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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Dr Sarah Myhill, a conventionally trained doctor turned naturopathic practitioner, urges practitioners to keep asking "why" about patients' problems and to treat each patient as an individual rather than relying on standard prescribing. The speech is an acceptance remark for an outstanding-contribution award from the College of Naturopathic Medicine (CNM), reflecting on her career shift away from conventional medicine.
Key Points
- Dr Myhill qualified as a doctor in 1981, worked for the NHS and in private practice as a GP, and later trained in naturopathic medicine; she is described as the author of six books and a renowned expert in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME).
- She says she became dissatisfied with conventional medicine, which she describes as doctors becoming mouthpieces of the pharmaceutical profession.
- She recalls being reprimanded in the 1990s for having a low prescribing budget, which she says was treated as making her a bad doctor.
- The core question she emphasizes is "why": asking why a patient has high blood pressure, cannot lose weight, or has chronic fatigue.
- She says the naturopathic diploma gives practitioners the intellectual grounding to address these problems, while admitting no practitioner knows all the answers.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: The speech gives no step-by-step protocol, dosage, or preparation method. The only actionable guidance is to ask the underlying "why" question about each patient's symptoms, and to bounce ideas off colleagues while treating every patient as an individual.
- She describes starting general practice in 1982 feeling inadequate, because her training had not covered the "why" questions patients asked.
- She says she sees "miracles" in her practice and expects attendees will too, though this is her personal anecdotal impression, not data-backed.
- The speech is informal and celebratory; it does not present specific treatments, products, or evidence.
- Health-related claims made here are the speaker's own views and are not professional medical advice.
Bottom Line
Dr Myhill's message is that naturopathic practitioners should investigate root causes by asking "why" and personalize care, a stance she presents as a rejection of conventional prescribing habits she disliked.
