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I think your question is difficult to answer, because these categories are quite jumbled.Regarding research, there are several who have published basic clinical research as well as reviews and meta-analyses. Anyone suggesting otherwise simply hopes you won’t check for yourself.Dugald Seely, ND, comes to mind as a widely published naturopathic doctor. His publications have been in a wide range of journals, including many very conventional and prestigious journals. He recently won the Rogers Prize for his work.Lyn Patrick, ND, is another naturopathic doctor with many publications, including both reviews and laboratory research. Many of hers are in Alternative and Complementary Medicine (a peer-reviewed journal), but those who knee-jerk reject the validity of that journal because it has the word “Alternative” in the title will find several other conventional journals in her resume as well.Here in Portland we have Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU), and on staff as an adjunct professor in neurology is Gene Bowman, ND. On his biography page you can read through the list of his publications. All of them are in conventional and respectable medical journals.It is difficult to designate any particular ND as authoritative, unless specifying the subject of authority. Dr. Lyn Patrick is certainly authoritative when it comes to the health consequences of heavy metal toxicity.Dr. Eric Yarnell is certainly authoritative with respect to men’s health. Anyone suggesting he has only published reviews (which oddly enough, is implied to be something other than the product of research) just hopes you don’t check.There is also the Helfgott Research Institute, associated with NUNM, and its plethora of published research, including several studies conducted in conjunction with OHSU.As for being an authority, the title has a few components to it. There is authority derived from deep knowledge of a particular topic (e.g. Dr. Patrick vis-a-vis heavy metal toxicity), and there is authority derived from broad knowledge combined with an ability to articulate that knowledge (e.g. Dr. Jared Zeff regarding the philosophical underpinnings of naturopathic medicine).I’m not sure there is any way to saying who is the most accurate or correct. To the extent that conventional peer review can weed out inaccuracies, then all of those who have published in conventional peer reviewed journals (I’ll throw my own hat into that bunch) can make a case for having met conventional standards around accuracy, at least when addressing those particular topics.Publication is not, of course, required for anyone’s statements to be accurate, nor is it a guarantee of accuracy.In the end, those who believe the evidence in support of naturopathic medicine as a valuable system of medicine (like, for example, the University of Maryland Medical Center (see citations on that page)) will continue to pay attention to research in that regard. Those who don’t believe that will continue to write, speak and act as though the evidence touched on in this post doesn’t exist.

The best way to help someone with dementia to remember important appointments?When my own mother was around, she would forget appointments and even forget to take her medications. Let me treat each of these separately, but for both, there are two aspects: MOTIVATION and MEMORY.Without the motivation to do something (attend an appointment, swallow a tablet), they will not want to commit it to memory, they will be less likely to remember, and if they do remember (or are reminded), they will be less likely to act (and prepare for or go out for the appointment). Motivation is important and often overlooked. I know this because I overlooked it! Read on.Memory is the obvious aspect. At first, with onset dementia, frequent reminders of the right kind will help. With worsening dementia, no amount / quality of reminding will help. I have a good example of this. Read on.AppointmentsPreparation. With most appointments, there is a need to prepare before hand. Get dressed appropriately. Finish the current meal or snack. Visit the bathroom. Get hold of any paperwork or money required for the appointment. So a reminder is required before the appointment with enough time to prepare and enough detail to know what preparation is required. However, once the preparation is done, a second reminder may be required to actually carry out the appointment (make the call, go outside, whatever is required). So…Act NOW. A second reminder may be required to say, “it’s 3pm, time to step out the door” or, “it’s 3pm, stay in the lounge room near the telephone.”MedicationPreparation. Blister packs, also known as Webster packs, are extremely helpful. These days, pharmacies pre-pack those little medication packs for you, one week ahead of time. Brilliant! But it’s only one third or one quarter of the answer.Knowing what day and time it is. My mother used to doze during the day. Perhaps at 5:30pm, at dusk, she would awaken and think that it was morning time. She would go through her morning and breakfast routines, which would include taking the next morning’s medications. It would be slightly confusing because the previous day’s dinner-time tablets would be still in there. She would either leave the dinner tablets there, or take both. Either way… not a good thing.So having multiple day-and-time clocks around the house, preferably NOT controlled only by batteries, was crucial. However, after a while, with worsening dementia, this stopped working (both because of the “motivation” factor and because of “I forgot to look at the clock” factor).Take the medication NOW. So I bought my mother what I thought was the perfect medication reminder clock. It would announce (according to my simple “programming”), 3 or 4 times a day, in a delightfully flat American accent, “It’s xx o’clock, time to take your morning/afternoon/evening/lunchtime medication”, and it would repeat that sentence about once per minute for (I can’t remember, maybe 10 or 15 minutes) until she either pressed the green button or until the 15th time had completed.This worked for a while, but eventually her dementia worsened. And see my motivation story below.What to do when it went wrong. So, what did my mother do when the Webster pack mysteriously went out of alignment? I expected her to call me about it. Because she was slightly ashamed or embarrassed, and because of the motivation factor (see below), she wouldn’t ever call me about missed or duplicated medication. I assumed that she had everything worked out, until my weekend visit, at which point I’d notice either unopened segments of the Webster pack, or a misalignment of a day. Frustrating for me. So your elderly parent needs a “what to do” plan B that doesn’t make her feel small and silly. Easy to say. Impossible to do.My Motivation StoryOne day I happened to call my Mum (Mom for those of you in America) at around 11:50am. Ten minutes into the conversation, her medication alarm clock went off. I heard it in the background, LOUDLY announcing, with perfect timing, in a wonderful American