Comparison of Naturopathy and the Biomedical Model of Healthcare Perspectives
The processes of Disease from a Naturopathic perspective and Biomedical model of health perspective
From a Naturopathic perspective, disease occurs from multifactorial inputs including stress and living outside ‘Natures laws’ and from the presence of pathogens which cause ‘infection to an organism that is not able to readily prevent it’ (AIAS). Its focus is on vitalism and holism, the former acknowledges the presence of a living force beyond the mechanistic workings of the body e.g. in death, this vital force is no longer seen in operation; and holism, through which the principle of treating the ‘whole’ individual, is the way to successfully treat disease. Both concepts are interrelated and can’t be placed into separate categories without one affecting the other in the naturopath’s approach to treating disease.
One example of how vital force is factored into a treatment plan, is the mental, physical, and emotional presentation of the client, and the presenting signs and symptoms, which together will affect the order and type of treatment; if two people present with the same signs and symptoms and different mental physical and emotional symptoms the treatments prescribed will be different. In the biomedical model, it’s common for signs and symptoms to be treated in the same way, without consideration for other factors such as the mental, physical, and emotional together (Yuill, Crinson , & Duncan, 2010). The body has an innate self-renewal and healing processes and the naturopaths approach is to support this (Jagtenberg, et al., 2006).
The biomedical model of health is based around the presenting signs and symptoms of disease and relies on treating symptoms of disease to help a patient be ‘pain free’, ‘happy’, and free from ‘defect or disability’ (Wade & Halligan, 2004), an example is eczema. If the client has eczema which goes away with steroid cream, the biomedical model might say that the eczema is cured, however if it comes back the same treatment of steroid cream will usually be given instead of looking for underlying reasons for its occurrence.
The difference between the biomedical approach and naturopathic medicine is that the later relies of treatment strategies that come from proving’s from centuries of practice whereas the biomedical models relies only on what is proven by science, therefore its scope is limited without inclusion of previous findings in its approach to treatments (Yuill, Crinson , & Duncan, 2010).
Advances in the biomedical model may give new solutions to its treatment of disease, for example in the case of eczema science now prove that immune and gut health are linked to integumentary health, furthermore nutrition, supplements, herbs, and lifestyle can positively treat eczema at the source and prevent its return. Naturopathic medicine has utilised these remedies for eczema before they have been included into the biomedical model, however Naturopathy also benefits from scientific findings in medicine if it doesn’t lose its foundational knowledge of effective treatments that have been proved over centuries or longer of practice (Jagtenberg, et al., 2006).
Heather Indiana Rose
Copyright 2019