After a childhood of 4-H dog shows and experience with horses in the Clarkston area, Nancy Caruso was on her way to veterinary school when she noticed something that bothered her.
Caruso saw animals undergoing exploratory surgeries or being put on pharmaceuticals for the rest of their lives with no thought to the causation or interest in trying to help the animal. To Caruso, common practices seemed only to ease the pain of the animals? illnesses, not heal them.
That experience sparked her interest in naturopathy and led Caruso back to Clarkston after college to open a naturopathic doctor’s office.
According to Caruso, there is much confusion among people concerning naturopathy. She noted how some naturopaths are staunch opponents of medicine, while others do look to pharmacies for answers. Caruso placed herself somewhere in the middle, but said all naturopaths look to the physiology of the body.
‘I do attend to a lot of homeopathic beliefs. The body heals from up to down and inside to outside, but I feel it’s sometimes necessary to intervene with other things like pharmaceutical medicine,? said Caruso. ‘The difference between a medical doctor and a naturopathic doctor is philosophy. Most doctors don’t study natural substances that return the body back to a natural state.?
Caruso noted that physiology teaches the need to return bodies to a natural balance and pharmaceutical medicine is often only a temporary band-aid for the problem.
‘Our bodies will tell us what’s wrong and it keeps telling us and telling us until we get the picture. This process starts out as children when we stop fevers short of getting rid of the bacteria. We keep pushing disease deeper in the body. Naturopaths like to encourage elimination, healing and rebalancing of the body’s systems. Sometimes there is a point of no return that you have to give the body a crutch through medicine,? said Caruso.
Many patients visit Caruso after becoming frustrated with ineffective prescriptions or partially successfully treatments.
‘I see people who are not getting answers to their health problems, who feel lousy and who keep hearing there’s nothing wrong with them ? After several types of medicine and testing, they’re getting no results. We do a lot of different testing, like functional medicine testing that looks for problems before they’re a pathologic problem,? said Caruso.
Caruso recalled an article that stated seven out of 10 people over the age of 50 are seeking alternative health care.
‘People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. Naturopathy is part of that natural healing,? said Caruso
Caruso said the schools with naturopathic physician programs are graduating more students than ever.
Many patients looking to prevent diseases and ailments also visit Caruso’s offices. People who have a family history of disease come in to discuss preventative measures and complete functional testing to see if they are susceptible to certain maladies.
‘There’s a huge awareness of the need for healthier food and air, and even the electromagnetic frequencies and how they effect us. With doctor meaning teacher, I teach people about these risk factors and prevention,? said Caruso.
Other people visit Caruso with concerns over vaccinations for their kids and infants.
‘We are seeing an epidemic of autism and ADD and there seems to be a high correlation with vaccinating and those problems? some people are more susceptible than others. We all have a little different of a makeup,? said Caruso.
Due to the fact that naturopathy is not licensed in the majority of states, including Michigan, Caruso said Michigan has a wide scope of naturopathic practitioners. While some naturopaths earned licenses from other states through lengthy college programs, other naturopaths only took Internet courses. The wide range of training not only confuses the public, but creates opposition to movements for statewide licensing by those less trained naturopaths who fear losing their livelihoods.
‘I feel we have to work with all the different types of naturopaths instead of against them. I feel there needs to be an understanding of the difference. It’s not to say they don’t do good work for people, it’s just there’s a difference in our training and some of our views,? said Caruso.
She also noted wider political problems with the FDA and the fact that when people are healed without medicine, the pharmaceutical companies do not profit.
Due to Michigan’s lack of licensing, Caruso said her services are not covered by insurance and she can not order tests.
Caruso also said that Michigan’s Association of Naturopaths is currently working to get the government to develop licensing procedures.
Dr. Nancy Caruso’s Naturopathic Health Services is located at 5868 Clarkston Road. Caruso’s Clarkston office hours are 9 a.m.?5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is for appointments only. She also holds office hours on Tuesdays from 9 a.m.?5 p.m. in Saginaw. For more information call 248-625-0557.
The Michigan Association of Naturopathic Physicians Web site is http://michnd.org.