Why is Natural Medicine so Important?

...a Mission Statement of sorts.

I am often asked why I left Oregon and came to Chicago to set up my practice. Why leave a place where Naturopathic Medicine is accepted, licensed, and covered by insurance, to come to the Midwest, where licensure does not exist (yet), and where most people have never heard of my profession? The attitude seems to be that we are a little bit behind the times, here, slow to accept those "woo-woo" types of healing that the New-Age-ridden West Coast is open to.

The answer is fairly simple: I came back to Chicago because it is my home, and I felt Midwesterners deserve and desire the medicine I love. We live in a time and place in which technological medicine is highly developed and widely used; and yet, I doubt any physician of my acquaintance, no matter their philosophy, would claim that the health system in the US is working. Chronic diseases of all kinds are on the rise; too many people live without access to health care. Too few doctors feel fulfillment in their work, as they are pressed to deliver diagnoses in mere minutes spent with the patient. I can't fix the insurance mess in the US, but I can try to fill some of the gaps.

What is missing? Time, for one thing; as an ND, I am trained to spend comparatively vast amounts of time with my patients--60-90 minutes, on average. Time to listen, to understand, to explore the true cause of their illness. Empowerment, for another; I am happiest when my patients find a route to their own healing, taking the recommendations I offer and applying them in their own way to their lives. Common sense, for a third; NDs often say that we practice true preventive medicine, in that a large part of what we do involves detailed guidance in diet, exercise, and stress management--the three supports of good health. Finally, the methods I love best--nutrition, herbal medicine, movement--are sustainable, powerful, and inexpensive.

They combine well with conventional pharmaceuticals, or stand well on their own. I believe my background as a Chicagoan influences the way I practice--where do you think I got the emphasis on common sense, for instance? Right here. The Midwest, by the way, has a long tradition of natural medicine--Dr. Henry Lindlahr operated his highly successful Sanitarium in Elmhurst in the early part of the century (not far from where I was born, actually). Chicago has some of the best conventional medicine in the world; I see no reason why we should be denied the benefits of natural medicine.

Chronic Babe Article...

My short explanation of Naturopathic Medicine has been published here. Please read and comment, and while you're there, treat yourself to some of the other articles as well. ChronicBabe is quite a lovely creation.

Why "Nature Goddess"?

Credit goes to the lovely and talented Rosa, who comes to our center not as my patient, but as my belly dance student (and a wonderful student she is, too!) Rosa called one day to tell me that she would not be at class, as she was sick. Then she remembered the various herbs and formulas she had seen at the center, and wondered if there was anything I could do for her. There was, and later that day, she picked up a formula for herself and her daughter.

I saw her again a week later, at class. She was feeling much better, and as it turned out, had recovered quite quickly from her illness. "We call you the Nature Goddess now," she said, "that stuff really works!"

That stuff *does* work. That's why I do what I do.

There is another goddess I had in mind when I named the blog. Hygeia was the Greek goddess of physical health, and the daughter (in some accounts, the wife) of Asclepius/Asklepios, god of physicians. (Her father, by the way, may have begun life as a mortal man, and been deified later--sort of the ultimate promotion.) The image above is one of my favorites; so calm, so reassuring, so authoritative--don't you feel better already?

I nearly named my center "Hygeia Natural Health", but I found most people didn't quite feel the way I did about the word. The goddess's name has come down to our century as "hygiene", and while the concept is entirely appropriate for Her scope of practice, it denotes bleached sterility to most people. We are as clean as we should be here, but "sterile" is hardly the way I want my patients to think of natural medicine.

To me, natural medicine is alive, growing and changing; which is why it seems so obvious to embody these concepts as goddesses, with their vibrant natures, gorgeous images, and all that their names evoke.

"Hygeia, most revered of the blessed ones among mortals, may I dwell with you for what is left of my life, and may you graciously keep company with me: for any joy in wealth or in children or in a king’s godlike rule over men or in the desires which we hunt with the hidden nets of Aphrodite, any other delight or respite from toils that has been revealed by the gods to men, with you, blessed Hygeia, it flourishes and shines...and without you no man is happy." - Greek Lyric V Ariphron, Frag 813 (from Athenaeus, Scholars at Dinner)

"I swear by Apollo the physician, and Asklepios, and Hygeia, and Panakeia, and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath and this stipulation ... " - Hippocrates, The Hippocratic Oath