The Blue Marble University Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine Degree (N.D.):
Annual cost of our 3 Year Online ND degree, including all texts: $3,750 USD per year with payment plan; or $3400 USD advance lump sum payment per year.
All the knowledge and tools you need to become a part of the fastest growing segment of global health care: Alternative Medicine.
The MOST Powerful Curriculum in Naturopathic Medicine is Right Here!
NOW ONLY 3 YEARS!
[Effective for Students Beginning After January 1, 2026]
And for High School graduates, we offer a 5 year combined B.S./N.D. degree program. Please refer to our Undergraduate Page: https://bluemarbleuniversity.com/blue-marble-university-accelerated-bachelor-degrees/
You will complete the 2 year 8 months standard undergraduate curriculum which is then followed immediately by a 2 year 4 month ND program for a total of 5 years to achieve the B.S./N.D. combined degrees.
Before reading about our exciting new program, please read our essay on “Alternative Medicine-Right Here, Right Now” presented as an address to students, 2017.
Now, on to your program: We started with a blank sheet. Our program is like no other. Patients seeking alternative approaches to health care are not interested in hypnotherapy, aromatherapy, yoga, massage therapy, etc. We eliminated those from our curriculum, and instead concentrate on how you can carve your own pathway to success in Alternative Medicine.
Our online Doctor of Naturopathy program emphasizes alternative cancer therapies, alternative diabetes control, vitamin therapies, the study of special compounds like DMSO, bio-identical hormones, clinical nutrition and specific nutritional supplements, botanicals, blood testing and analysis, diagnostic procedures, immune modulation, and the pharmacology of natural medicines. We also include a course in operating your own counseling clinic, partnering with chiropractors to offer complementary medicine, how to order diagnostic blood tests, how to brand your own nutritional supplements, how to start and operate a walk-in laboratory franchise.
This program is best suited to those persons that want to create their own companies preparing and marketing useful supplements, maybe by first starting small and then growing your business; or who want to partner with other licensed health care providers, like chiropractors and physical therapists, to provide complementary medical services to patients; or who want to operate their own counseling and wellness centers; or work in the pharmaceutical industry.
Why do we say partner and leave the licensing to someone else? This is why:
A Growing Field
Complementary Versus Alternative Therapy
It is said that many Americans—more than 30 percent of adults and about 12 percent of children—use health care approaches developed outside of mainstream Western, or conventional, medicine. When describing these approaches, people often use “alternative” and “complementary” interchangeably, but the two terms refer to different concepts:
If a non-mainstream practice is used together with conventional medicine, it’s considered “complementary.”
If a non-mainstream practice is used in place of conventional medicine, it’s considered “alternative.” This is less common.
Most people who use non-mainstream approaches use them along with conventional treatments. For example, patients may want to receive intravenous Vitamin C treatment along with chemotherapy, or who may wish to supplement normal healing routines along with DMSO. This is what people want…a combined approach. “Integrative medicine” is the new buzzword.
So, if you are interested in actually contributing to patient health care one on one, you would be most effective as an adjunct partner of an existing health care practice in which the actual treatment prescribed and rendered is by a licensed health care practitioner (physician, chiropractor, physical therapist, nurse). You play a big role, but don’t need to be licensed. Many health care providers welcome and seek out the services of alternative medicine specialists whose expertise they can offer patients.
If you want to be able to treat patients with alternative remedies in your own individual practice, then best to pursue your education at an accredited naturopathic school that will lead to licensing. This is probably 1% of what alternative medicine is all about. In the end, you too will learn that you will need to partner with a licensed health care provider in order to deliver what patients want: a complementary approach in which mainstream medicine is combined with alternative approaches.
We are talking to the other applicants that want to participate in the other 99% of the alternative medicine field which is far more lucrative and for which no license is required. People that want to join pharmaceutical companies and help develop new supplements and supplements to activate circulating stem cells; people that want to start their own alternative medicine business while continuing their present employment until their own project begins making money; people interested in educating patients in alternative and complementary remedies while working or partnering with existing medical centers and health care providers; people who want to start their own counseling and wellness centers.
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PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:
Practicing as an Alternative Medicine Healer…
Using Your Degree
A Note About Licensing
License? You probably don’t need one. Unless you only want to treat patients one on one in your own private practice in those 20 or so states requiring naturopaths to be licensed. And even in those states, without a license, you can always act as an alternative medicine counselor and advise patients about alternative remedies, or operate your own health and wellness counseling center.
International Licensing and Certification
For international practitioners of naturopathy, you will need to consult your home countries rules and regulations, but in most cases, no license is required to practice alternative medicine as a Doctor of Naturopathy, and to treat patients.
