Toronto naturopathic doctor

Health Coaching

Live every day of your life to the fullest

Health can be more than “not being sick”. This is where a health coaching can change your life (literally).

In naturopathic medicine, recovery from illness, and disease prevention are achieved by the same mechanism: health optimization.

Unlike conventional medicine, which often emphasizes reducing symptoms, the focus of naturopathic medicine treatment is always to create a healthy lifestyle that supports a return to health, and to use natural medicines improve your body’s own function.

The outcome of improving your body’s function is first, recovery from illness, but ultimately, prevention of future illness and a feeling “great”.

If I’m not sick, why should I bother?

Being healthy and feeling “not sick” are not the same.

In the present, the benefits health coaching to  optimize health are in “feeling great”; having energy throughout the entire day; not having mild, chronic aches and pains; not having a “regular” headache; not having abdominal bloating after meals; having good concentration; being happy and productive; the list goes on.

In the long-term, health coaching to optimize health is a means of preventing chronic illness. Chronic illness shortens lives: seven of the 10 leading causes of death are chronic illnesses.

As importantly, chronic illness compromises quality of life. One-fourth of people with chronic conditions have one or more daily activity limitations. Given current trends, the average Canadian can expect to live the final 9 to 11 years of their lives with a chronic illness, and no medicine, no matter how sophisticated, will help them feel as well as before they were ill.

Finally, most chronic illness is preventable. Risk for 78% of heart attacks, strokes, cancers and diabetes mellitus; the four leading causes of death by chronic illness, is preventable using a healthy lifestyle. Similarly, 70 to 90% of cancers are attributable to environment and lifestyle factors, factors that can be controlled.

How can I benefit from optimal health?

You can benefit from optimal health at every stage of the life-cycle:

  • If you are planning a pregnancy or pregnant, optimize pregnancy health helping your child get off to the best possible start in life
  • Infants and young children can optimize early year health and development
  • School-aged children can minimize missed days, and optimize energy and focus
  • Mothers and fathers can manage stress and feel their best, allowing for energetic and patient parenting
  • In your career, reduce illness-related work absence, and stress, allowing for a more productive and rewarding employment experience
  • Later in life, prevent or reduce symptoms associated with aging, allowing you to get the most out of your well-deserved retirement

Naturopathic Doctors – the Ultimate Health Coaches

The challenges for most persons interested in living a healthy lifestyle are not, knowing that changes need to be made, but identifying the specific changes they need to make, integrating these changes into their lifestyle, and most importantly, making the transition from “new, healthy behaviours” to “healthy habits” that last a lifetime.

Health coaching is not a government-regulated healthcare profession in Ontario, and as such, there exist no specific educational requirements to offer health coaching services.

Most health coaches have an educational background related to health sciences (e.g., nursing, holistic nutrition), but no other discipline requires over 5700 hours of training, encompassing a basic medical science background similar to that of a conventional medical doctor, combined with the training in creation of personalized, safe, effective diet, lifestyle and natural medicines prescription.

Heath Coaching at Toronto Centre for Naturopathic Medicine

Every person is unique, from their personal health history, to their family health history, to their lifestyle and work demands, to the many variables in-between. For this reason, the approach to health coaching at Toronto Centre for Naturopathic Medicine is personalized, ensuring your specific short-term goals are met, and your risk of developing chronic illness is minimized.

Heath optimization programs at Toronto Centre for Naturopathic Medicine always involve:

  • Ensuring the underlying causes of any existing chronic health conditions are addressed
  • Identifying health conditions you may be susceptible to (e.g., having a family health history of heart disease, having a toxic work environment)
  • Identifying personal health priorities (e.g., weight loss, spending daily quality time with family)
  • Identifying and addressing potential obstacles to changing health behaviours (e.g., time management)
  • Creating a healthy lifestyle incorporating health behaviours proven to reduce risk of developing chronic illness
  • Creating a personalized natural medicine regimen
  • Setting clear goals, and identifying and addressing motivational obstacles
  • Integration of the above into a comprehensive, personalized, long-term lifestyle plan
  • On-going support via follow-up appointments and our in-office and online dispensaries

Are health coaching appointments covered by O.H.I.P.?

O.H.I.P. does not pay for naturopathic medicine services, but as a government-regulated healthcare profession, services offered by naturopathic doctors, including health coaching appointments provided at Toronto Centre for Naturopathic Medicine are covered by most extended healthcare plans.

For an introduction to getting started on a healthier lifestyle, learn about our Three-Month Lifestyle Make-Over program.

References

Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion [Internet]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2014 [cited 2015 Apr 17]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/overview/.

The power of prevention: chronic disease . . . the public health challenge of the 21st century [Internet]. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2009 [cited 2015 Apr 17]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/pdf/2009-Power-of-Prevention.pdf.

Cho R, DesMeules M, Manuel D. Women’s Health Surveillance Report: Mortality, Life and Healthy Expectancy of Canadian Women [Internet]. [cited 2009 Dec 1]. Available from: http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/whsr-rssf/chap_8-eng.php.

Ford ES, Bergmann MM, Kröger J, Schienkiewitz A, Weikert C, Boeing H. Healthy Living Is the Best Revenge. Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(15):1355-62.

Whiteman H. Most cancer cases “caused by lifestyle, environment – not bad luck” [Internet]. MedicalNewsToday; 2015 Dec 17 [cited 2018 Feb 8]. Available from: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/304230.php.

Collora C. How to become a health coach [Internet]. Exercise Sciences Guide; [cited 2018 Jul 18]. Available from: http://www.exercise-science-guide.com/careers/health-coach/.

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