What is Naturopathic Medicine?

Naturopathic medicine is a health care system that focuses on determining and addressing the root cause of illness in an effort to heal the human body.  Naturopathic care does not focus on symptoms, but delves deep into the person’s history to understand exactly what may have caused their condition.  It is rooted in hundreds of years of healing traditions, and validated by numerous scientific studies. Naturopathic doctors provide individualized health care for a wide array of conditions, and work collaboratively with conventional healthcare providers to ensure that the patient’s health is optimized.

  Therapeutic Order

Naturopathic doctors choose which therapies to apply to a patient’s condition based on the Therapeutic Order.

  • Establish the Foundations for Health

  • Stimulate the Body’s Ability to Heal

  • Support Weakened Systems

  • Address Physical Alignment

  • Nutraceutical Symptom Relief

  • Pharmaceutical Symptom Relief

  • Surgery

 Naturopathic Principles

Naturopathic physicians practice the six fundamental principles of naturopathic medicine:

  • First Do No Harm: Utilize the most natural, least invasive and least toxic therapies.

  • Identify and Treat the Causes: Look beyond the symptoms to the underlying cause.

  • The Healing Power of Nature: Trust in the body’s inherent wisdom to heal itself.

  • Doctor as Teacher: Educate patients in the steps to achieving and maintaining health.

  • Treat the Whole Person: View the body as an integrated whole in all its physical and spiritual dimensions.

  • Prevention: Focus on overall health, wellness and disease prevention.

About Dr. Tina Vucaj

Hello there, I am Dr. Tina Vucaj.  Let me start out by saying that I always knew I was going to be a doctor.  To me, there is nothing more rewarding than helping others.  So, I began my pre-medical education at DePaul University in Chicago, IL.  During this time, I experienced a number of health issues.  No matter what medical doctor I saw and what I did, I was not getting better.  I was given pill after pill, test after test.  I grew more and more frustrated, none of these doctors were listening to me, but really, what can a doctor find out in the 5 minutes they spend with you?  I became more and more discouraged even in my own career choice.  I decided to take matters into my own hands and started doing my own research on alternatives.  It wasn’t until I saw a naturopathic doctor that I started feeling better.  I remember feeling a sense of relief during my office visit with her, because after years of suffering, I finally had a doctor that listened, that gave me hope and one that helped me immensely through natural means.  That experience led me to my passion of natural medicine and the importance of getting to the root cause of the disease.  Throwing pills at a patient, masking the symptoms and the negative side effects that come with these pills are not the answer!  

I went on to graduate from DePaul University, with a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences.  From there, I knew I wanted to be a doctor that not only addresses the underlying causes of my patients’ illnesses but also addresses prevention.  Therefore, I decided not to go the conventional route and instead become a naturopathic doctor.  I completed my 4-year post-graduate naturopathic training at National University of Health Sciences in Lombard, IL where I received my Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine.  

I successfully completed an internship at the primary care integrative medicine clinic at NUHS. The internship focused on developing patient-centered treatment plans to improve a variety of health conditions using all natural approaches.

During this time, I had additional advanced training in functional blood chemistry, brain chemistry, gastrointestinal disorders, thyroid conditions and neuroendocrine immunology of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).