Announcements

Did you know that one of the 50 hottest Latina singles in New York is an SCNM alumna? On February 14, 2007, Dr. Joann Yanez was featured in The New York Post in the section titled Tempo for 50 Latinos Looking for Love. Tempo scoured the city and beyond to find the hottest Latino and Latina singles. The results were displayed in Tempo's second annual list of the fifty sexiest who are unattached and ready for love.

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	Khara Lucius, ND, Sari Cohen, ND, Nicole, Kellum, ND, Eli Camp, ND, Laura Riley, ND

Interview with Alumni

SCNM interviews some of our proud and flourishing alumni in New Hampshire, at Whole Health Naturopathic Medical Center - (New Hampshire’s largest center for
Homeopathic Care)

How did you become interested in Naturopathic Medicine?

We all had an interest in healing or the medical profession, but in each of our cases it was the naturopathic philosophy that first attracted us, and the ability to employ natural therapies to help patients.

What brought you to SCNM specifically?  When did you graduate?

Although we each had out own particular reasons for pursuing education at SCNM, the one thing we all noticed from the moment we entered the campus was how friendly and welcoming the staff and students were. Each of us still remarks today on how coming to SCNM just felt right. Besides this, we were attracted to the location and the opportunity to study with some of best doctors in the profession. We all graduated in July of 2005.

What led to your current position?

As we entered business management classes and were assigned the task of working on a business plan, we all chose to work together on the assignment. We had been friends throughout school and knew how well we worked together. After working on the plan and experiencing just how amazing the combination of the five of us felt, we began to ask ourselves why we didn’t make this plan a reality. We all moved to New Hampshire (pets, husbands, possessions and all) after graduation and opened practice together.  The real magic was our synergistic vision, dedication to the profession and each other and motivation to make this clinic happen.

What is most important to you about Naturopathic Medicine and the possibilities contained within Naturopathic Medicine?

First and foremost it is very important to us that Nature Cure survives over the coming years and that there are enough teachers and mentors to take recent graduates to the next level of opening and running practices. It is also important to us to continue to bridge the gap between naturopathic and conventional medicine. Finally, the most exciting thing about our medicine is seeing the amazing results with our patients and knowing it is possible to provide such individualized healthcare. 

How do you see your career changing in the next five years?

Within the next five years we want to work towards becoming a residency site for the profession. We are also working towards gaining more national exposure for both our practice and profession.

What advice do you have for your colleagues in practice?

With naturopathic medicine, anything you want to do is possible. There were plenty of people who told us it simply wasn’t possible for a group of five doctors just starting out to open a thriving practice in a small area such as ours. It has taken a lot of hard work, but even in our first year we have grown into a successful and very busy practice.

Anything you would like to share with fellow SCNM Alumni?

We truly feel blessed to come to work every day with people we love doing something we feel very passionate about.

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Visit Whole Health Naturopathic Medical Center at http://www.whnmc.com.

What’s Been Happening with Alumni?

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World Health Mission in Nigeria

I am Dr. Heidi Weinhold a 2000 graduate of SCNM, who recently traveled to Nigeria in January with the World Health Mission. Our team consisted of myself, Dr. Dan Wagner, a pharmacist from Pittsburgh, and Danielle Wagner, a laboratory scientist. Our trip to Nigeria, West Africa was a success. Part of our mission was to establish diabetes screening clinics at Lafia, Azara, Jos, Bauchi and Yola across 4 states covering many hundred miles. We screened nearly 2,000 patients, collected data on each, and donated glucose meters, diabetic test strips, medications, herbal, and vitamin supplements.  We traveled during the dry season of the Hannatan, when the winds blow sand from the Sahara desert into the air. The weather is extremely dry, the air is thick with dust, and people are severely dehydrated. Consequently, many Nigerians suffer from allergies and asthma. 

The hospital conditions in Nigeria are pretty primitive and we stayed in hospital guest houses which were considered the nicest facilities in the area. At times we would be without water and electricity for 6-8 hours which was good compared to the rest of the community who went without water for 2-3 weeks at a time. In Nigeria, people would get up in the middle of the night to collect water and store it in large barrels. We bathed out of buckets in Lafia, and my hair turned red for 3 days from the high iron content of the soil.

