to keep up with their treatment.

We have good credibility with children and, as an ‘outsider’, can often more easily get them to comply with what we need them to do. We often see them cooperating right away. With some children it can be a lengthier process, but we keep at it until we have a solution.

Children’s bodies often respond quickly to naturopathic treatments. It is a matter of applying the right therapy to younger bodies that generally have fewer entrenched health issues and therefore a shorter response time than adults.

Naturopathy is effective in all the areas where kids commonly develop problems e.g. immunity, upper respiratory, skin, nervous system and gastrointestinal.

Massage is when a qualified massage therapist uses their hands to manipulate the soft tissues of your body to change and/or increase energy flow. It promotes circulation and blood flow, relaxes tense, constricted muscles and has many physical and psychological health benefits. It can involve stroking, gliding and kneading the tissues to refresh, regenerate and revitalise.

Massage can help with general wellbeing and mental relaxation. It also helps with many specific health issues. For example, many people who work at computers for long periods of time, or who earn their living through physical labour, use massage for back and neck pain. Athletes rely on it also. Many use it to relieve stress and increase productivity.

Other health issues and disease problems can be helped with massage also, including:

• arthritis
• depression
• digestive dysfunction
• eating disorders
• insomnia
• muscular tension
• headaches and migrains
• repetitive strain injury (including carpal tunnel)
• sports injuries
• stress
• work-related injuries.