Why Alternative Med Section?

There is a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) in my town and the ridiculous part of claims to healings is that how would an ND know if something was healed or cured or not? She claims she has cured cancer, but typically the only way to verify or know if a treatment (of any kind, not just cancer) would require medical workup in the way of radiographic imaging, blood tests, pathology or cytology results–an ND does not have access to such things and cannot even order them to be performed (to my knowledge), so the big question is how would an ND ever know if their method worked or failed? Do they just guess?
I have no issue with “all natural” stores that sell vitamins and all natural products (I go to the store where the ND works) to buy environmentally friendly cleaners and I know other people who go just to get vitamins if recommended by an MD. I also think there is a market for all natural foods. I think the direction of naturopathy should be to promote a healthy or natural lifestyle (foods, environmentally friendly cleaners), but not attempt to practice medicine. I just wish she would stop acting as a pseudo doctor, but otherwise she’s got a unique little shop.

There is a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) in my town and the ridiculous part of claims to healings is that how would an ND know if something was healed or cured or not? She claims she has cured cancer, but typically the only way to verify or know if a treatment (of any kind, not just cancer) would require medical workup in the way of radiographic imaging, blood tests, pathology or cytology results--an ND does not have access to such things and cannot even order them to be performed (to my knowledge), so the big question is how would an ND ever know if their method worked or failed? Do they just guess? I have no issue with "all natural" stores that sell vitamins and all natural products (I go to the store where the ND works) to buy environmentally friendly cleaners and I know other people who go just to get vitamins if recommended by an MD. I also think there is a market for all natural foods. I think the direction of naturopathy should be to promote a healthy or natural lifestyle (foods, environmentally friendly cleaners), but not attempt to practice medicine. I just wish she would stop acting as a pseudo doctor, but otherwise she's got a unique little shop.
Probably the key problem is that Naturopathy isn't based on science and evidence to begin with. It seems to be more of an ideology, and when you have an ideology stuff just works "cause I said so." Now, to be fair, I am not saying they don't have anything useful to offer. As you said, if they would just promote a healthy lifestyle, that could be quite helpful. I also find "natural" grocery stores to be helpful for certain products, but its annoying that they also are a hotbed for woo.