Devon naturopath

This page answers questions you are likely to have about my Devon naturopath clinic in Totnes, Devon (South Hams). 

Firstly I will offer some explanation of what naturopathy is, its potentially ancient roots, how its philosophical principles apply to clinical practice and why this matters.

Then I will outline what you can expect when working with me at my Devon clinic, and how naturopathic principles inform the practical aspects of my clinical practice.

Finally I list my Devon clinic services and prices.

What is naturopathy?

Naturopathy is a philosophy of healing that is said to begin with a 19th century movement to ‘work with nature’, often referred to as the ‘Nature Cure’ movement. I appreciate that the phrase ‘work with nature’ sounds vague and I will elaborate on its meaning shortly with a practical example to help ground your understanding.

The Nature Cure movement was based in Germany and similar ideas evolved into naturopathy in the United States and then Britain. Many influences and influencers formed this loosely knit stream. Christianity, vegetarianism and socialism, all played a significant role in advocating dietary practices, fasting, herbal medicine, hydrotherapy, exercise, sun exposure, spending time in nature, healing of the spirit and mind as well as the body (1, 2, 3).

Despite the sometimes more puritanical tones of 19th century Christian thought in this movement, it was also permeated by ideas that might have a distinctly non-christian origin, such as living in alignment with nature.

Naturopaths often claim that Hippocrates was the first naturopath, although the term was coined over 2000 years later.

The old tradition of naturopathy made use of many modalities of healing based on a set of principles that may indeed stem back as far as Hippocrates’s principles of “First do no harm” and “Let food be thy medicine” (which he would agree with even if those were not his precise words).

Did naturopathic principles really begin with Hippocrates?

To my mind it is plausible and in fact likely that Hippocrates was himself influenced (via trades routes to the east) by ancient Taoist philosophy and medicine.

Indeed, whether or not Hippocrates (and thus naturopathic medicine) was influenced by ancient Chinese medicine rooted in Taoism is a topic under discussion by scholars, with complex evidence for and against.

One aspect that both Greek and Chinese medicine shared was the concept of bodily channels, which in the Chinese system carry chi, or life energy. (1).

Aside from the energy channels and historical evidence, my observation is that the guiding philosophy of Taoism permeates that of naturopathy, with some striking similarities.

The Tao of naturopathy?

Understanding a few of the central ideas of Taoism and how they are applied in various disciplines other than medicine could give you a better idea of what naturopaths mean by ‘working with nature’. It can also provide a philosophical framework for safe and effective clinical practice.

Taoist principles were applied in martial arts, medicine, lovemaking, visual art and daily living.

Here I will outline just a few of these Taoist principles and illustrate them with examples from martial arts and from Western medicine and then discuss how they relate to naturopathy.

I am not a scholar of Chinese philosophy nor a master of martial arts, but this kind of simple discussion can potentially help us to more deeply understand what naturopathy could be (whether or not its origins are in China), and such discussion seems to be lacking elsewhere.

Learning from nature and working with nature

Taoists, much like Western scientists, learned from nature by observing the ‘nature of things’. They came up with the concept of wu wei, often translated as ‘non-action’. Less literal translations might include ‘not forcing’, ‘effortless action’, ‘not interfering’ (with the nature of things), ‘going with nature’, ‘using the most intelligent least effort for maximum effect’ or ‘not fitting a square peg into a round hole’.

Also related is the idea of ‘not doing more than is necessary’. I will give a practical example of this later so you can understand how it could have prevented in one of Western medicine’s great mistakes.

It is important to note that in ‘non-action’ the nature one flows with, the Tao, includes one’s own inner determination and essence, rather than just being tossed about aimlessly and absently on the currents of opinion from outside oneself or on the currents of more superficial impulses.

Yin and yang

You are probably familiar with the concepts of yin and yang.

We can think of yang as the active principle, much promoted in Western culture, the principle of doing, creating, getting things done.

Yin tends to be undervalued in the West. It is receptive, listening, sensing, unformed, yielding, resting, being rather than doing.

Wu wei in martial arts

Yin supports martial artists in many ways.

If you sense (yin) an opponent’s yang drive in the form of a push, you could respond by yielding (yin) and turning, so that if your opponent overreached they would be thrown off balance.

