Naturopathic Doctors Licensing Act introduced in North Carolina

The Naturopathic Doctors Licensing Act has been introduced in the North Carolina General Assembly.   Senate Bill 467 sponsored by Senators Fletcher Hartsell, (R-Cabarrus & Irdell), and Tom Apodaca, (R-Buncombe, Henderson, & Polk), and House Bill 847 sponsored by Representatives Jeff Barnhart, (R-Cabarrus),  Jeff Collins, (R-Nash), Tom Murry, (R-Wake), and Susan Fisher, (D-Buncombe) were introduced Thursday, March 31 and Thursday, April 7 respectively.  SB 467 and HB 847 prescribe a process for licensing doctors of naturopathic medicine in North Carolina. The legislation follows the national standards for licensure of naturopaths requiring college graduation with an emphasis in sciences, graduation from a four-year nationally accredited naturopathic medical school, and passage of a state or national licensing board exam.  Once licensed, doctors would have to complete yearly continuing educational credits to maintain a license.

The scope of practice as detailed in the legislation is specific and narrowly defined, allowing naturopathic doctors to diagnose and treat illness and use a variety of natural treatment modalities such as homeopathy, herbal therapies, nutritional supplements, diet, physical manipulation, light, heat and water.  However, these therapies are not exclusive to the practice of naturopathic medicine, and the provisions of the legislation are applicable only to naturopathic doctors. The purpose of the legislation is to provide standards for practitioners in North Carolina who practice as naturopathic doctors. 

Members of NCANP hopes the bills will move smoothly through the legislative process.  However, assistance from supporters of naturopathic medicine is welcome and needed.  Here is how you can help to get SB 467 or HB 847 enacted.  Call members of the legislative committees to which the bills have been assigned and ask legislators to support the Naturopathic Doctors Licensing Act.  Contact information for members of the Senate Committee on Health Care and the House Committee on Health and Human Services is recorded below. 

Book Prescriptions: Clean Green and Lean

When I was in my first year at Naturopathic Medical School, my roommate was in her third year taking “Environmental Medicine” with Walter Crinnion, ND. I gleaned that the class and the professor were big deals but I did not know what Environmental Medicine was, so I asked. The answer I heard was something like, “It’s where you learn about all the different chemicals and  things that are toxic to us everyday and everywhere and how they impact us.” 

Boosting Immunity: A Naturopathic Approach to Flu Prevention and Treatment

           Health promotion, avoidance of synthetic suppressive medications, and use of safer natural therapies are the mainstays of the Naturopathic principle of Prevention.  In other words, we orient ourselves around the innate healing ability of the person rather than orienting ourselves around a particular pathogen. For this reason Naturopathic physicians put more emphasis on supporting your whole health so that you are more resistant to all diseases rather than stimulating production of specific antibodies for that particular season’s most likely strain of flu virus. If you do get sick we’d like you to get through it as quickly and comfortably as possible without harm to your overall health. Synthetic or suppressive therapies can lead to unwanted side effects or chronic conditions.

Alternative Medicine: Homeopathy and Children

Does your child have allergies, eczema, ear aches, digestive issues, or problems with attention, sleep or eating? Homeopathy can be a safe and effective treatment for these conditions.

Homeopathy is ideal for children as it is a gentle yet highly effective system of medicine. The mildly sweet pills, powders or liquids are easy to dispense and are more palatable than many conventional medicines. The highly diluted natural substances that form homeopathic remedies mean that they are safe to use in the very young. More than that, homeopathy can raise the immunity of your children to help deal with illness throughout their childhood.

Take John, a 10 year old boy, who has been dealing with seasonal allergies that would often develop into a violent cough and eventually pneumonia.  He also had stomach cramps that were unexplained by his pediatrician and nightly leg pains which prevented restful sleep.  Dawn, his mother, brought John in for homeopathy with Dr. Michael Smith, a Naturopathic Physician in Matthews, NC, after the drugs he had been prescribed only made his symptoms worse.  Shortly after being prescribed a homeopathic remedy, John’s symptoms began to improve. 

Recipes

Roasted chick peas

(a great snack)

2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one can chickpeas)

4 cloves minced garlic

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp Herbamare, other seasoning blend, or salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 425 F.  Mix all ingredients together in large bowl until well combined.  Spread chickpea mixture onto baking sheet that has been lightly greased or lined with parchment paper.  Cook, turning with spatula occasionally, for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.  Store in air-tight container for a healthy snack.

Is lack of sleep making you fat?

By Jade Teta ND CSCS and Keoni Teta ND, LAc, CSCS

Sleep is one of the most basic physiological responses in the animal world. Everyone knows that you can’t function for long when you are sleep deprived. Sleep can be regarded as the physiological equivalent to the reset button on your computer. When a computer crashes, the surest way to solve the problem is to reboot. It seems we modern day humans have forgotten our intimate connection to sleep. We do everything we can to circumvent it. We stay up nightly watching late night TV, surfing the Internet, and feeding ourselves under artificial light. In the morning we rip ourselves away from the bed using all manner of stimulants to jumpstart our bodies and allow us to function once again. Like most things in the modern world, sleep is treated as more of an annoyance than a critically essential process for whole body function. It is not uncommon for people to brag they only require four hours of sleep. However, in order to keep them functional, it requires large cups of coffee, along with plenty of bagels, cookies, chocolate, pasta; you name it. Most of these people are self-diagnosed carbohydrate junkies and regard their weight issue as a hereditary defect rather than a symptom of chronic sleep deprivation. The loss of fat from the human body is a complex process that goes far beyond simple one-dimensional models of calorie counting. Sleep holds the key to restoring your fat burning software and it is all related to ancient human metabolism.