Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Yes. Naturopathic Physicians are experts in the safe use of natural therapies.
The professional studies of a naturopathic physician compare significantly with MD professional training.
Below is a table comparing the total number of hours to become a naturopathic physician versus a medical doctor from different universities across the U.S.A. These numbers are from around the year 2000, but not much has changed since that time in relation to nutritional training.
|
Universities |
Hours Of Training |
|
Medical college of Wisconsin (MD) |
4,668 |
|
National College of Natural Medicine (ND) |
4,668 |
|
Yale (MD) |
4,311 |
|
John Hopkins (MD) |
5,162 |
The 4,668 hours of training are divided as follows:
- Basic and clinical sciences 1,548 hours of training:
- Including anatomy, cell biology, physiology, pathology, biochemistry, pharmacology, lab diagnosis, neurosciences, clinical physical diagnosis, genetics, pharmacognosy, biostatistics, epidemiology, public health, history and philosophy and ethics
- Clerkships and allopathic therapeutics: 2,244 hours of instruction:
- Including lecture and clinical instruction in Dermatology, Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Radiology, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Gynecology, Neurology, Surgery, Ophthalmology and clinical electives.
- Naturopathic Therapeutics 588 hours of instruction:
- Including Botanical Medicine, Homeopathy, Oriental Medicine, Hydrotherapy, Naturopathic Manipulative Therapy, Ayurveda Medicine, Case Analysis/ Management, Naturopathic Philosophy, Advanced Naturopathic Therapeutics.
- Therapeutic Nutrition 144 hours of instruction:
- (As far as today, no training on nutrition at allopathic medical schools.) I took many elective courses during my schooling at NCNM (NUNM today) in nutrition, easily 200 hours more, in addition to numerous courses throughout my 40+ years as a doctor. Medical doctors have zero hours of instruction.
- Counseling 144 hours:
- Naturopathic doctors spend more time with patients
- Looks for the underlying cause of conditions
- Uses treatments that work enhancing the natural healing mechanisms of the body
- Believes that the natural state of the human body is a state of health
Many patients are under the care of both a conventional Physician and a Naturopathic Physician, utilizing the strengths and minimizing the limitations of each approach. In an ideal world, patients would be able to access the best of both systems.
Naturopathic medicine has effective treatments for many problems that conventional medicine fails to cure, such as chronic conditions, eczema, parasites, digestive issues, asthma, anxiety and many others that have more than one underlying cause.
