Reliability of Naturopathy?

What's the short term and long-term effects? What are the chances of naturopathy healing my medical problems?

Whether or not naturopathy can help depends on what your problem is. Neither allopathic nor naturopathic medicine can cure everything -- if it could, no one would ever die! However, naturopathy is very effective on many, many pathologies and helps prevent many more.

As to the "naturopathy student" that answered, I hope you never go into practice anywhere because it sounds like you are not going to any real school of any sort and have no idea what you are doing!

I don't know where you live, but where I live naturopaths are physicians and must study 3 years of regular medical school as well as 3 years of in-depth study of nutrition, herbal medicine, aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, and more.

The purpose of naturopathy is to keep your body healthy and working well and to help your body to heal itself naturally and with the least intervention possible.

I am a student of naturopathy, and I wouldn't even go see a naturopath. To fully diagnose a problem you need both allopathic and naturopathic medicine. X-rays, blood tests, MRI, CT...among others are things a naturopath cannot have access to.

On the other hand, doctors are sometimes narrow minded and cannot see past drugs as the best treatment option. And because of their narrow mindedness, they think so many conditions are psychosomatic in nature whereas an open mind and thorough research would show them otherwise. Naturopaths are more inclined to look deeper into people's problems, but it's their philosophies you have to be weary of.

Each Naturopath is encouraged to do their own research and determine what the cause of each condition is and how best to treat them. So it really depends on where they get their information from. Some of their philosophies are so ridiculous.

A smart person with thorough knowledge of the body and it's systems will make a great healer, whether they be a doctor or a Naturopath.

Naturopathy, as long as it doesn't give evidence beyond testimonials and such will never be considered reliable. There doesn't appear to be a standard of care for naturopathy, whereas medicine has treatment guidelines based on the best evidence so far. These guidelines will change when new meds or proofs are discovered. Can you say the same for naturopathy?

Off topic: I'm sick and tired of these alties thinking that MDs treat the symptoms. Excuse me, but we go beyond that. That's why the first advice we always give is lifestyle modification.

Depending on your medical problem, Naturopathy can cure or act as complimentary treatment. Many complex medical problems have been treated in India, by combining Herbal medicine, Naturopathy and Yoga. I totally subscribe to the answer given by Natpract.

The chances of naturopathy healing anyone's medical problems lie between zero and nonexistent.