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It's Only Natural
Monday May 21, 2007.
By Julia Steinberger
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 photo: Julia Steinberger
At the same time, my regular physician tells me I'm totally healthy and never suggests I take any supplement other than calcium, nor does she prescribe any kind of cleanse. Is there any way to find balance between the two sides?
Natural medicine is a new mystery to a lot of us, and heavy marketing of exotic remedies tends to make matters even more confusing. To answer some questions, I visited Stephanie Draus, a certified naturopathic doctor (N.D.) who operates Stellaria Natural Health, a natural health clinic in her neighborhood Logan Square.
I admit I was surprised by how much Draus acts like a regular doctor. New patients fill out a short stack of forms about their medical past, habits and concerns. Draus takes a laid-back but no-nonsense approach to discussing problems. Rather than harping on esoteric terms or foreign concepts, she asked a lot of questions that I expect from a conventional physician—how did I feel, what's my diet like—which made sense when she likened her four-year educational program and board certification exams to traditional medical school. She also explained that she can use bloodwork and other standard evaluations to help her understand her patients' needs.
Two things I learned off the bat comforted me: First, naturopathy is not totally untested and mysterious. Although few accounts have been translated among U.S. doctors, Europe (and Germany in particular) is far ahead of us in understandingnaturopathic medicine from a scientific standpoint. North American medical communities are slowly starting to pick up speed on this issue, with programs like Northwestern's Center for Integrative Medicine, right here in Chicago.
The most common issue that Draus helps patients deal with is diet, and she tackles the topic passionately. "People think that gaining weight is the absolute worst thing that could happen…so they don't eat enough," she says. At least, they don’t eat enough of the right things. While Draus promotes raw fruits and veggies, she considers an exclusively raw-foods diet inappropriate for most people during Chicago winters. She urges patients to stick to a seasonal diet and to adjust their eating and sleeping habits to ward off fatigue.
While she occasionally prescribes supplements, she more often prunes the patients' regimen of pills, encouraging them instead to get their nutrients from foods that require little prep work. Above all, Draus stresses importance of customized treatment, noting "you can get the general stuff on the Internet." Forget fasting or having to give up guilty pleasures like coffee. She goes for elimination diets, meaning cutting foods and then slowly adding them back in, to help patients identify the foods that cause them grief.
When needed, she prescribes teas, tinctures (extracts distilled in alcohol) and herb-based pills made with familiar plants like nettles, ginger and chickweed (also called Stellaria, her clinic's namesake). I raised my eyebrows at the thought of treating disease with tea—it's therapeutic, but a legit cure? Draus replied that the methods for cutting herbs and preparing teas for taste drastically differ from methods for medicine and that the herbs can indeed bring results.
Before leaving, I jotted down Draus' food and herb suggestions for my own treatment and pocketed the bottle of lavender-based tincture she reccommended (at the very least, the $11 price tag was way cheaper than nearly anything you'll find from Big Pharm).
Having cleared up some of the mystery, I felt relieved that I could say with assurance that naturopathic doctors aren't practicing any kind of strange magic—they're speaking in smart terms I can understand about preventions and cures that make sense. Another comforting thought: Naturopathy and Western medicine, both of which I respect, aren't necessarily at war with each other. Knowing a little more helps me avoid the constant self-doubt when I pass the supplement shelves and overhear the latest alternahealth trend, and that in itself has me feeling a lot healthier.
Want a clearer picture for yourself? An initial 90-minute appointment at Stellaria costs $150; shorter follow-up appointments cost $100. Read more about naturopathic medicine here:
After four greener-than-average college years as a co-op dweller-turned-aspiring-permaculturist, Julia Steinberger finds it hard not to feel guilty about her one-bedroom apartment, daily commute and indulgence in the occasional dollar burger. She'd like to dream that she could live in a tent/treehouse/rabbit hole, but the truth is, she'd rather stay in the city while doing her best to leave a lighter footprint on the earth. You can contact her here.
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