A License to Heal: N.C. Medical Society and N.C. Association of Naturopathic Physicians Are at Odds

By Laura Giovanelli, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Apr. 16–The yoga mats are a clue that this isn’t a doctor’s office. So is the manual of Chinese medicine lying on a desk.

But the real hint might be the “prescription” that Charles Bennett took away with him from Jade Teta’s office one rainy day last week.

Apply some honey to leg ulcers at night, before going to sleep, Teta told Bennett. Keep using tea-tree oil, too. To help lose weight and control blood sugar, eat just five bites of starchy foods each meal.

Then there was Bennett’s high blood pressure to deal with.

“So we’re going to do one tablespoon of cocoa powder in hot water, daily in the morning,” Teta said. “You’re going to add a little cayenne — do you have that in the kitchen? And a little cinnamon.”

Teta is a naturopath, a person who treats people with natural remedies, such as diet, herbs and vitamins, among other techniques. Some of his clients said that his skills and advice had made a big difference in their health.

But in North Carolina, Teta could be considered to be practicing medicine without a license, a misdemeanor.

Some naturopaths across the country are pushing to change that. In North Carolina, a group representing Teta and other naturopaths who have attended four-year institutions have spent several years promoting a North Carolina bill with state legislators that would license naturopaths, much like doctors and dentists.

Another bill was filed this winter. Its primary sponsor is state Sen. Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange.

Fourteen states license naturopaths who have attended four-year schools, including Washington, where Teta and his brother, Keoni, studied naturopathic medicine at Bastyr University. At Bastyr, students study infectious diseases and anatomy alongside homeopathy and botanical medicine.

There are just four accredited naturopathic schools in the country.

It’s hard to tell how many naturopaths there are in the state.

About 20 are listed with the N.C. Association of Naturopathic Physicians. The association lists only graduates of four-year institutions.

Licensure would mean that naturopaths would join the ranks of other health-care providers who are required to pass exams and are subject to regulation. It also would limit who could call themselves a naturopathic physician.

Not everyone thinks that should happen.

The battle over naturopathic licensure speaks to a larger argument over alternative medicine, and who is qualified to practice it.

A 2005 state legislative study committee couldn’t come to a conclusion on a similar bill to license naturopaths.

The N.C. Medical Society, which represents about 12,000 doctors across the state, is concerned that the board that naturopaths want to set up wouldn’t be able to afford the cost of regulation, such as investigation if a naturopath is accused of medical error, or disciplining them if they were found guilty.

“There’s not enough of them. So we would have a naturopathic board in name but not in fact,” said Stephen Keene, the general consul for the medical society.

“We’re not talking about enough money here that is to do the job that is promised to be done.”

As it is written, the medical society thinks that the bill gives naturopaths a range of powers that is too broad.

“Like everything else,” Keene said, “where someone is sick and there is someone who is trying to make them better, or trying to prevent them getting sick, there is a public risk associated with it.”

The Coalition for Natural Health, a national organization representing natural healers, fights against licensing naturopaths. The group said that naturopaths aspire to become primary-care physicians without proper training.

They also said they are trying to push out healers who call themselves “traditional naturopaths.” These naturopaths typically don’t study at a four-year school, but find alternative education, sometimes through correspondence courses.

One school that offers such courses is Clayton College of Natural Health in Alabama. The school is not recognized by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the regional accrediting board.

“Naturopathic physicians want to co-op the name,” said Boyd Landry, the group’s executive director.

In some states, naturopaths can prescribe drugs and perform minor surgery.

The North Carolina bill would not allow them to prescribe medication or perform surgery beyond superficial skin tissue, but it would allow them to order lab tests.

Naturopaths say there is a place for them to work with conventional doctors.

“There will always be conventional medicine,” said Karen Howard, the executive director of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. “There will always be pharmaceuticals, and there is ample room and reason for people to have access to as many kinds of health care that are viable.”

The Teta brothers said they have been practicing out of their Reynolda Village office for about three years.

Healing runs in their family — their grandfather was a country doctor in Sparta. His grandsons practice a different kind of medicine, dispensing advice about exercise and diet changes.

Keoni Teta practices acupuncture, and there’s a yoga studio in their office and massage tables in their clinic rooms.

His brother knew he wanted to become a doctor when he was young. In college, he studied biochemistry at N.C. State University.

But when it came time to sit down and comb through medical-school applications, he thought that the curriculums came up short on teaching nutrition.

“Which kind of blew me away,” Teta said, “because I was a personal trainer and a biochemist, and I just could not believe it, because I knew nutrition was so important to health.”

Teta and his brother charge $155 for an initial visit, which can last about an hour and a half. Follow-up visits are less expensive and shorter.

For people who might not be able to afford the initial cost, they say they see patients on a sliding scale.

Insurance doesn’t cover most of their services, though they hope that with licensing, that might change.

A former truck driver who lives in King, Bennett, 58, said he has been living off disability payments after an accident in 1998. Among other things, he struggles with obesity and diabetes.

He sought Teta out after a friend referred him to the clinic because he wanted to lose weight and help control his blood sugar with his diet.

At a visit last week, Bennett gave Teta an update about his weight — 355 pounds, down from 395 in January 2006. His goal is to get down to between 220 and 240 pounds and get off his prescription medications, which he is taking primarily to lower his blood pressure.

People and conventional doctors often turn to drugs and surgery first, Teta said.

“The way we look at it, first and foremost, people should be taught proper lifestyle, stress coping, nutrition,” he said.

Bennett said he feels the results. In addition to his weight loss, he has more energy and feels better.

“It really boosts your hope,” he said.

— Laura Giovanelli can be reached at 727-7302 or at lgiovanelli@wsjournal.com.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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