The Lund Report and Naturopathy: The Win-Win Science That's Not.

here, competing opinions of what naturopathy is all about, first by an NCNM Dean ND, and then MD Crislip of the Society for Science-Based Medicine and Oregonians for Science-Based Medicine:

001. at thelundreport.org, 1996 NCNM ND graduate Dehen and NCNM Dean of Clinics writes, in "A Win-Win for Oregon: Naturopathic Doctors as Primary Care Providers" (2015-10-15):

"one constant is that naturopathic medicine is founded in science [...]";

for starters, 'science subset life force, homeopathy and supernaturalism'?  Bullshit.  And I'll let MD Crislip deal with other ND Dehen content in his rebuttal below.

002. in rebuttal, MD Crislip , "president of the Society for Science-Based Medicine [...] and the editor of Oregonians for Science-Based Medicine", writes at thelundreport.org, which unfortunately didn't properly format the html of the post so its quotations are actually readable, in "Naturopaths as Primary Care Providers: What They Do Not Want You to Know" (2015-10-21):

"concerning A Win-Win for Oregon: Naturopathic Doctors as Primary Care Providers, it is wrong from the opening paragraph [...] ND’s have become very good, as this article demonstrates, at obfuscating the truth about ND practice [...] naturopaths may meet the standards required by the state, but they lack virtually all the requirements needed to diagnose and treat the entire gamut of conditions as primary care providers. The opinion piece is filled with half truths and appealing platitudes [...] NDs should not have been declared primary care providers by the legislature [...]";

ah, the licensed falsehood that dare-not transparently and accurately communicate itself.  I wouldn't go to an ND as a PCP just like I wouldn't go to a Magic Carpet Designer to blueprint an airplane for me. 

"although allegedly grounded in science, science is ignored in vast swaths of ND education [...e.g.] homeopathy, acupuncture, colonics, and energy medicine [...] pseudoscience is baked into the ND education [...] time spent in the pseudosciences is time not spent in reality based medicine [...the ND Dean] fail[s] to mention all the pseudomedicines that are the life's blood of the ND practice [...e.g.] homeopathy to craniosacral therapy to plant stem cell therapy to the O-shot to detoxification [...]";

hear, hear. Lovin' the "baked", because once baked, there is not way to cleanly separate the ingredients. 

"most of the ND interventions have failed to demonstrate effectiveness or even to be based on scientific reality [...] the licensure of NDs by Oregon is, unfortunately, the medical equivalent of legislating astrologers to be the equivalent of astronomers or alchemists to be the equivalent of chemists [...] there is no pseudomedical intervention unused in ND practice, there is no pseudoscientific test not utilized [...] besides being educated in pseudoscience and practicing virtually every pseudoscience imaginable, NDs also treat diseases that do not exist (chronic Lyme, chronic Candida, adrenal fatigue, toxins as examples) with therapies that do not work such as homeopathy and are dangerous, such as chelation and colonics [...]";

hear, hear.  I recognise myself!  I'm honestly quite GLAD I can seed criticism of naturopathy in terms of what perhaps we can term aphorisms!  My empire of influence is growing!  Let's make up another one: or unicorn handlers as the equivalent of cowboys!  Or magic bean gardeners to be the equivalent of farmers.

"many of the ND training hours are not in science-based medicine, making the 6000 hours of ND training a fraction of the realty-based training needed for competent patient care [...] NDs have unethical practice. Many naturopaths sell unneeded supplements and homeopathic nostrums from their clinic or website, a fundamental conflict of interest avoided in the MD practice. MDs are inaccurately accused of being shills for Big Pharma, but it pales in comparison to the sales of Big Supplement for profit in the typical ND office

[...] what NDs do that is good is not special, and what they do that is special is not good [...]";

hear, hear.

"there is a shortage of primary care providers in Oregon. The wrong solution is paying providers who are educated in pseudoscience, trained in pseudo-science, and practice pseudo-science. As Simon Singh noted, because there are issues with the airlines does not mean we should use, or pay for, magic carpets. Oregonians deserve better [...]";

agreed.