A welcome to naturopathic medicine

I can remember that first day of orientation at naturopathic medical school. I was surrounded by unfamiliar smiling faces, nervous looks flashing into their eyes, fingers typing furiously as we heard the woes of our coming next 4 years. The lunch break came like a light from heaven, a breath of relief from the doom and gloom of the “if you fail medical school it’ll ruin your life” speeches. Eager and nervous to form relationships with my new classmates, I quickly pulled others into our group hoping for new connections to flourish. And this, unbeknownst to me, was the first test of naturopathic medical school. What did everyone bring for lunch? 

As a girl from south Texas and a fairly conventional family, I had never been exposed to the nuanced world of integrative and functional medicine. My meals growing up consisted of pastas and casseroles; exercise was for children playing sports and simply not for adults. Health was a physical exam every few years to ensure your cholesterol had managed not to get too out of hand - I mean hey, there was corn in that last casserole! 

I imagine my aghast response to what “health” looked like at a naturopathic medical school in southern California would be similar to what many of you have experienced when you first entered this world. We traded our daily dinner vegetable for only meals with organic, well-sourced, colorful plates. We traded our “I got 7,000 steps at Target” for “I did 2 pilates classes today, only sat down while on a yoga ball, and achieved 30,000 steps”. We traded our reality for what at times feels like an elitist, unattainable instagram dream life. 

As a now licensed naturopathic doctor, I have still found the same frustrations with the functional medicine world that I did that first day during orientation. I scroll through hundreds of social media pages reflecting how if you choose to live in the real world of modern-day America, you’ll die. The toxins will kill you. The EMFs are affecting your health. Your food has no nutrients. Your body is too stagnant. Why aren’t you taking care of yourself? 

And sure, while all of these things may be true to a point, I have found there is a much nicer and more effective way to go about it with my patients. Call me crazy, but painting a doom and gloom cloud of shame around my patients simply hasn’t seemed to do the trick. With my patients, I point out the vast amounts of simple, easy to implement tricks that can make living healthy a little bit more attainable. Daily movement doesn’t have to be a spin class, weight lifting, and a five mile run; why don’t we begin with a daily walk with your dog? Why don’t we find a few ways we can sneak more vegetables into your meals? How do we set a goal of 5 minutes per day of self-care?

My goal on this page is to make this functional medicine world a little bit more attainable for all of you. I promise you, most of this really isn’t that complicated. These practices have been utilized for generations and generations effectively by all kinds of people. So, here I am, here to cast a more positive light on health goals you can have in a way that is digestible and implementable.