Principle #5: Treat the Whole Person

Health is the result of a dynamic interplay between environmental, physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual influences in a person’s life. ⁣

While it is sometimes helpful to examine single components of health, considering the whole person allows for connections to be drawn between seemingly separate issues. It helps point towards the underlying causes of an illness.⁣

For example, frequent chest infections for one person may be influenced by stress and malnourishment, while for another person from genetic predisposition and exposure to air pollution.⁣

Naturopathic treatment specifically addresses these issues, and is tailored to the unique attributes of the individual.⁣

As the ancient physician Hippocrates said, ‘it is more important to know what sort of person has a disease, than to know what sort of disease a person has’.⁣