Inform & Educate
PAPHC’s mission is to inform and educate the public about preventive health care. Preventive health care may include, but is not limited to, naturopathic medicine, complementary, alternative and integrative medicine, holistic medicine, acupuncture and acupressure, traditional Chinese medicine, ayurvedic medicine, chiropractic, biofeedback, biological medicine, botanical medicine, energy healing, herbal medicine, homeopathy, hypnosis, massage therapy, meditation, mind - body medicine, relaxation and spa therapy, dietary Supplements, Vitamins and minerals.
Keys to quality preventive health care:
Treat the CAUSE of illness and disease, not the symptoms
We believe that treating the cause of illness and disease should be a primary objective of quality health care. Although we firmly believe in the principles of preventive health care, patients often have a chronic disease or an illness that must be treated. If so, we recommend finding licensed health care professionals who believe in and follow these principles.
This will provide you with more knowledge and an additional perspective to conventional medicine regarding your healthcare. You can then use this knowledge to make educated choices on how to manage and take more responsibility for your health.
Use a holistic or “whole body” approach to determine the real cause of your health problem
Doctors who believe in treating the body in a holistic fashion where they treat illness and disease by determining how the entire body may be involved in the disease or illness often find a solution while those providers who rely on only treating symptoms are at a disadvantage.
Diagnosing health problems holistically enables the provider to find the real CAUSE of the illness or disease. Since the functionality of our bodies’ biological systems and even our genes are highly individualized, naturopathic doctors and other holistic practitioners practice medicine based upon the knowledge that there is an important interdependence among each patient’s biological systems. A disease or illness in one may be due to unhealthy functionality of another.
A simple yet good example for clarification of this fundamental holistic approach to healthcare is where a patient’s digestive system (system 1) absorbs food for which the patient has a food sensitivity. Due to this food sensitivity an abnormal amount of free radicals and inflammation occur where the immune system (system 2) is negatively affected and the patient contracts pneumonia or another illness affecting the pulmonary system (system 3).
The body has the innate ability to heal itself
Those of us who believe in and appreciate the efficacy of preventive health care recognize specific principles that make this type of medicine good, quality health care. We first recognize that each of our bodies has the innate ability to heal itself. Health care providers who believe in and encourage our body’s inherent self-healing process are essentially collaborating with nature or Higher levels of healing.
Since our bodies have a design within them to heal themselves, knowledgeable healthcare professionals will recognize this fact and work with it to encourage optimal health and wellness. Sometimes we tend to forget what a marvel and miracle our bodies are to be able to heal themselves—if given the right “tools* to do so.
Let food and natural products be our medicine
By “right tools” above we refer to food or proper nutrition, dietary supplements, energy healing and other natural treatments or products that support and encourage the body’s innate ability for self-healing.
Minimally-invasive or non-invasive
A basic premise of preventive health care is that it should be minimally invasive or as non-invasive as possible. This principle correlates well with the concepts above which are that the body has the innate ability to heal itself and that if we follow guidelines for good preventive health care, we reduce the likelihood of the need for surgeries or other invasive procedures.