We are a Family Medicine Practice with a few twists. Although the activity mimicks a typical Mainstream Practice, when it comes to treatment, we prefer natural alternatives to Pharmaceuticals. I will offer both Mainstream and Natural/Alternative options from which you can choose. Sometimes Natural/Alternative treatments are used side by side. Deciding on treatments is whatever is most compatible to promote optimal health.
Our Practice sees all ages after about two years of age. However, under sixteen years of age, I will not see patients as their Primary Physician, but only on a consulting basis for a particular problem or problems. For patients sixteen years of age or older, I offer the option of seeing them as their Primary Physician or as a Consultant, where they retain their existing Primary Physician.
I encourage patient input. Healing is an effort of partnership. Being proactive is important as a means of maintaining health and preventing illness. Many times information that patients have researched, and brought to me, has become part of my healing armamentariam. I will work with any patients’ wellness requests, as long as they are reasonable, safe and other Mainstream options have been fully explained to the patient and that they have elected to defer such.
My passion for Integrative / Functional Medicine has its roots in medical school, where I was disillusioned with the necessary stoic attention to facts, research and Journal articles, that categorized patients as diseases to be treated and cured, losing consideration of the human aspects of the individual. There was no consideration of biochemical individuality. When I received my Medical degree and went into Private Practice, I vowed to break the mold in which I was trained. Little by little, I introduced non-conventional (Alternative) practices into how I approached my patients. I began seeing improved outcomes, where other Practitioners had failed. The passion was further fueled as I became more & more frustrated with Specialists, whom I referred to, sending patients back to me with no answers except that they found nothing in their Specialty and could do nothing further for the patients. Wanting to not abandon the patients that still had their problems, I did more and more research and training outside of Mainstream Medicine to find answers for the patients’ chronic conditions. I depended less and less on Specialists and, in a sense, became a Specialist myself. I listen and learn from my patients, as they do to me. Many things I do in my Practice, I learned from my patients, who are the best researchers of their chronic conditions. I believe in a proactive, team approach that fosters my patients interest in their own care. Each patient becomes a work in progress, that is unique for each individual. The approach keeps the patient / doctor relationship fresh and challenging. I may not always have a specific answer, but there is a genuine desire to improve the patient’s health. Not focusing on a cure, but rather focusing on improving health, makes the road to the cure less stressful, more manageable, with a deliberate improvement along the journey.