I have been interested in science and the way that the human body works for as
long as I can remember I remember even as a child like playing outside and
gathering leaves and flowers and making these formulas that I called medicines
so it really started at a very early age from me
my mom as well as a really big influence on my love of naturopathic medicine
though at the time I didn't know that I just remember we always had a garden and
we always practice mindful healthy eating she was the one that taught me
that everything that you put in your body including what you eat has a huge
impact on your health and how important it was to make sure that we were staying
physically fit and active so it really started for me at a very young age as
far as going into medicine I did pursue working in the conventional health care
field earlier in life and I worked with many different healthcare professionals
and doctors and what I became a little bit disillusioned with was that I never
saw doctors talk about how to stay healthy or how to prevent illness or
disease and in fact that wasn't taught at medical school what I saw over and
over was one or two symptoms being masked or covered over with medication
after medication and I really thought that there must be a better way to view
the body as a whole and to help people learn how to take control of their
health and stay healthy my sister suffered in her early 20s with
a disease that conventional medicine was really trying hard but just struggling
to help her get better and she got better through the help of a
naturopathic doctor and that's when I was really introduced to the field of
naturopathic medicine and it was from then on that I really decided that that
would be the avenue of medicine that I wanted to pursue
so a typical appointment with me is very different from what a patient may have
experienced before with a conventional health care provider my initial
appointments last for one and a half to two hours and we take a very deep dive
into their health care journey and medical history sometimes dating as far
back as childhood or even birth depending on the patient's particular
situation we work together as a team to figure out what if there is a
dysfunction in your body what happened to make that dysfunction become a
reality and how can we get back to the root cause of what caused the illness
for the patient and how can we move forward together to create a health care
and a treatment plan that will be sustainable for the patient
the great thing about naturopathic medicine
the thing I really love is that naturopathic medicine empowers the
patient to take control of their own health and their own healthcare journey
and how going forward they are going to be able to take care of their body and
the best way for them so naturopathic medicine is really a partnership between
the doctor and the patient and just learning more about their body and why
any sort of disease or illness has arisen for them and how they can take
control of that and become the steward of their own health
I can offer help in many different areas of health care my main goal with every
patient is to find the root cause of their illness to really figure out why
their body is experiencing dysfunction and illness and work from there I am
licensed as a primary care doctor in the state of California so I'm available to
be the patient's primary care doctor however if they already have a primary
care doctor if they're working with other specialists I'm available to
provide complementary or supplemental care for that patient it really depends
on the patient's needs I do have special interest in chronic
infection and chronic illness in Pediatrics and hormone balancing for men
and women and for mental health care