Doctor, Heal Thy Self

“Doctors, it seems, are to treat sick people; they are simply not allowed to get sick themselves.”               

           

- Marzuk, PM. When the patient is a physician. N Eng J Med. 1987.

One of the tenants of naturopathic medicine is Doctor, heal thy self but it is often the case that the doctor forgets to apply his or her own knowledge, tools, and skills to the treatment of his or her self. Just last week, I had a professor say that he had become sick and he didn't even think to use any of the wonderful cold remedies naturopathic medicine has to offer; the same remedies that he had recommended to a patient that very day to use to combat  a cold. I can see it being hard at times to step away from all the cases and conditions you are treating, and to simply sit back and think about your own health and what can apply. Personally, I think self-care is of utmost importance, but I am learning more and more that as I progress through my career, that self-care may fall by the wayside. Evidently, it is a problem if naturopathic doctors had to make Heal thy self one of their guiding principals in order to remind them of this very problem!