An Integrative Physician’s Diary

I grew up in a family with my parents being doctors and I knew I did not want to be one. I was going to be a chemist. Until an astrologer read my chart in my senior year at Duke and told me that I was a healer. This had such a profound effect on me that I applied to get into med school within days. I never told my parents why I had such a change of heart.

I struggled with obesity and severe depression off and on as a teen. I always just pulled back from committing suicide in college. But I was off and on antidepressants and I had a counselor in every town I lived in. Exercise helped; so, I became a runner while in med school and my residency. Prozac helped for a while then started causing weight gain. Around 2000, I learned about 5-HTP, a supplement that raised my serotonin levels in my brain and I was happier, but I needed 8 a day. My patients only needed 2-3. In 2004, I learned I was mercury toxic and I had a mouth full of amalgams which contain mercury. So I had those removed, and began intravenous chelation to pull the rest out and my depression slowly vaporized.

I did a lot of genetic testing and found I had some lousy genes. My mother was an explosive woman when she got mad and she got breast cancer. Both of these were due to specific genes that she gave to me. Now, I can forgive her completely for being so abusive…she was mercury toxic. We have a long history of breast cancer in her family, and I did not escape it. I know mine was due to the bad genes and mercury, as was my Mom’s.

Want to read more stories about my life? My book An Integrative Physician’s Diary will be coming soon in 2025. Email me if you’d like a copy.