No work available in the health care professions could have provided the satisfaction and ability to help sick people that I\'ve had the pleasure to experience as an N.D.

I attended Bastyr.

The therapeutic modalities taught to me at Bastyr included botanical medicine, acupuncture, food/diet therapy, appropriate use of supplements as well as osteopathic and chiropractic manipulation.

I\'ve served as primary care giver to a small group of people although I\'m most often elective care. You see people for whom hospital-based medicine has been ineffective.

It has been satisfying, hard work.

If you choose to be an N.D., expect to care for the sick. Expect to work hard and be prepared to work 24/7.

As a naturopathic doctor, the onus is on you at each visit to educate the people you take care of about what they need do to prevent disease - lifestyle, exercise, diet, stress reduction - but most of the people who walk beneath your office transom will be sick people. Anyone who tell you otherwise is fabricating. Expect the stress and worry and satisfaction that accompanies care of sick people. I\'ve taken care of people with impetigo, otitis, bronchitis, cystitis, pneumonia, hepatitis, hypertension, PCOS, metabolic syndrome, ADD, diabetes, trigeminal neuralgia, uterine fibroids, bipolar disorder, hypercholesterolemia, cancer (including MDS, CML, ALL, breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, stomach cancer), BPH, hyperthyroidism, depression, psoriasis, migraine, asthma, infertility...the list includes nearly every malady any physician in general practice would face. I\'ve seen at least one patient with each of those conditions over the past ten weeks. Naturopathic medicine is effective in each of these clinical situations; occasionally, as with tumors, you\'re serving an adjunct role to M.D./D.O. care, but in 85-90% of cases, I am the caregiver.

Read Kirk Hamilton\'s Clinical Pearls and Herbalgram for some of the evidence base supporting what a naturopathic physician does.

Acupuncture for pain/osteoarthritis has been able to keep so many people who I\'ve taken care of off COX-II inhibs; acupuncture for infertility has been both satisfying and effective. Home births are a gift and part of John Bastyr\'s legacy. The midwifery education an N.D. gets is nonpareil.

Naturopathic medicine is a unique and effective system of care for both the well and the sick. Done well, in the spirit of physicians like John Bastyr, it is a very effective form of medicine and it is a very satisfying career. Sincerely,

John