Naturopathic Medicine is a system of primary care medicine that focuses on prevention. Naturopathic Doctors (NDs) are trained at 4 year post-graduate schools of Naturopathic Medicine, including Bastyr University, at which Dr. Layton was trained.
In addition to studying conventional labs and diagnosis, NDs take extensive course work in nutrition, botanical medicine, counseling, homeopathy and physical medicine. The focus of treatment is on optimizing the daily habits to allow the body to heal itself. Once the diet, sleep, stress, and other lifestyle factors are optimized for the individual, supplements, herbal medicine, etc may be added to support struggling systems or address lingering symptoms.
Dr. Layton has always strived to use evidence based therapies. She completed additional training in functional medicine, which is the use of lab testing to understand how the body works. While these tests rarely lead to a diagnosis, they give concrete evidence of how your body works and where it can be better supported. Functional medicine tests can include different tests for hormones, including salivary cortisol, dried urine hormone tests (sometimes called the Dried Urine Test of Comprehensive Hormones or DUTCH test), stool analyses, organic acid or OAT testing, and much more.
Functional medicine practitioners often have conventional medical training, such as an MD, DO or nurse practitioner. In those cases, these functional medicine tests are a wonderful way to extend pharmaceutical treatment into the nutraceutical or supplement options. As a Naturopath, Dr. Layton uses Functional Medicine to priorize and narrow treatment regimens.
The main goal of Naturopathic care with Dr. Layton is to feel empowered in your pursuit of vibrant health. The goal is not to visit us regularly, but rather to learn more about how your food and nutrients, stress, exercise, sleep, and daily choices impact your long term wellbeing. Once your baseline health is elevated, your response to needed treatments, medications, or interventions at any stage of life will be be more effective.
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