Conversely ‘doing more than is necessary’ (too much yang) might mean that you overreach to strike or push an opponent, thus losing your centre of gravity so you are then vulnerable to being thrown to the ground.

When in close combat and in physical contact such as in a wrestle or in the T’ai Chi practice of push hands the yin qualities of being receptive, soft, and ‘listening with your body’ could enable you to sense where your opponent is tense and lacks fluidity and thus to artfully apply the minimum of force in just the right place to throw your opponent off balance.

Alternatively you could try to just angrily force your opponent over (reactive yang). If your opponent is artful they will then sense where you are tense and direct your force of aggression so that you are the one who ends up on the floor. The weak point is the point of tension, of resistance.

When I use the word ‘sensing’ I am not referring to some kind of telepathic or other extraordinary powers, but simply feeling physically, where your bodies are in contact, where there is tense resistance and where there is fluidity or flexibility, with a quiet, rested but alert mind. The ability to sense is a skill that can be trained, or at least invited in by practising it, whether or not that is in the context of a martial discipline such as T’ai Chi Ch’uan or aikido or not.

So if you ‘do more than is necessary’ you lose your centre of balance. If you lack the sensitivity to respond in time when an opponent is beginning some kind of yang movement you are not ‘dealing with the difficulty while it is still small’.

An example of the consequences of ‘doing more than is necessary’ – antibiotics

These ideas may still seem abstract to you, so let me give you another example, just one of many possible examples where in the modern world our rushing headlong to embrace a new treatment or technology we didn’t take he time to fully understand the impacts of has led to some serious consequences which we have had to learn to live with.

In allopathic medicine antibiotics were initially seen as a wonderful tool against infectious disease and as with many new technologies we very quickly gave them our full embrace and began to prescribe antibiotics indiscriminately.

We now know that antibiotics exacerbate gut issues resulting in overgrowths of clostridia bacteria and fungal species like candida albicans, and also result in antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria such as MRSA.

We didn’t have the scientific understanding of the complex interactions of a multitude of microbial species in the gut. We didn’t understand the subtlety of nature. Maybe we got carried away with our own importance in the universe, our own (apparent) domination of nature, rather than our reverence for nature?

The medical profession is now more cautious with regard to antibiotics (which certainly have their usefulness), but we should heed the same lesson in general. Whether it be a novel medical treatment, supplement, technology or even a novel diet or lifestyle intervention, we need to take the time to understand the impacts and slowly gain experience of the novelty before becoming too enthusiastic about its use.

First do no harm

Doing too much, therefore, such as prescribing antibiotics for a cold, violates what is both a naturopathic principle and the core principle of the Hippocratic oath sworn by medical practitioners to this day; first do no harm.

Whatever goes against the way of nature will cause harm according to Taoism, and in naturopathy we seek to align our actions with the healing power of nature.

Perhaps this is why Hippocrates was such an advocate of dietary medicine, because food is certainly natural to the body, as long as it is not ultra-processed. The more overly processed a food is the less natural it could end up being. Olive oil is processed to a certain degree, but modern ultra-processed pre-prepared meals are in a completely different category.

I would consider nutritional supplements to be to some extent natural in the body, in that they are components or extracts of foods that human biochemistry has evolved to make use of. However there is a degree of processing and the dose is not usually the natural dose one would receive from just eating whole foods. Moreover some understanding of synergistic nutrients and phytochemicals often found together in whole foods can more safely guide the use of nutritional supplements.

Hippocrates would have considered herbs next in the hierarchy of potential harm that in some cases might outweigh the benefits, and thus requires a little more caution in its use than foods.

Surgery would have been a last resort and one of the most risky and harmful kinds of medical intervention in Hippocrates’ time.

Dealing with the difficulty while it is still small – preventative medicine

One of the principles of naturopathy is often stated as ‘Prevention is better than cure’. If you have read this post all the way through until now and have some understanding of the Taoist idea of ‘dealing with the difficulty while it is still small’ this naturopathic version of the same principle will not require too much further explanation.

