Naturopathic medicine, as a distinct American healthcare profession, is almost 100 years old. It was founded as a formal healthcare system at the turn of the century by medical practitioners from various natural therapeutic disciplines. By the early 1900s, more than 20 naturopathic medical schools existed, and naturopathic physicians were licensed in most States. Today there are more than 1,000 licensed naturopathic doctors in the United States.

As practiced today, naturopathic medicine integrates traditional natural therapeutics---including botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, homeopathy, acupuncture, traditional oriental medicine,hydrotherapy, and naturopathic manipulative therapy---with modern scientific medical diagnostic science and standards of care. The medical research base of naturopathic practice consists of empirical documentation of treatments using case history observations, medical records, and summaries of practitioners’ clinical experiences.

Naturopathic researchers have investigated the pharmacology and physiological effects of nutritional and natural therapeutic agents, and naturopathic physicians have been active in the investigation of new homeopathic remedies and in the natural treatment of women’s health problems. One typical naturopathic study in women’s health tested the clinical and endocrine effects of a botanical formula as an alternative to estrogen replacement therapy.

Adapted from Alternative Medicine: Expanding Medical Horizons, a report prepared under the auspices of the Workshop on Alternative Medicine, held in Chantilly VA on September 14-16, 1992.