Licensing in the USA
There are many lucrative careers for graduates of the Blue Marble University Doctor of Naturopathy program that do not require licensing, and in fact most states do not require licensing of naturopathic physicians at this time. Some only require “registration”. You need to check in your State for what the regulations and requirements are. As an example, Idaho will register even out-of-state ND graduates of Blue Marble University:
https://bluemarbleuniversity.com/blue-marble-university-alternative-medicine-notices/
Licensing and certification of naturopaths in the United States is still quite messy. For example, while California and Idaho require naturopathic physicians to be licensed, yet, unlicensed practitioners of closely aligned homeopathy are allowed to practice without being “licensed”.
The Blue Marble University Doctor of Naturopathy Degree does NOT generally lead to licensing as a naturopathic physician in the license requiring States, because our online program is not accredited by American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), and in fact no online program is accredited nor ever likely to be.
Only 21 states currently require a Naturopathic Physician to be specially licensed, e.g. Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kansas, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Washington.
The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP) is trying to get laws passed to require licensing in all 50 states, but is doubtful, because new lobbies have been created to protect a patient’s rights to alternative therapies. There is a growing push back from patient advocacy groups seeking to ensure that alternative remedies remain outside of regulation and away from the requirement to seek services of a licensed naturopath.
In order to become specially licensed, one must graduate from one of the 7 naturopathic medical schools accredited by the AANP, and they charge about $25,000 USD per year plus books, and require 4 years of study. For it’s three year online program, Blue Marble University charges $3,750 USD with payment plan; or $3400 USD advance lump sum payment per year. And that cost includes all text books and learning resources.
But even in those states requiring licensure, you are not barred from using your Doctor of Naturopathy degree so long as you are not treating patients directly, for example if you are alligned with a health care provider offering patients “integrative therapy” or “complementary therapy” or “holistic therapy”. Patients now want alternative approaches, and physicians are actively seeking naturopaths to complement their medical practices.
Certifications by Industry Organizations
While “certification” as a holistic provider, or as an alternative medicine provider will not mean you are licensed in those states requiring a license to treat patients, they do offer a level of comfort to patients, and you can likely become certified with a degree from Blue Marble University by some industry organizations which are international in scope, certainly after a couple of years of experience.
In Summary
If your dream is to be able to treat patients with alternative remedies in your own individual office practice, then best to pursue your education at an accredited naturopathic school that will lead to licensing. But if you are interested in participating in the other 99% of alternative medicine, which can include helping patients by partnering with other health care providers, please give our program a look. Leave the licensing and medical malpractice insurance to someone else! Fulfill a complementary role in patient care, or carve out your own counseling and wellness center.
Why not search the Internet and find out what other ND’s are doing in your State, what are their websites all about….
Neither licensing nor certification is generally needed to practice successfully as a naturopathic counselor, or in conjunction with a licensed alternative medicine clinic or physician medical practice. Nor is any license or certification generally required to own your own natural health and wellness center, a nutritional supplement center, or to author and circulate advice on how to control and cure disease by use of alternative methods, or to work in the pharmaceutical industry.
What can’t you do? Don’t “practice medicine without a license”, don’t pretend to be a medical doctor, don’t treat patients as a “Doctor of Naturopathy” in the minority of states requiring naturopaths to be licensed.
This does not mean you are barred from working in a clinical setting. But in States requiring licensure, in the clinical setting you are barred from using the “ND” designation or “Doctor”. Of course, your name tag could be “Medical Professional” or anything else assigned to you by the clinic, hospital, institution, or alternative medicine treatment center. The whole idea is that patients are not misled into believing you are a licensed physician or a licensed Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine. For any non-clinical setting you can always have a business card with Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and advertise yourself as “Doctor” or “ND”, so long as the target audience are people other than patients.
You can even operate your own wellness clinic, although this depends upon your location, and in any event, it is always better to partner with a licensed chiropractor or other health care provider, because of the opportunity to offer complementary and integrated health care. Every state and every country is different, so obviously, make your own investigation.
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Two Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine Programs:
(1) Our 3 year online Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine degree for college graduates
(2) Our 5 year combined online Bachelor and Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine Degree for High School Graduates
Admission Requirements. Our general admission requirements apply: http://bluemarbleuniversity.com/academics/admission-requirements/
Cost: $3,750 USD per year with payment plan; or $3400 USD advance lump sum payment per year, INCLUDES all texts and learning resources: http://bluemarbleuniversity.com/tuition-and-other-costs/
How to Apply: https://bluemarbleuniversity.com/application-to-masters-and-doctoral-programs/
Start Dates and Cut-off times: https://bluemarbleuniversity.com/application-to-masters-and-doctoral-programs/
Student Technology Requirements: http://bluemarbleuniversity.com/academics/method-of-learning-and-student-technology-requirements/
Accreditation: http://bluemarbleuniversity.com/academics/accreditation/
Blue Marble University Student Guide: BMU Student Guide Jan 2025
For other questions not covered above, please browse the Blue Marble University website which presents information applicable to all programs.
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