Has anyone seen a naturopath?

[Deleted User]

My husband saw a naturopath in 1978, when he was constantly ill with ulcerative colitis. His life was turned around through the good advice and diet recommendations from that naturopath. Prior to that he had been hospitalised a few times. I learnt from that too and ever since have been following a really healthy diet and learnt about herbalism and homeopathy. I even trained at a well known university for four years. My dh has not had UC ever since he saw that naturopath all those years ago. As for me, well I take no medication at all, I don`t need to. I am 3 years off 70 btw

A good naturopath is worth his or her weight in gold

http://www.gncouncil.co.uk/

jenniewb

theoretica wrote: »

When researching naturopaths you need to be very aware that the word is used to mean different things. In some states of the US for instance there are licensed physicians who are qualified in conventional medicine and naturopathy (I know someone whose GP is one of these). On the other hand there are also people using the term with far less training, of any sort.

Thanks, I'm not looking for a naturopath at the moment, I'm just looking to see other people's experiences of using one but it seems no one has (unless I'm wrong and no one wants to say how it went).

jenniewb

kittie wrote: »

My husband saw a naturopath in 1978, when he was constantly ill with ulcerative colitis. His life was turned around through the good advice and diet recommendations from that naturopath. Prior to that he had been hospitalised a few times. I learnt from that too and ever since have been following a really healthy diet and learnt about herbalism and homeopathy. I even trained at a well known university for four years. My dh has not had UC ever since he saw that naturopath all those years ago. As for me, well I take no medication at all, I don`t need to. I am 3 years off 70 btw

A good naturopath is worth his or her weight in gold

http://www.gncouncil.co.uk/

Thankyou It is helpful to see that it worked out for you. I know it was a while back but just wondering how it works, I've read that you have to go for several meetings before you get anywhere in terms of advice or instructions. It doesn't seem any offer sliding fees either though I know of a student clinic they are still really expensive.

lessonlearned

Although I have no paper qualifications (I was taught the basics by my grandmother who was a herbalist) I do have a keen interest in complimentary medicine and am quite knowledgable.

I believe that good nutrition is key, unfortunately most GPs have very little training in diet and nutrition, I understand it can be as little as half a day.

I would Ask your GP to refer you to a nutritionist. Be warned that NHS provision is patchy and you could have a long wait for an appt.

If you know that you are definitely lactose intolerant, then there are several alternatives. You can buy lactofree milk, cheese and yoghurts. A little bit more expensive but they taste just like "normal" dairy. Soya products are often touted as alternatives but soya can be difficult to digest. Almond and cocunut milks are pleasant in smoothies, for making porridge, and general cooking although they can taste a bit odd in tea and coffee. Some people can tolerate rice milk but if you are intolerant to grains its best avoided.

MAnaging IBS is really down to trial and error. The best advice I can give is to eat clean, avoiding processed foods, ready meals etc. then once the condition is under control takin it from there, gradually increasing the range of foodstuffs, one at a time and see what reaction you get.

The big trigger with IBS is stress, so learning how to combat stress is very important.

The whole point about seeing a naturopath is that they will try a more holistic approach, treating the "whole" person, rather than tackling a bunch of symptoms in isolation. With a bit of knowledge you can do this yourself.

Read up, do some research and start with making changes to your diet.

However, please be aware that the term IBS is often just a kind of catch all term and sometimes you need to investigate more thoroughly. Don't be fobbed off, if you are not happy with your treatment plan then ask for a referral to a specialist.

InsideInsurance

jenniewb wrote: »

I'm just looking to see other people's experiences of using one

As all the studies into the placebo effect will show that no matter what the treatment is you will certainly find some people that it will work for. That isnt a stab at alternative medicines, there is a few conventional medicines that really didnt score notably better than placebos did for treating the same condition.

I do agree with the other poster though that if you are trying to control IBS then you need to go right back to basics with what you are eating which means you have to make everything yourself to have real control over ingredients.

Its a slow painful process though as you need to ensure you eliminate environmental factors, like stress, as any causes of a flair up rather because of a new extra ingredient etc

theoretica

One of the great strengths of seeing pretty much any expert privately, whether mainstream or not, is the length of the appointment. More chance to explore in depth - and more chance of triggering the placebo effect.

jenniewb

InsideInsurance wrote: »

As all the studies into the placebo effect will show that no matter what the treatment is you will certainly find some people that it will work for. That isnt a stab at alternative medicines, there is a few conventional medicines that really didnt score notably better than placebos did for treating the same condition.

I do agree with the other poster though that if you are trying to control IBS then you need to go right back to basics with what you are eating which means you have to make everything yourself to have real control over ingredients.

Its a slow painful process though as you need to ensure you eliminate environmental factors, like stress, as any causes of a flair up rather because of a new extra ingredient etc

Thankyou I was aware of this, this is how I worked out that lactose doesn't seem to agree with me. I used to get a lot of pain and couldn't work out why. My GP (or a very happy to help locum GP- lucky for me as my GP didn't seem to want to run any tests) ran a proper colon test which turned up a blank, my basic blood tests were fine and after the colon test the specialist made a suggestion that I cut out dairy. I love dairy but wanted to prove him wrong- to be honest I thought the whole "intolerant" flag was just people being OTT at the time, I believed in allergies but intolerances just seemed a bit too new age. So I cut out dairy. All dairy. I looked through every food I ate and realised that about 75%+ of what I ate contained dairy. I was gutted. I liked what I ate and was thrown by having to change everything but was so intent in proving this guy wrong that I took out dairy and was very fastidious about doing that.


