Did you know that many natural "doctors" practice with no formal training at all? If you’re thinking of hiring an alternative health provider, it’s important that you understand your options and choose your practitioner carefully. In the United States, naturopaths fall into 3 categories.

Traditional naturopaths are natural health professionals trained specifically in natural medicine. Unlike MDs, who attend mainstream medical schools, traditional naturopaths attend programs specializing in natural therapies like herbology, Ayurveda, and traditional Chinese medicine. Traditional naturopaths are not physicians and their practices are typically limited by the laws of the state in which they practice. Traditional naturopaths use the designation "N.D." and the best also hold PhDs. The quality of care you’ll receive from this type of practitioner is directly related to the quality of his or her education.

Medically trained naturopaths are physicians with mainstream medical backgrounds. They are fully qualified to practice all aspects of medicine (including writing prescriptions) and generally use both the "N.D." and "M.D." designations. Medically trained practitioners generally have an excellent understanding of disease progression and tend to be very good at accurately diagnosing illnesses. The quality of care you’ll get from this type of practitioner can be quite high. Unfortunately, it’s estimated that only 3% of mainstream physicians practice any natural therapies at all so you’ll likely have a good bit of trouble finding a practitioner in this category.

Self-trained naturopaths often have no formal training at all. Of all naturopaths, the self-trained are the most troubling. They often have limited understanding of healing and typically have little access to professional resources like malpractice insurance and peer reviewed research. Fortunately, self-trained naturopaths generally limited their practices to a narrow field such as herbology. They will typically not use the "N.D." designation.

Naturopathy is currently the fastest growing segment of natural medicine. Unfortunately, that also means that quackery is becoming more common. Before you hire a natural practitioner, ask him or her following questions:

Where did you go to school? Many naturopathic "schools" are little more than diploma mills. Make sure your practitioner attended a fully accredited program at a school whose name you recognize.

What do you think of mainstream medicine? Even highly invasive procedures like surgeries have their place in natural medicine. No legitimate practitioner will ever tell you that mainstream medicine is useless or that all drugs are dangerous.

Do you have malpractice insurance? If the answer to this question is "No," be extremely suspicious. Many natural health providers practice in legal "gray areas" and if the quality of your care isn’t what you expected, you may have no way to recover damages.

Whether you’re facing a life-threatening illness, you have an ongoing medical condition or you just want to become more informed about your own health, naturopathy has much to offer. By doing just a little bit of homework and asking a few questions, you’ll find the practitioner that’s right for you and your family.