Marianne Trevorrow,1 MA, ND
We are well into another challenging pandemic winter this edition after seeing an early surge last fall of RSV and influenza cases as well as COVID sub-variants. There has been a lot of information in the news about overwhelmed pediatric ERs and ICUs across Canada and delays in surgeries and cancer treatments, warnings about masking in indoor settings, and recommendations that people not come to work with cold or flu symptoms. There are also reports of Canada-wide shortages in pediatric acetaminophen, ibuprofen and amoxicillin brought on by a surge in demand associated with respiratory viruses.
Naturopathic care can certainly help reduce the overwhelm in our publicly funded front-line system. Our allied role in the prevention, diagnosis, and management of acute respiratory infections is grounded in our emphasis on lifestyle factors, as well as botanical, nutritional, hydrotherapeutic, and other traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM) therapies that can help treat many of these respiratory viruses. In this way, we stand alongside our colleagues in public and allied health care—pharmacists, midwives, and nurse practitioners (NPs)—but with our unique T&CM and planetary health lenses. We all share the same goals, which is to get through this winter and finally see the end of the COVID pandemic. But first, we need to survive the next few months, paying attention to our own levels of burnout and exhaustion brought on by the upheavals and isolation of the last three years, not to mention anxiety over our vulnerable patients and loved ones, including the elderly and young members of our own families.
We lead off this edition with a report from the chair of the CAND on progress and challenges with federal Government Relations work in 2022. One notable success this year was the addition of NDs to the list of covered healthcare professionals with Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), and while negotiations with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) and other agencies are in still in progress, I would highlight the CAND’s tireless work with Public Health Agency of Canada’s Allied Health Advisory Table, and the Natural and Non-Prescription Health Products Directorate (NNHPD). More and more, our presence is being noted and we are being asked to contribute to helping solve the problems/shortages in the Canadian primary health care system.
Along these lines, we are publishing an important and timely article from Carfagnini et al. on the inclusion of NDs in Northern Ontario Primary Care, which we’ve made an Editor’s Selection for this edition. As they argue, recruitment of NDs into publicly funded multi-disciplinary community care could fill known healthcare recruitment gaps in these regions. Additionally, they make a case for the congruence between naturopathic medicine’s more holistic approach to care and local Indigenous Peoples’ interconnected understanding of health and wellness, proposing solutions in the non-insured health benefits system and community health systems to help alleviate the health inequities in this region.
Our second article for this edition is a narrative review by Deenadayalan et al. of the current evidence for the analgesic effects of hydrotherapy, a traditional intervention of the early European “nature cure” doctors. This article from an overseas team affiliated with the Naturopathy Medical College in Chennai, India, reviews the indexed literature on this topic and discusses potential mechanisms of benefit.
Our final submission is a strategy document from the World Naturopathic Federation (WNF) European Regional Group, which met in Lyon, France, in 2019 to formulate a strategy to promote naturopathy research in Europe. For those readers who are interested in the work of the WNF to build research infrastructure internationally, this article by Steele et al. shows the promise—and challenges—of building research infrastructure in that environment.
Finally, as the second calendar year for the CAND Journal ends, I’d like to take the time to wish our CAND members a peaceful holiday season and a happy and healthy 2023.
1Editor in chief, CAND Journal.
Not applicable.
I have read and understood the CAND Journal’s policy on conflicts of interest and declare that I have none.
This research did not receive any funding.
Correspondence to: Dr. Marianne Trevorrow, MA, ND, Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors, 20 Holly Street, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M4S 3B1, Canada. E-mail: drmtrevorrow@cand.ca
To cite: Trevorrow M. Editorial: Winter 2022: Hold the Line. CAND Journal. 2022;29(4):1-2. https:/doi.org/10.54434/candj.131
Received: 07 November 2022; Accepted: 07 November 2022; Published: 15 December 2022
© 2022 Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors. For permissions, please contact candj@cand.ca.
CAND Journal | Volume 29, No. 4, December 2022