Becoming educated as a DO definately has it\'s adavantages. First, you\'ll recieve a very thorough medical education in addition to learning manual medicine and a holistic approach. Second, your scope of practice (what a practitioner can legally do) is much larger than a naturopath in most states. You\'ll have to get trained in herbal medicine, acupuncture, homeopathy and such outside of your regular classes. But this easy to come by as elective classes or post-grad CE. Osteopaths have full scope in every state, while naturopaths hold licences in less than half. And I know that many states require an additional degree for naturopaths to practice acupuncture, a very useful modality. My colleagues are, for the most part, vey open to many of these modalities and use them in their own practices. Finally, as an osteopath, you\'ll be able to take part in insurance programs (though, some \"alternative\" modalites aren\'t covered by most insurance) and you\'ll have hospital privs.

MD colleagues have been open to these modalities, as well. More and more of their schools are intgrating CAM training into standard medical education, spearheaded by schools like Georgetown Med. But, they don\'t offer the extensive physical manipulation skills or holistic outlook of the osteopathic schools.

Personally, the naturopathy schools didn\'t impress me. There are a couple more now and perhaps they\'re better than the two older schools. DO school was definately a better option in my case. My favorite modalities are acupunture, herbal and nutrional medicine, manual medicine and stress reduction. But, as you point out, pharmaceuticals are often called for.

Ultimately, it\'s a very personal decision whether to pursue a DO, ND, MD degree. I\'m sure you\'ll make an approriate one for yourself.