One of the main questions our Toronto naturopath gets asked by people is “how long do you think this will take?”. Of course, what they are referring to is the length of their treatment plan, or how long until they feel better, notice results and start healing. So we thought we’d dedicate a blog post to addressing this frequently asked question.
First, a person’s healing time is dependent upon a lot of factors. Their health status is important – are they generally healthy, or do they have a serious condition. Diet and lifestyle factors will also affect this. Is there one thing happening amongst a generally healthy background, or are there three or four health concerns happening at once? Are there a lot of medications involved, a lot of stress, or other limiting factors in life? What is the person’s general awareness and behavior around health promoting activities? How easily can the person implement change in their life (diet and lifestyle)? These are all questions that must be taken into account before we can estimate the length of time required for healing.
Another important question is how long the health concern been happening for – has it been happening for years as a generally rigid condition, or is this something new? All these factors will play a role in determining how long a person will need to heal. A good general rule for estimating healing time is however many years you’ve had the health condition, you should allow that time in months to help your body heal. For example, if you’ve been suffering with a condition for 5 years, you should be prepared for 5 months to see healing results. However, this example only works for one health condition. If you have more happening in your health and life, it will take longer.
Since our focus is on long-term recovery, we don’t just want the symptoms to go away, we want you to be fully and truly healed. This can only happen with a focus on diet and lifestyle. Because our Toronto naturopathic doctor works in this way, and only uses natural products when needed, the overall cost of the plan is reduced. What is important to know is that we are not trying to go for a quick fix. We’re in for the long-term – long-term healing, that is.
Another way to think about the timing is to consider six months of diet and lifestyle effort that will set you up for 60 years of health. Of course this is only an analogy, but it helps to create some context.
It’s important to understand one of the key points of the first appointment is to go thoroughly through your health history in a way you’ve probably never done before with any other health care provider. This allows us to create a thorough understanding and context. From this we create a detailed plan to give you a better understanding of how long healing will take. In addition, by offering you support such as meal plans, ability to email us and ask questions, and a variety of healing tools such as acupuncture, and natural products to support the healing process, we find patients have the momentum to follow our treatment plans no matter the length of time.
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