People in Nigeria were extremely open to Naturopathic Medicine and for many traditional herbalists are the only form of health care they can afford. My favorite experience of our trip was riding on the back of a motorcycle into the bush to visit with Dr. Dauda, a licensed native herbalist who has been practicing for 58 years. Dr. Dauda was a spry old man with a humble spirit, twinkle in his eye, and who wore an outfit with moons and stars that reminded me of Merlin. He lives in a remote area where the air is a little cleaner, the country is greener, people can breathe a little easier, and the termite mounds are as tall as I am.

People travel great distances to see Dr. Dauda who proudly specializes in Gonorrhea, stomach aches, and birth attending. He has a small book with a collection of 17,000 cases that he has successfully treated, but most of the wisdom remains in his mind and is passed down to apprentices. Dauda gave us a tour of his herb garden and described the use of each plant and people would make teas from the dried bark and roots that he collects. Dr. Dauda tells his patients “only God Heals, and to come back and pay him when they are cured.”  If people do not get better, they don’t have to pay.  This is a premise that my own patients would love for me to adopt. 

Herbal Ethnopharmacy is a growing field in Nigeria and I met with several pharmacists as well as Professor Kamiyuss Gamianiel, Dean of Faculty, at the West African Network of Natural Product Research Scientists. They have many research projects analyzing the active compounds of native plants. This group is currently studying a mixture of four different plants to treat Sickle Cell Anemia. Three of the plants being studied are grains used to wrap food in Nigerian cooking.

Malaria is the second leading cause of death in Nigeria. They are conducting several clinical trials on different herbal mixtures for malaria.  In all of the studies, the plant, Artemesia is used as the control. There is increased drug resistance to malaria in different parts of the country and patients at Lafia Hospital are given three injections of 150mg Arteether, (made from Artemesia) over 3 days for acute malarial infections.    

Under nutrition increases the susceptibility to infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV. With poor hygiene, poverty, and lack of adequate water supply, infectious disease spreads quickly and diarrhea is a problem. Alacer supplied Emergen-C packets with vitamin C and electrolytes that were perfect for these conditions. The Emergen-C packets were especially well received in Lafia Hospital. People were patiently waiting and kept saying “I need extra protection” when referring to the benefits of Vitamin C to help protect them from getting ill. People with diabetes would travel and wait for hours to get screened. Many had not eaten that day and their blood sugar was too low and Emergen-C packets were opened and given to people in the waiting rooms.  

Nigeria has the highest population affected with HIV in Africa. Gaia Herbs provided herbal immune support which was dispensed at the APIN Clinic in Jos where 10,000 people are currently enrolled with HIV. Visiting the HIV hospital is heart-wrenching; seeing the crowd of a couple hundred people in the waiting room and to know they are all infected with the virus. We visited the pediatric unit of the HIV hospital and dispensed Nordic Natural DHA Jr. packets to Dr. Emeka the head pediatrician. 

We never were able to escape the trash which was littered throughout as we traveled across Nigeria. There is not a trash collection system in place, so people just throw their trash outside the door.  Even as we traveled along the Great Plains of Africa, it was littered with bits of black plastic bags. When we finished our diabetic screening clinics the floor was littered with blood soaked cotton because people there do not have the concept of throwing things in a trash can or disposal sites.

As I reflect on my trip, I think that the worst thing in the world is the burden of debt, how it weighs you down and defeats you. Poverty can make you sick. According to the Nigerian novelist, Ben Okri, “most immigrants would rather stay in their home countries. Life in Lagos and Accra is fun. They flee from the unfair distribution of wealth. Most can’t wait to go back.” I believe there is no reason for anyone born in the United States not to be successful because travel challenges your assumptions about the world. 

When the Nigerians received aide, they always replied with, “May God Bless you abundantly, May you be rewarded back with what is dearest to your heart, and May you be protected so you can continue your good work.” I would like to thank Gaia Herbs, Alacer Corporation, Nordic Naturals, Seroyal, and Wise Woman Herbals for their generous support in providing supplies for our mission.  It has been weeks since my return, and I have dreamed of Africa, and the faces of Africa, every night, they say, “don’t forget us.” I will be returning to Nigeria in November, and I will continue to update my dear friends and colleagues at SCNM.