Natural Medicine Week 2020 - Nutritional Medicine
According to the Australian Family Physician, two out of three Australians use or have used some type of natural or complementary medicine. Natural medicine is an established part of the Australian health care management practices across the general population. In fact, we have one of the highest utilisation of natural or complementary medicine in the developed world.
Who uses natural medicine?
Chances are, if you are a middle-aged woman, have a chronic health condition, a higher education, higher than average income, and are employed (or not looking for work), you are more likely to use natural or complementary medicine.
Image: Paula Brennan Photography
Why use natural medicine?
People choose natural medicine for various reasons including a desire to reduce symptoms or side effects from conventional treatments, as an adjunct to conventional treatments, as a preventative to chronic health conditions, dissatisfaction with conventional treatments, or because of the holistic approach and perceived levels of patient control.
Evidence-Based Nutritional Medicine
When it comes to nutritional medicine many people think about diets, weight loss, multi-vitamins and supplements, but nutritional medicine is so much more. When supporting patients, whether they suffer from a chronic disease or an acute condition, our concern is with the interaction of nutritional and environmental factors with their biochemistry and physiology and the resulting symptoms and pathology. It’s an evidence-based therapy that draws on biomedical and genetic science and research to help guide treatment approaches.
Why I chose to become a nutritional medicine practitioner
Environmental contaminants, biochemical imbalances, and nutritional deficiencies can result in dysfunction at a cellular level leading to, chronic inflammation, illness and disease. Treatment goals include correcting the underlying causes and providing relief from symptoms. Almost all diseases have a nutritional component and can form part or all of the healing approach. One of the reasons I chose to be a nutritional medicine practitioner was the ability to help so many people with so many conditions and that it is a modality that works in a complementary way to other natural and conventional therapies.
Have you considered using nutritional medicine to support your health and wellbeing? What types of natural medicine have you tried, and which is your favourite?
Image: @PaulaBrennan
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