Pharmaceutical Medicine on Salt Spring Island

Pharmaceutical medicine has a time and a place. As a naturopathic doctor licensed to prescribe in British Columbia, I can reach for a targeted drug when it is genuinely the best tool for the job, then step it back down as your body recovers. The aim is always the smallest effective intervention, chosen deliberately.

Since 2009, naturopathic doctors in British Columbia have held pharmaceutical prescribing authority, regulated by the College of Naturopathic Physicians of British Columbia. That training covers pharmacology, drug interactions, and safe prescribing alongside natural therapeutics. As the BMJ's Too Much Medicine initiative argues, good prescribing is not about more drugs or fewer drugs; it is about the right drug for the right patient at the right time, and knowing when not to prescribe at all.

In practice, that means antibiotics for a confirmed bacterial infection or a stubborn case of SIBO, antifungals for documented yeast and fungal overgrowth, antiparasitics for intestinal parasites, biofilm-disrupting agents for chronic treatment-resistant infections, and antidepressants or anti-inflammatories where the evidence and your situation call for them. A 2016 review in JAMA found that roughly 30 percent of outpatient antibiotic prescriptions in North America are unnecessary, which is exactly why every prescription I write follows a clear diagnosis, usually confirmed with lab work, rather than a guess.

Pharmaceuticals work best as part of a bigger plan. I pair them with botanical medicine, targeted nutrition, and the lifestyle changes that address why the problem started. Deprescribing, safely tapering a medication once it has done its job and rebuilding what the illness or the drug depleted, is built into every prescription from the outset. When you are already working with a family doctor or specialist, I coordinate care rather than duplicate it.