This is the most personal blog I have written thus far. I wanted to take a step back from the usual content to properly introduce my story and the goal of this blog. Many often wonder how one becomes a naturopathic doctor. Let’s face it, most people pass much of life without really knowing what the heck one does, how to say it and especially what to expect from one! Heck, even spell check doesn’t recognize the word. Some of the preconceived ideas of what I do make me laugh, and well, if they didn’t make me laugh they would probably make me cry so I choose to laugh instead. So how did I become one? I was raised by parents who were very involved with health. My father, a world class and Olympic level wrestler knew the synergistic importance of both physical fitness and mental fitness to health and success. My mother, an incredible teacher who was also a lifelong learner herself studying and reading all she could on health and nutrition. This lead to the upbringing of an active and healthy eating child who preferred collecting Halloween candy than eating it. This laid a strong foundation that lifestyle had so much to do with health and how well you could feel. Our relationship with our thoughts, food, exercise and our body was essential to feeling well. While I was growing up, I was seen much more often by a naturopathic physician than my medical doctor, not due to avoidance simply due to great health. Naturopathic medicine offered the solutions I wanted to provide. It is what I wanted to do. I have often seen many people with preconceived notions that if I’m a naturopathic physician then I must be anti-medical physician. To be clear, I could not disagree further. Life is not black and white and neither is health care. In the gray is where the sweet spot of patient care lies. Optimum patient care is what I care about- that is really the bottom line.
I’ve been sporadically blogging since November 2010 about various health topics. I’d like to formally introduce my blog.
The reason I wanted to blog is that one of the naturopathic principles is that doctor act as teacher to empower our patients. I believe this is one way I can do that. My goals are to:
- Improve wellness IQ with a little flare.
- Share some personal experiences. So you can see how I walk my talk.
- Empower you to collaborate in informed decision making with your primary care giver.
I hope you will join me on this journey.
There are a couple of ways to follow this blog if you aren’t already.
1. Join the RSS feed (it’s on the sidebar of my website, the orange icon)
2. Join the newsletter and receive a compilation of the weeks articles freshly delivered once weekly. The sign up is also on the sidebar of my website).
À votre santé,
Mélanie
