A friend of mine recommended I see a naturopath for my headaches. What exactly are naturopaths, and how qualified are they to treat medical conditions?
They are practitioners of naturopathy (or naturopathic medicine), which is hard to define because it can be almost anything. It is based on pseudoscientific ideas—for example, that being out of harmony with nature causes disease—and generally recommends against modern, evidence-based medical practices, including medication and vaccinations. Naturopathy grew partly out of the American health reform movement of the 1830s led by Sylvester Graham and John Harvey Kellogg, who believed in “natural” treatments such as water cures, enemas, fresh air, and whole grains.
Naturopaths often use unscientific diagnostic methods (such as hair analysis or iridology) to uncover questionable or bogus conditions (such as “candidiasis hypersensitivity” or “auto-intoxication”). They typically recommend or sell herbs, supplements, homeopathic products, and other suspect (and sometimes potentially harmful) treatments such as colonic irrigation, magnet therapy, “cleansing” fasts, ozone therapy, and crystal healing as alternatives to physician-prescribed treatments.
Though naturopaths don’t have medical degrees, several accredited naturopathic colleges in the U.S. offer four years of training and a diploma. According to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, 23 states (plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) have licensing or registration laws for naturopathic doctors (NDs/NMDs), who are able to prescribe conventional drugs (even though their teaching often opposes the use of them). Some medical insurance covers their services, and some hospitals have naturopaths as residents or on staff, though it is unclear what this allows them to do.
Still, anybody can set up as a naturopath with no training whatsoever. An aspiring naturopath can get a diploma on the internet. What’s more, dubious organizations sell all sorts of add-on credentials—for instance, indicating that a naturopath is “board certified” in areas such as nutrition, iridology, herbalism, or holistic health.
Some naturopaths may work with medical doctors and offer reasonable counseling on nutrition, exercise, relaxation, and similar matters. But a nurse-practitioner, physician assistant, or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) can provide this kind of guidance—you don’t need a naturopath for it. And since many naturopaths practice quackery and can needlessly endanger their patients either directly or by keeping them away from proven, evidence-based treatments, we can’t recommend them.
