Naturopathic Cancer Treatment Provider for over 25 years
Naturopathic Doctors are primary care doctors. Naturopathic doctors treat the body as a whole and look at the root cause of the problem, not just the symptoms. This allows naturopathic doctors help patients manage a much larger variety of health conditions, including digestive disorders.
You might be unaware that many naturopathic doctors are trained in Adjustment Therapy(similar to what a chiropractor might do). What does that have to do with digestion? Well, misalignments in the spine (called subluxation) create interference in how the brain and the nervous system communicate with the rest of the body – muscles, glands, and organs – resulting in symptoms of illness. Therefore, your ND can provide adjustments to help correct these misalignments.
The theory behind how adjustments work for digestive disorders is that subluxation interrupts communication between nerves and the gut. Restoring communication promotes healthy mobility of the muscles in the digestive tract. It also promotes proper secretion of digestive juices and regulation of hormones important to gut health.
Naturopathic Adjustment Therapy can help to restore normal function by using hands-on therapies called adjustments to correct the subluxation in the spine and other joints that may be affected. They may also use massage and corrective exercises, depending on the condition. This approach honors the body’s innate ability to heal and aims to reduce/eliminate symptoms, restore healthy function, and enhance quality of life.
Adjustments may be an important adjunctive treatment in managing digestive health concerns for some people. A review of research published between 1980 and 2012 indicated mild to moderate improvements in report of patient symptoms for a variety of digestive conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, GERD, and colitis. As with other treatments where research is still emerging, individual patient considerations play an important role in how someone responds to a treatment.
