Is Naturopathy as Effective as Conventional Therapy for Treatment of Menopausal Symptoms?

Abstract

Naturopathy appears to be an effective alternative for relief of specific menopausal symptoms compared to conventional therapy.

Estimated Effects of Whole-system Naturopathic Medicine in Select Chronic Disease Conditions: A Systematic Review

“…Results from hand searching added two additional studies: a more recently published randomized controlled trial (RCT) & companion cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA). In total, 15 studies of whole practice naturopathic medicine were included [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. Figure 1 shows the literature flowchart.…”

“…Figure 1 shows the literature flowchart. Of the five retrospective studies, one included a control group [35]. Two studies were prospective observational cohort studies, of which one was comparative to an electronically created usual care control group [24], and one made comparisons to other forms of CAM [34].…”

“…All studies were in chronic disease conditions; six evaluated outcomes in diabetes or cardiovascular disease [23][24][25]28,33,37], five in musculoskeletal or pain conditions [26,[30][31][32]34], and four studies were in other conditions [27,29,35,36]. Summaries of the included studies are in …”

“…Significant differences between groups were also observed in mental health, concentration, fatigue, social functioning, and vitality. In a retrospective study of menopausal symptoms, management by both naturopathic and conventional primary care physicians in a community health clinic was compared [35] [36]. A statistically significant reduction in alanine transaminase (ALT), the primary liver enzyme, was reported.…”

“…Amongst the RCTs and prospective observational studies evaluated, all but one included a quality of life outcome measure as well as a disease-centered metric [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][32][33][34][35][36]. The outlier did assess the impact of the disease state (TMJ) on social function and activities of daily living [30].…”