Naturopathic medicine for the prevention of cardiovascular disease: a randomized clinical trial

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.…”

“…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]. Six of the studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with usual care comparators [23,[27][28][29][30]32], although one made comparisons to other forms of CAM as well [30].…”

“…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 …”

“…Cardiometabolic disease (Cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome): Cardiometabolic disease represents one of the leading public health concerns in the United States, and the majority of studies of whole practice naturopathic medicine focused on these conditions. Bradley et al conducted three observational studies in diabetes and one in hypertension [24,25,28,33] and Seely et al conducted a pragmatic RCT and economic evaluation [23,37]. In the first retrospective evaluation of diabetes care, glycemic control and other risk factors improved during receipt of naturopathic care [33].…”

“…In 2013, Seely et al reported results of an RCT comparing the addition of naturopathic treatment to community based usual care by a general practice medical doctor (GP) alone [23]. Composite reduction in cardiovascular disease risk as measured by Framingham risk scores demonstrated that the group receiving naturopathic care in addition to usual care experienced a 3.6% favorable difference in risk compared to usual care alone (NNT=30 for 10 year event risk).…”