NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE   Naturopathic medicine is a complete and co-ordinated approach to health care. It is the art and science of disease diagnosis, treatment and prevention using natural therapies and gentle techniques. Doctors of Naturopathic Medicine are specialists in natural medicine and preventive health care, integrating scientific knowledge with traditional healing wisdom. They are health-care professionals who use safe, gentle, non-invasive therapies to assist the whole person in maximizing the body's inherent self-healing capacity.   THE PRINCIPLES OF NATUROPATHIC MEDICINE   The following tenets govern the practice of naturopathic medicine:   1. Identify and Treat the Causes <Tolle causam> The naturopathic doctor seeks to identify and to remove the underlying causes of illness, rather than to merely eliminate or suppress symptoms as other professions tend to do. 2. First Do No Harm <Primum non nocere> Use methods Botanicals, Homeopathics and Hand medicines where needed and allowed which minimize the risk of harmful side effects, using the least force necessary to diagnose and treat. Avoid, if possible, the harmful suppressing of symptoms. Acknowledge and work with the patients self-healing process. 3. Doctor as Teacher <Docere> Naturopathic doctors focus to share information and knowledge with their patients and encourage self- responsibility for health. 4. Treat the whole person Naturopathic doctors treat each patient by taking into account individual physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental and social factors. 5. Emphasize prevention Naturopathic doctors emphasize the prevention of disease by assessing risk factors, heredity and susceptibility to disease and making appropriate interventions to improve functions of the body. This is in partnership with their patients to prevent illness. 6. Support the healing power of the body <vis medicatrix naturae> Naturopathic Medicine recognizes an inherent self healing process ability in the body which is ordered and intelligent. Naturopathic doctors act to identify and remove obstacles to healing and recovery, and to facilitate and increase this innate self-healing process.