“May the force be with you!”
Save for May the 4th, this isn’t a greeting one would ever expect to hear in a medical office. As part of the current conversation criticizing non-conventional or alternative medicine, the Globe and Mail published an article by Peter McKnight claiming naturopathic doctors might believe in such a force.
In his piece, “Message to naturopaths: Magic isn’t medicine,” McKnight claims naturopathic doctors believe in “the healing power of nature” and are clinging to a metaphysical, mystical belief in a higher power healing.
To clarify, the healing power of nature, or vis medicatrix naturae, has nothing to do with the metaphysical, and is far from mystical or religious. Innately, we know our bodies are capable of healing – a properly set bone will heal, a deep cut will form a scar, and that nasty stomach bug will run its course. It’s what sets us apart from the mechanical.
When’s the last time your car’s transmission fixed itself? In the natural world, organisms strive to maintain homeostasis. On a daily basis, biological systems have to endure environmental challenges, produce energy, grow and repair.
The healing power of nature that McKnight believes to be mystical is really just biology. Naturopathic doctors, and all medical professionals for that matter, rely on the body’s ability to heal in order to address medical issues.
To put it in the simplest terms, surgeons couldn’t cut if we didn’t heal.
The inclusion of the healing power of nature as a tenant of naturopathic medicine isn’t a allusion to a greater power necessary for healing, it is a recognition that as medical practitioners our role is to facilitate the healing process – our bodies’ biological, physiological and biochemical machinery does the long-term heavy lifting.
Providing lifestyle and dietary advice, prescribing exercise, and using botanical medicines and nutraceuticals as tools to promote better health isn’t reliant on a metaphysical force to work, but rather takes advantage of physiological mechanisms striving for homeostasis to be effective.
No, magic isn’t medicine. And yes, there is a good deal of misinformation out there about alternative medicines leading individuals to make poor health decisions.
To paint entire systems of medicine, or groups of regulated practitioners as pseudoscientific based on misinterpretation of philosophical tenants is disingenuous at best, and slanderous at worst.
All forms of health care should be constantly scrutinized, and should be pushed to improve. Scientific inquiry, research, and appropriate regulation are fundamental to good practice. There’s no magic in that.
