02/09/2026
IS NATUROPATHY EVIDENCE-BASED?
The nuances of natural medicines struggle to be held to the same empirical standards as other chemicals in research settings.
Plants are extremely complex organisms, so it can be very difficult to understand them in the same ways we can understand single ingredient chemicals and compounds. And when you couple that with the extreme complexity of being human, it’s nearly impossible to use conventional testing methods.
In vivio, in vitro and human clinical trials do definitely exist for natural therapies, with more and more being conducted and published each month. The unfortunate fact of funding requirements prevent the same quality/quantity to exist as it does for commercially profitable ingredients and medications.
While I wholeheartedly believe more funding should be utilized to understand natural medicines better, I also believe that there is a limit to how much empirical science can tell us as it does not always give us the full picture.
Empirical science and testing methods are limited by the technology available and the comprehension of researchers. And just because we don’t understand the entirety of the natural world doesn’t make it not real!
