MY STORY
I practiced Family Medicine at Family Medical Group Northeast in Portland for over 30 years. I always emphasized nutrition (following the conventional advice of nutrition experts), exercise, alcohol in moderation, and not smoking. When this failed, and patients developed a chronic disease such as hypertension or diabetes or heart disease, I followed the recommendations of evidenced-based medicine and treated patients with the appropriate medication, with the goal being to delay complications.
However, during that time I slowly came to the realization that traditional Western medicine did not get to the root causes of the chronic diseases and only treated the symptoms and signs of disease. The diseases or conditions never healed or resolved and medications were usually taken for life. So in 2008/2009 I began searching for a better way to start treating these diseases and conditions. Two important books that changed my philosophy of medicine were The China Study by T. Colin Campbell, PhD, and The Spectrum by Dean Ornish, MD. The underlying causes of most chronic diseases in the U.S. are the Standard American Diet (SAD), our sedentary lifestyle, and stress. Most recently I read How Not To Die by Michael Greger, MD, which was published in December 2015. I am board certified in Family Medicine. I continue to read the medical literature and attend medical conferences, including those sponsored by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, of which I am a member. The ACLM is an organization that was formed to educate and support doctors and other medical providers in the practice of Lifestyle Medicine.