Treatments

When you schedule your first appointment you will be asked to complete a detailed health questionnaire in advance of your appointment and return it to use a couple days in advance of your treatment. The questionnaire asks about facets of your health and life and helps us to understand your particular health situation thus allowing us to design a specific treatment plan for you. The process of completing the questionnaire also helps you to understand more about yourself. Download the forms you'll need here »

Naturopathic Medicine:

Naturopathic medicine is a multidisciplinary wholistic healing practice that utilizes water therapies (hydrotherapy), botanical medicine, homeopathy, physical medicine (manipulation of soft and bony tissues), nutritional therapy, exercise, counseling, and fasting/cleansing as treatment modalities. Modern naturopathic medicine also incorporates physiological testing such as neurotransmitter testing, food allergy testing, metabolic testing to help assess the underlying cause of an illness.

Traditional Chinese Acupuncture:

Acupuncture has its origins in ancient China. Today it is used by people the world over. It involves moving and balancing energies within the body using superfine sterile needles placed at specific locations depending on the condition treated. Diagnosing a patient’s condition relies on an assessment of symptoms, tongue and pulse diagnosis, feeling the laxity or tautness of an area or point, among other important techniques. Acupuncture is often used in conjunction with heat therapy, cupping, Tui Na, and herbal therapy.

Heat Therapy:

Heat therapy is important in Traditional Chinese Medicine to stimulate circulation, relax muscles, and move energy within the body. Heat therapy includes Moxa which is the use of sticks of burning Mugwort applied close enough to the body to heat the area. At NorthStar Natural, we also use an Electromagnetic/Infra Red Heat lamp to help sooth aching tissues. Both treatments are extremely soothing and relaxing.

Cupping:

Cupping is a technique used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to promote the free flow of energy in the body, to dispel cold, damp and wind factors from the body and to diminish pain in conditions such as arthritis. It involves the use of glass or plastic cups to which suction is applied. The cups are placed on different parts of the body for 5-15 minutes.

Tui Na:

Tui Na is a type of Chinese massage that acts like acupuncture without needles. Tui Na techniques include pressing, squeezing, kneading, rubbing, stroking, plucking, vibrating, percussing, and shaking various parts of the body to stimulate the flow of energy and blood.

Clinical Nutrition:

Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine said “Let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food”. The use of diet as a therapy serves as the foundation of naturopathic medicine. Naturopathic medicine promotes the use of whole foods and high quality nutritional supplements in the maintenance of health and treatment of disease.

Environmental Medicine:

Environmental medicine encompasses techniques to help identify toxic exposes and to help remove environmental toxins from the human body at a greater rate than the body is able to accomplish on its own and to help reduce the symptoms that arise when toxins are transported through the body for removal. Detoxification techniques include neutriceuticals used as heavy metal chelating agents, botanical chelating agents, herbs that help support detoxification pathways in the liver, dietary cleansing regiments, homeopathic cellular drainage, sauna, exercise, among others. Cleansing the body is often one the first steps in any successful long-term treatment plan.

Botanical Medicine:

Botanical Medicine or herbal therapy involves the use of natural herbal remedies to help bring the body back into natural balance. NorthStar Natural Medicine utilizes only the highest quality herbal supplements available. We only utilize products from companies who routinely test their products and can provide assurance that they contain what they say they do, and don’t contain environmental contaminants.

Preventative Medicine:

To NorthStar, preventative medicine does not mean partaking in numerous dangerous, often unnecessary, and definitely expensive diagnostic testing. For sure some diagnostic testing is beneficial as it can give direction for future treatment. But to us, preventative medicine means doing those things that will promote health and keep us in balance such as periodic acupuncture treatments, eliminating food allergens from the diet, cleansing once or twice a year, using the appropriate supplements appropriately, exercising, as well as many other useful techniques. We can give you the guidance and occasionally a little elbow nudge to keep you on the right track.

Anti-Aging Medicine:

I prefer to call it Graceful Aging Medicine since aging is just a natural part of our journey in this life. There are many things that we can do to make our aging experience more pleasant including the use of high quality nutritional supplements, balancing neurotransmitters, the use of certain hormone precursors, as well as, the use of routine health promoting therapies such as acupuncture and Tui Na.

Homeopathy:

The word homeopathy is derived from the Greek words homeos meaning similar and pathos meaning disease. Homeopathy is based on the principal that like cures like. It is a system of medicine that treats a disease with a very minute quantity of an agent that will produce the same symptoms as the disease when given to a healthy person. Remedies in homeopathy are individualizing to the totality of the physical and psychological aspects of the individual. Homeopathic remedies are made from a variety of plant, mineral and chemical substances in a variety of different potencies.

Hydrotherapy:

Hydrotherapy involves the use of water in various forms (hot, cold, ice, steam, etc) and methods of application (bath, hot tub, whirlpool, sauna, shower, immersion, wrap, pack, foot bath, wrap, colonic irrigation etc) to maintain health and treat disease. It is one of the most ancient methods of treatment.

Sports Medicine:

Sports medicine involves techniques that help to increase the strength and vitality of an athlete, prolong an athlete’s ability to partake in their sport, and rehabilitate an athlete when they have been injured. Natural sports medicine incorporates all of the therapies discussed heretofore as well as others.

Functional Medicine:

Functional medicine involves the assessment of immune, nutritional, endocrine, metabolic and digestive function through specialized lab testing and the restoration of efficient physiological function using a holistic approach. Functional medicine includes assessment of food allergies, neurotransmitter balance, metabolic function, cellular vitamin and mineral levels, Lyme disease assessment, adrenal function, and hormonal balance to name a few.

Counseling and Lifestyle Modification:

Often physical problems that we experience are the result of psychoemotional turmoil in our lives. Similarly, physical problems such as food allergies and associated digestive issues can be the cause psychoemotional problems. Treating the person as a whole requires taking into account the mental, emotional and spiritual health of the person as well as the person’s physical health. Naturopathic doctors are trained to recognize and understand prevalent psychological issues, as well as, to perform various treatment measures including counseling, guided imagery, EFT, correcting organic factors and family therapy.