Guest columnist Sina Leslie Smith: Illinois can offer more health care choices with naturopathic physician licensure

Have a headache? High blood pressure? Cholesterol? There is a pill for that. Culturally, we have been trained that whenever something goes wrong, we reach for the medicine cabinet.

Prescription medication certainly has done wonders for our quality of life and our life expectancy, but unfortunately, pharmaceuticals don't always work for everyone nor are even preferred by everyone. Some people want more options in health care.

Here in Illinois, there is an effort to license naturopathic physicians but there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about what a naturopathic physician does and the extent of the training required to become a licensed naturopathic clinician.

As a medical doctor, licensed acupuncturist, and advocate for naturopathic care, I have worked with, and learned from, naturopathic physicians since 2009. After earning my M.D., I was a resident learning to be a general surgeon until a repetitive stress injury prevented me from completing the final 14 months of my training. It was a naturopathic physician who helped me to change the eating patterns that were affecting inflammatory pathways in my body and making my arm pain and paralysis worse.

Later in my healing process, it was a naturopathic physician who helped me with mobility exercises that ultimately had the greatest impact on my recovery. I have become an advocate for naturopathic care because I have experienced firsthand the kind of impact that it can have on a person's suffering, pain, and life.

Naturopathic physicians are experts in evidence-based natural and preventive medicine that focuses on the whole person. Similar in structure to chiropractic (D.C.), osteopathic (D.O.), and allopathic (M.D.) training, naturopathic physicians must graduate from accredited, four-year, doctorate-level naturopathic medical school and must pass the Naturopathic Physicians Licensing Examination (NPLEX) Part I and Part II to be eligible for a medical license.

Also, similar to other practitioners, they must maintain their licensure by completing continuing medical education credits each year and upholding the continually evolving standards of care in their profession.

Their training includes physiology (how the body works), pathophysiology (what happens when things go wrong), evaluations of the body (how and what lab and radiology studies to order) and how to treat the concerns of the person and the problems of the body.

However, their approach is more whole-person centered and focuses strongly on prevention of disease rather than reacting to problems after they have arisen. Additionally, the treatment modalities that naturopathic doctors employ include pharmaceuticals, herbal medicines, nutritional supplements, manual techniques, lifestyle modifications and a strong focus on "food as medicine."

In other words, naturopathic doctors complete rigorous training that is similar to other licensed health professionals in Illinois, but with a slightly different focus and with slightly different tools in their healing toolbox.

The patients that seek out naturopathic treatment tend to be people for whom conventional medicine does not have good answers (I have this issue, but all the regular labs and tests are "normal" so what other options do I have?), people who are seeking to avoid pharmaceuticals (I know they need to lower my cholesterol but I experience side effects with medications.), and/or are looking for ways to prevent problems that are issues with others in their family (What kind of foods should I eat to avoid getting Alzheimer's disease?).

I strongly advocate that Illinois become the 24th state in the nation to license naturopathic physicians, because 98 of Illinois' 102 counties have a physician shortage. Licensing naturopathic physicians can be a part of the solution to address areas medically underserved in Illinois.

Right now, we are losing the naturopathic doctors who are trained here in Illinois - at one of only five naturopathic medical schools in the country - to other states where they are licensed. We are losing these valuable, collaborative, knowledgeable, capable clinicians because we have not passed licensure laws here in Illinois.

Naturopathic physicians are well-trained advocates for health, able partners for other licensed professionals in the current medical system and deserving of licensure. I urge the Illinois House and Senate to put patients first and give them more access to health care by licensing naturopathic physicians.

• Dr. Sina Leslie Smith, of Chicago, is a medical doctor and licensed acupuncturist who is trained in homeopathic, integrative, culinary, and functional medicine. She currently serves on the Executive Board and is chair of the Communications Committee for the Integrative Health Policy Consortium, a fellow and former board member of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture and chair of the IDFPR Board of Acupuncture.