Within 2 weeks I'd lost about half a stone, my skin was clearer, the constant catarrh in my throat had gone as had my constant stuffy nose and most of all, the belly which I'd been asked "how long?" by everyone and even a close member of my family went down. I was so blown away by what had happened and that all the symptoms I'd been experiencing for years that I've not eaten dairy since. That was several years ago.


Thing is, I never really wanted to cut out dairy, I'd love to know if there was a better way of going about things because I can't help wondering if there is a different way of going about things than cutting out large food groups. The lactose issue is just one of these but there are other things I don't eat because I don't think they sit well with me. I'm OK to keep cutting out what I have done but just was interested in a different viewpoint on this, I was just wondering if there is a better way of trying to understand things rather than just omitting entire food groups and perhaps in understanding what things to eat or not eat without waiting for the repercussions to find out. I think after you've gone through a good few years of being underweight and having body image issues and at the same time being asked if your pregnant....it just isn't somewhere I want to revisit if I can avoid it so I just kept with cutting out everything I had done and now it's been years I've been eating like that.


It's not a major problem, but it was/is just a curiosity I'd had and was trying to find out more rather than avidly looking to try to build up a case to be referred. I doubt I'd be referred even if it was obvious something like that could help me, I have had bad experiences of needing to be referred by my GP so don't really trust them.

jenniewb

lessonlearned wrote: »

Although I have no paper qualifications (I was taught the basics by my grandmother who was a herbalist) I do have a keen interest in complimentary medicine and am quite knowledgable.

I believe that good nutrition is key, unfortunately most GPs have very little training in diet and nutrition, I understand it can be as little as half a day.

I would Ask your GP to refer you to a nutritionist. Be warned that NHS provision is patchy and you could have a long wait for an appt.

If you know that you are definitely lactose intolerant, then there are several alternatives. You can buy lactofree milk, cheese and yoghurts. A little bit more expensive but they taste just like "normal" dairy. Soya products are often touted as alternatives but soya can be difficult to digest. Almond and cocunut milks are pleasant in smoothies, for making porridge, and general cooking although they can taste a bit odd in tea and coffee. Some people can tolerate rice milk but if you are intolerant to grains its best avoided.

MAnaging IBS is really down to trial and error. The best advice I can give is to eat clean, avoiding processed foods, ready meals etc. then once the condition is under control takin it from there, gradually increasing the range of foodstuffs, one at a time and see what reaction you get.

The big trigger with IBS is stress, so learning how to combat stress is very important.

The whole point about seeing a naturopath is that they will try a more holistic approach, treating the "whole" person, rather than tackling a bunch of symptoms in isolation. With a bit of knowledge you can do this yourself.

Read up, do some research and start with making changes to your diet.

However, please be aware that the term IBS is often just a kind of catch all term and sometimes you need to investigate more thoroughly. Don't be fobbed off, if you are not happy with your treatment plan then ask for a referral to a specialist.

Thanks, I have already made changes to my diet and they have had an effect. But I am just curious to find out if there is another point of view on things. I also can't help wondering if I took a bit of a sledge-hammer-walnut approach and wanted to just find out other ways of thinking about things.


I am dubious about googling for info as I am not sure what is fact and what are people saying things which did not actually happen. I can google and try to weed through things but I wanted to try to ask real people for their real experiences. I also know the idea is as a holistic approach that as much as I can read about the idea of naturopathy, I am not a specialist and wouldn't be so reliable to treat myself because I am not experienced in the subject of nutrition or how things interact with my body being that I only have my experience of me. I was looking to try to see things from someone elses point of view hence asking initial questions about the subject itself before I decide to find out anything else.


I have already looked and tried the lactose free stuff- didn't work out for me. I later found that it is not suitable for all types of lactose intolerance (it even states this on the cartons but in really small writing I didn't even realise was there until I'd realised it didn't work for me!) I have had to stick to soya and other types of alternative milk which is fine for me to do. I no longer eat yogurts, cheese of any of the other things I used to like. It took me years before I warmed to soya milk because it doesn't taste like dairy to me and I missed dairy. If you eat/drink soya looking for it to taste like dairy or cows milk you'll always find it at fault. I now don't mind soya milk but not before I got years into omitting dairy and got that desperate for a decent cup of tea! I have omitted other food groups for issues that are unconnected to the diagnosed IBS (which I don't think actually ever was IBS- if you read my original post you'll see my explanation so at risk of repeating myself here I'll just say I don't buy the diagnosis even if it was done by a GP.

jenniewb

I wasn't looking to find a naturopath on here, or to get a diagnosis or instruction. I am just looking to get opinions on how the whole thing works from people who have been through the process. Not on opinions on if it is a genuine or pseudo-science or not, not on if it's a joke/scam/etc or not, just to see how the whole thing worked, someone's opinions on how a different school of thought did or didn't work for them. I was just interested in the subject because it was a different approach and it's a different take on cutting out food groups en-mass. But thank you to everyone for your opinions. I understand the subject isn't a popular one and that people don't like the idea of a naturopath of it being unregulated. It is just a different way of thinking and it was this I was interested in- if it worked for you/didn't work for you, real experiences and if it was worth looking in to.

paddyrg

My Mrs had 'live blood analysis' from a naturopath - they looked at a sample and talked about all the things wrong with it, then sold her some damn expensive green gunk (£70 freaking quid), then told her she was 'better' - I'm not in the slightest convinced, and the scientific merit of 'live blood testing' is somewhat in question, and it's easy to misrepresent/misinterpret