accent, that it was time for her to take her lunchtime medication (I don’t remember the exact words; it isn’t important to my story).My Mum remained silent for the duration of the alarm. I remember thinking what a clever son I was. I had found and purchased that device, set it up, taught her what it was for, how to acknowledge it to make it stop, what to do. Clever son. So I fully expected that at the end of the alarm’s announcement, she would either excuse herself to take the medication, or mention it to me so that I’d remind her after our call.I was wrong.After the last syllable, she resumed our conversation, without even THINKING about her medication! There was no pause to reflect, no mention of the alarm, no concern about needing a reminder. She treated the alarm like background noise… like people talking at a cocktail party. To her, it simply did not exist.Some background: My Mum had a history of difficulty in swallowing medication. She simply couldn’t do it. Try as she might, she would sip and sip and sip water, throw her head back and try to get it down. Invariably, she would bite into the bitter tablet or pill, scrunch up her face in disgust and swallow it down… often with a “chaser” of a piece of bread or fruit (when she could still remember). So compared to other seniors with dementia, my Mum had even LESS motivation to take her medication because she couldn’t swallow (which does matter for some medications) and she was sensitive to bitter taste. But even for someone who CAN swallow tablets without any problems, it’s not their favourite activity. It reminds them of their poor health. It is unpleasant. And when people talk to them about it, the conversation invariably makes them feel stupid, old, small, incompetent, sick, and so on.You see my point? For you and I, the motivation for taking tablets is to get better (or to not get worse, perhaps) but for someone with dementia, that long-term objective is forgotten and/or irrelevant. Like a child, if it’s not pleasant, it’s EVEN HARDER to remember and act upon.The solutionSo my Mum’s physician, who was obviously more clever or at least more experienced than I was, placed all critical medication into the dinnertime (evening) “slot” of the day, and we organized a daily nursing visit for weekdays (when I wouldn’t be visiting).And my backup strategy was to call her to remind her. But not JUST to remind her. To engage her in conversation, genuinely talk about her day, tell her about my day. And then to pause and ask her to go fetch the medication so that I could talk her through it and solve any problems.At once stage I had a webcam in the room where she had her telephone, that I could use to view her actually following through my instructions. That was before the days of seniors video phones, which make it so much easier.One of the seniors video phone users that I know is called daily by her daughter to check on hydration compliance. The loving daughter actually watches her mother drink water periodically from a water bottle during their conversation. It works for both of them! The daughter ensures that her mother complies with hydration requirements. Her mother loves the daily call, and doesn’t at all mind drinking the water because it’s part of the routine. The MOTIVATION is the call from the daughter. She gets to see the daughter, and sometimes the grandkids. The daughter is extremely careful not to make a big deal out of the water drinking, but at the same time, she insists strongly that her mother fetch the water bottle at the start of the call. By linking the two events (call from loving daughter and having to drink water), the motivation goes up and, of course, the chance of dehydration goes down.What about appointments?The simple answer is to call your elderly parent once at preparation time and once at “act now” time, preferably with video (to their seniors video phone) so that there is no chance that they will forget and so that you can watch the “compliance”, while treating them to some “motivation therapy” (having a great time talking to them and showing them your family, or photos from your computer).Younger seniors with less-advanced dementia can use one of the many iPad apps or seniors tablets to remind them… but from my experience, such devices and apps lack the motivation factor (of a son/daughter calling, with video, to say “hi”) and are too easy to ignore, forget, put off, put away, drop, misplace, leave off charge, leave out of Wi-Fi range, and so on.Recruit family membersIf you have no time yourself, then recruit other family members to call your elderly parent (preferably with video) to attend appointments. It’s FAR better than an electronic calendar, for one more BIG reason: Social isolation.Let me explain.Social isolation and loneliness are linked to poor sleep, depression, dementia, high blood pressure and morbidity. As a health risk, social isoation is worse for you than smoking cigarettes! (If you ask me, I’ll post a link to the study or studies that compare the death rates of both).Conversely, social engagement is VITAL. Particularly FACE-TO-FACE conversation.Face-to-face social engagement is good for seniorsTwo medical studies (by Prof Alan Teo at OHSU) showed that in-person face-to-face conversation, OR Skype-based face-to-face conversation, specifically with family and friends, at LEAST 3 times per week, reduces social isolation and HALVES depression risk. In the studies, it was shown that regular telephone conversation (without face-to-face / video contact) did not derive any measurable benefits.One other medical study (by Prof Hiroko Dodge at OHSU) showed that increased social engagement, via daily face-to-face video calls, actually INCREASED cognitive function in those with dementia and those at risk of dementia. The results were so strong that OHSU was funded for two 5-year follow-on studies to quantify the longer term effects, in terms of slowing dementia onset and progression. I apologize if I have misquoted or understated this research. Once again, I can link to each of the studies within comments if required. I have learned not to include links within my Quora answers because such answers often get reported and deleted.So my point is, if you can’t visit 3 times per week, having a simple video call DOES work, and will help in two ways: 1. It lets you initiate and check on compliance (to medication, hydration and/or appointments) in a way that’s foolproof and provides motivation compared to simple alarms/tablets; and 2. It provides valuable face-to-face conversation, which increases social engagement, which exercises the brain in so many more ways than puzzles or simple telephone calls, resulting in a likely better form of cognitive exercise that shows great promise, and in line with medical studies.SummaryDepending on the stage of dementia, you’ll likely need a different approach to ensure compliance with appointments. Remember to think amount motivation, observation (ensuring compliance) and the reminder itself, as well as a fallback strategy. And consider the importance of social engagement for those with worsening dementia or those at risk.