Suffice to say that once your body goes out of balance it tends to activate compensatory mechanisms, but the further off balance you go the more likely it is that vicious cycles will develop that can make your path to healing far more challenging.

In practice most of my clients are already bearing signs of these vicious cycles having developed, and few come to me exclusively for preventative medicine, but in any case I aim to leave you with some knowledge of how to prevent or reduce the risk of future illness after having worked with me (as far as that is your interest too).

Wu wei in naturopathy – the healing power of nature

In naturopathy we ally our approach with the pre-existing natural mechanisms for healing, which naturopaths refer to as the ‘healing power of nature’. The healthy balance that the body ‘seeks’ at the physical level is acknowledged by Western medicine as homeostasis.

Wu wei in naturopathy – finding the root cause of disease

This calls for a certain degree of sensitivity and curiosity in that process of rebalancing, as well as in the process of disease.

We could get excited about one biochemical pathway, and lose the fact that it usually turns out to be one of a multitude of known potential pathways that could be driving a disease process. We could get far too yang about that one pathway and even specialise in it, to the detriment of our wider understanding.

The listening, sensing, receptive ‘yin’ aspect of Taoist practice is akin to the open-mindedness that is often needed to find the root cause of disease, a naturopathic principle also shared with functional medicine.

The root cause of disease can be thought of as the true nature of the disease. Rather than using an algorithm to determine which treatment to prescribe for a given symptom, naturopaths gather information, investigate, research and seek to understand the root cause or root causes of a disease process, and in the process are open to learning something new.

The root cause is where the least effort can have the greatest impact.

This is particularly important to understand in medicine.

A headache can have many causes. You could recommend aspirin to alleviate the headache but if the headache is caused by a blood sugar dysregulation that you are not addressing, that blood sugar dysregulation could go on to cause more headaches once the aspirin wears off, to say nothing of the many potential consequences of long-term blood sugar dysregulation, such as diabetes and heart disease.

Suppressing symptoms can be harmful

Elsewhere I have outlined just one example of how painkiller use can make headaches worse in the long run. This is indeed an example of ‘least effort’ but this effort is not applied in the effective place, which in medicine is at the root cause of the disease. This example also illustrates the naturopathic idea that suppressing symptoms can cause more harm.

If you think all of this is just common sense I would agree with you, but the fact of the matter is that many health professionals fail to practice it.

Treat the whole person (Why I do not specialise)

So I could be an expert in blood sugar dysregulation and treat the headache in my example above by improving blood sugar regulation.

However what if the headache is caused by a burden of environmental toxins?

Or by iron deficiency?

Or by poor gut health, hormonal imbalances, psychological stress or food sensitivities?

It’s no good my being an expert in blood sugar regulation if I want to be effective in healing more than just a small proportion of headaches.

All the systems of the body are interconnected in a complex web, such that an imbalance in one area, organ or system can have an impact on every other area, organ or symptom. In the example of the headache none of the potential causes I happened to list were actually originating in the head. Of the potential causes of a headache I happened to list above, only one (psychological stress) would usually be thought of as originating in the head, though some hormonal imbalances could also originate in the brain.

This is what is meant by working holistically, and in naturopathy this principle is often stated as ‘Treat the whole person’. This is why I am a generalist and not a specialist. A wide breadth and depth of knowledge is needed to understand the most effective way to work towards optimal health.

Doctor as teacher

In clinic I do my best to explain things to you in a way that matches your interest and understanding. This can help to motivate you and in doing so I am acting in my role according to another naturopathic principle, often stated as ‘Doctor as teacher’ (though I am not a medical doctor).

Working collaboratively

In my practice I also take wu wei to mean that I work with you in a collaborative way, without trying to force you to do what you are not willing or ready to do. You may value your occasional drink or cake more than reducing your risk of disease. You may on the other hand be very focused on optimising your mental and physical performance in a very dedicated way. Either way I will support you with your goals, although to benefit from my input you will need some willingness and motivation to make dietary and lifestyle changes, and more so if your goals are more challenging or ambitious.

Naturopathy, functional medicine and nutritional therapy

Whether or not naturopathy indeed has its roots in Taoism, it’s principles inform both functional medicine and nutritional therapy, both of which I am also trained in, working with all three overlapping approaches together.