Tim Bolen Opinion Article

Stupid Arrogance: So-Called "Naturopathic Physicians"

Opinion Piece by Consumer Health Advocate Tim Bolen

Dateline: July 11, 2003

I'm appalled at how stupid some people can be, and how in desperation, they can do themselves irreparable harm.  Today, I'm going to tell you about California Senate Bill 907, the so-called Naturopathic Physician bill, and how it's supporters, negotiating an agreement in a desperate attempt to get licensed as a health provider in California, screwed themselves... big time.

Frankly, they deserved what they did to themselves...

The so-called "Naturopathic Physicians" have learned a HARD lesson in California State politics.  They were so eager to get a bill passed, ANY BILL, that they've given up the right to call themselves Naturopathic Physicians, or to practice like one - the whole point of their movement.  All they got for their efforts, in reality, was the right to use the term ND after their name.  Big deal.

These nitwits have given up everything they've stood for, and prostituted themselves into total subservience to conventional medicine - just to be able to bill $8.00 for an office visit, to Medicare.  I'll bet graduates of those so-called "ND Universities" are right now are wondering why they spent all that tuition money, to end up as a bed-pan-cleaner, or polishing bottles in the Pharmacy. 

Their final position on the health "food chain" in California, after negotiations with the Pharmacists and the MDs, is somewhere a little south of Nurse Practitioner.  They can call themselves "Doctor of Naturopathy" but they've made themselves so tightly subservient to both MDs and Pharmacists that the average medically untrained employee of an MD's office has more leeway to practice health care.

Clerks in a health food store have more leeway.  A homeless bum, in an alleyway, has more health care to offer.  Neither of these has to get permission for anything from an MD or a Pharmacist.

REAL Naturopaths, those that wouldn't be caught dead with a pharmaceutical in their hand, are laughing themselves sick over the NP's blunder.  Why? Because the real focus of the NP's battle was to discredit all those Naturopaths who graduated from REAL Naturopathic schools, like Trinity, Clayton, First National, US School, Gateways, International, Herbal, etc.  - about 60,000 of them since 1956 - those places that, in good faith, gave out N.D. degrees at a good value.

REAL Naturopaths in California, have the upper hand in the Naturopathy wars - for they are protected under SB577, and can operate independently - while the nitwit NPs have to get permission from an MD to hand out a Kleenex.

I'm advising every graduate of Clayton, Trinity, First National, Gateways, International, Herbal, and the others to COMPLETELY DISASSOCIATE yourself from the so-called University graduates.  I advise all of you to drop the term ND from your business cards, signs, etc. right this minute - lest someone think you're one of these California idiots - and bring you a bedpan to clean.  Put the words "Real Naturopath," or just plain "Naturopath," on your cards.

My friend Hulda Regehr Clark who previously used the title on her books Hulda Clark PhD, N.D. is coming out with a new revision of one of her books.  It will say on the cover "Hulda Regehr Clark PhD, Naturopath."

When you read the last draft copy of SB907, and as of this morning, all of the changes are NOT up on the website, you, like me, will wonder "how can anybody be this stupid?"  Naturopathic Physicians?  Ah, no...

I Tried to Reason With the NPs...

First, I tried to stay neutral on this bill simply because I have friends on both sides of what SHOULD NOT have been an issue.  In the end, I tried to negotiate a compromise, but what I call "the Bastyr people" simply wouldn't budge on an important issue.  They want EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS to the term N.D. (Doctor of Naturopathy,) nationwide.  Too bad, they think, that 60,000 decent people already had those degrees.

If you can believe these people's arrogance.  To them, only Bastyr, and two other self-proclaimed Universities(?) are qualified to offer Doctor of Naturopathy (ND) degrees.  Who says so?  The accrediting organization THEY created - calling itself CNME.

What's interesting is that the CNME has been thrown down the steps (so to speak) of the US Department of Education who CANCELLED their right to accredit for very good reasons the CNME isn't talking too loudly about.

Conventional Health Care in this country is all about money.  It's not about helping people. The so-called "Naturopathic Physicians," to my way of thinking, have sold out for the money - and not much of that.

Dumb, dumb, dumb...

Stay tuned...
Tim Bolen
The Bolen Report

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