Waging Peace

By Michael Cronin, ND, AANP President

I love the idea that what we are doing in our professional activities is “waging peace.”  This has always been how I have approached my organizing work in the naturopathic profession.  I feel this even stronger since my visit to India. While there, I learned that Mahatma Gandhi is India’s “Father of Naturopathy” and that he imported it from us.

Naturopathic physicians are an essential component in creating a better future. We are forwarding practical solutions that make our communities and our world a better, healthier place. We do this by promoting health and wellness and by treating disease with natural medicine to improve a person’s well-being. We pursue and promote a healthy lifestyle, organic eating, sustainable agriculture, healthy medicines and a sustainable healthcare system accessible to all.

We each have much to offer and we are learning to coordinate our efforts for greater effectiveness. This coordination continues to increase public awareness about naturopathic medicine. A recent article by John Weeks, former AANP Executive Director,  in the Huffington Post highlights naturopathic research  and how it is proving the value of integrative medicine. There are more books being written by NDs now than ever before; some of these texts are getting astronomical circulation. NDs are presenting in several professional arenas. For example, May 16, 2012, a group of NDs presented a systematic review of naturopathic care at the International Research Congress on Integrated Medicine and Health in Portland, OR. In October, there will be two naturopathic workshops at the American Medical Student Association’s pre-medical and pre-health professions national conference: Guiding Your Passion For Medicine.

To continue our coordination of efforts and increase our effectiveness, I invite you to attend the AANP conference August 15 – 18, 2012, in Bellevue, WA. For those who wish to engage with the AANP more intimately, I invite you to attend our pre-conference leadership day on Tuesday, August 14. There you will have the chance to meet, greet and engage with our new CEO, Jud Richland. We have created this day to establish improved communication and unification with AANP members and the leadership of the AANP. I hope to see you there.