Hello Everyone -

As some of you may have heard, I finished my schooling at the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado a few months ago and am now a certified M.N.T (Master Nutrition Therapist). For those of you who do not know - this certification is somewhat similar to being a nutritionist or dietician, but is also very different as it is based out of holistic/naturopathic health principles.

I will be working on a medicinal herbal farm (http://www.lanesendhomestead.com/) in North Carolina for the summer and will be keeping this blog as a means of sharing what I learned in my schooling and also what I will continue to learn.

To give you an idea of where I will be coming from in my approach to health matters, my education was based around 6 main principles, which also happen to be the same principles Naturopathic doctors abide by:

1. The Healing Power of Nature 

 Naturopathic principles recognize an inherent self-healing process in the person which is ordered and intelligent. Naturopathic practitioners act to identify and remove obstacles to healing and recovery, and to facilitate and augment this inherent self-healing process.

 2. Identify and Treat the Causes 

The practitioner seeks to identify and remove the underlying causes of illness, rather than to merely eliminate or suppress symptoms.

 3. First Do No Harm

- Utilize methods and medicinal substances which minimize the risk of harmful side effects, using the least force necessary to diagnose and treat;
- Avoid when possible the harmful suppression of symptoms;
- Acknowledge, respect and work with the individual's self-healing process.

 4. Practitioner as Teacher 

 Naturopathic practitioners educate their patients and encourage self-responsibility for health. They also recognize and employ the therapeutic potential of the practitioner-patient relationship.

5. Treat the Whole Person 

Naturopathic physicians treat each patient by taking into account individual physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, and other factors. Since total health also includes spiritual health, Naturopathic practitioners encourage individuals to pursue their personal spiritual development.

6. Prevention is the Best "Cure" 

Naturopathic practitioners emphasize the prevention of disease - assessing risk factors, heredity and susceptibility to disease and making appropriate interventions in partnership with their patients to prevent illness.

 Information from: http://naturopathic.org

From a personal standpoint, I studied Nutrition Therapy to help people take control over their own health to prevent disease formation, unnecessary surgeries, medications, and medical debt. Most people are not aware that they have the ability to make their own health decisions aside from what conventional doctors may suggest. Many people think that holistic health practices are rather hocus-pocus and do not have any scientific validity. They believe that anything aside from conventional medicine is for all those "damn hippies." Although there are unfortunately many holistic practitioners out there practicing in an unsound manner, aside from this stigma, I would like to offer a different approach to holistic health information in which I have personally witnessed to be effective and has been scientifically proven.

With all of this being said, to put it simply - I will be maintaining this blog as a means of sharing what I have learned with the hope that it will be useful and enlightening to others.

"Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
Hippocrates