I was most fortunate in life to have great mentors. First and foremost I had great parents. They grew up in the depression and were hard working and had a great marriage of 66 years. As if that wasn’t enough they were always supportive and loving even in hard times.
As a young child I grew up in a great small town in Massachusetts and as I look back at it now I realize how beyond lucky I truly was. Being a child of the 50’s I didn’t have to worry about where I went or walking a mile to school every day. We had a penny candy store on the way home from school, and a snack waiting for us when my brother, sister and I arrived home. I remember our first TV and how exciting that time was. The screen was about 1 foot wide and maybe 10 inches high and the cabinet it was housed in was huge. Black & White TV and 3 major stations were all you got. I remember when Elvis was to appear on the Ed Sullivan show and how my father wouldn’t let my sister watch him because he was too sexy. This was even though the cameras were only allowed to show him from the waist up. So I guess you know where I’m going with this. Life was simple and the little things were appreciated. We were allowed to be children and taught at a young age what a work ethic was. My parents came from poor means and growing up had their share of tough times. As a child I saw, watched, and learned things I would never appreciate until later in life.
My father was a brilliant and accomplished man with little but 6th grade education. Yet, he sang professionally with the Boston Symphony behind him, became an accomplished inventor and most of all was the most resilient and tough individual I have ever known. He reminded me at times of “Rocky” when he was knocked down several times and heard the voice of his mentor yell; “ get up, get up, get up you son of a bitch!”
My mother was also brilliant, an accomplished well educated woman in her own right. The opposite of my father in every way but they worked side by side together to build a business through 20 years which they would eventually sell leaving them with enough to realize their dreams of a home on Cape Cod. There we would all meet as a family growing older and enjoying the partnerships of love and memories which they created for all of us until their passing just a few years ago. Their love, memories and that home will live on with me, my siblings, and their grandchildren forever.
As a young child at the age of twelve I had contacted an occurrence of Ulcerative Colitis, rare in those days for a child my
age. The standard therapy was drugs and a bland diet. I was told that I would always have this condition and even when healed I would have scar tissue which eventually could progress and could cause Cancer. This meant I would have to be checked regularly. Always curious I found myself at the local library after many months of unsuccessful Western therapy trying to research what was going on with my body which left me feeling sickly, weak, and anemic with no signs of real recovery. So, after much research I stumbled upon health and nutrition articles and books on the needs of the body and why such things as my affliction occurred. Along that journey I met someone else, an old woman who was curious about my passion. She was a well preserved woman in her eighties. Little did I know that this lady was a doctor, a Gynecologist who retired from that particular part of her life and became a natural doc well versed in Nutritional medicine? WOW! What were the chances in that day and age? She became my mentor and would eventually change the course of my life forever as well as the rest of my family’s life. She encouraged me and mentored me on the path I became so resolute to endure. The more I read, the more I wanted to learn and eventually approached my parents on the new therapy I wanted to try. Well, that didn’t go over very well as you can imagine. After all, I was twelve, it was now the early 1960’s and doctors were still viewed as the ultimate authority. Especially Jewish doctors which is how I was raised. After initially saying no, with great protest from their rebel and challenging son, my always open and caring parents allowed me to pursue my curriculum of a complete change in diet and taking high dosages of individual supplements for my condition with some GUIDE LINES & RESTRICTIONS!! I was allowed to try the regime for 3 to 6 months and then subject myself to another sigmoidoscopy to make sure my condition didn’t worsen. My biggest request was that it was with another doctor, who had never seen me and therefore with a clear unbiased mind could give my parents a clear diagnosis of my condition which they agreed too. So from Dr. Resnick to Dr. Greenberg I went! I was doing so much better even I couldn’t believe it. My parents were still skeptical which was not unusual for the times. Meat and potatoes daily, with white bread, sugar, whole milk, dairy and the usual helping of desert every night was the code of the time.
Finally, with backing from my new found angel with medical credentials, and her guidance, and after my parents had allowed me to pursue my new found therapy it was off to Dr. Greenberg’s office. My parents were to say nothing of my condition except that I had had some stomach problems. Upon another sigmoidoscopy and thorough examination, Dr. Greenberg looked at my parents and then to me and said “So, how are you feeling now?” I replied” just fine.” He looked at my parents and proceeded to explain “ I found a completely normal lower bowel, healthy tissue with no sign of inflammation. Nothing to worry about he stated, probably a simple virus that worked its way out.” My parents looked surprised and dumbfounded and asked “are you sure?” Dr. Greenberg looked puzzled and exclaimed “why are you surprised? What’s going on?” My parents then told of my previous diagnosis, that I had bleeding in my lower bowel and it was acute. The reply astonished them and me. “There is absolutely no sign of scar tissue! He no longer has this condition. I find it difficult to explain because this rarely happens. I have no answer. Whatever you are doing, just keep doing it.” My path was laid before me and my life would never be the same!
Looking back, the hard times along the way reminded me of dad and how he endured through it all. It gave me strength to carry on. I did what I could and continued to study everything I could get my hands on that peaked my interest. Immunology, Proteolytic enzyme treatment, Hormone treatment, Nutritional & Anti-Aging Medicine, Clinical Nutrition, Orthomolecular & Immunoceutical therapies, Stem Cell & Epidural therapy and integrative medicine were just some of my many pursuits and learning curve endeavors. I was ambitious and passionate about my work and study. Along the way I got the opportunity to do a nationally broadcast internet web show that was live throughout the US. I was nervous and insecure about the sudden exposure as well as the huge task and responsibility it required. It was a one hour show on Saturday mornings that I did from my house in Prescott. I moved there after I first got married to my beautiful wife. It required a huge amount of research and I was responsible to get a guest on to interview each and every week. I searched the web for who would meet my subject matter. I even had to write all the content and decide the structure of the show. Somehow I pulled it off. It was learning as you go experience and another content of my life that would continue to influence how I would continue to learn to serve and choose the right treatment for my patients. I couldn’t believe that the list of learned guests I would have on would include New York Times bestselling authors to brilliant physicians and researchers from all walks of life. I was fascinated by the amount of information there was out there and excited that I was actually able to get these people on and how much there was to continue to learn. It lasted 1 year and then it was mutually over. I was burned out even though the broadcast company offered me another year. I was ready to move on to other things and got the opportunity to touch many lives. I was also distressed by what I couldn’t do on occasional patients I had lost to extreme illness and who’s disease I was unable to help which was very tough to accept. Many of them were friends and relatives I was very close with. This was distressing to me because I hated to fail! I felt I let them down and their families also. I realized I had no control; I could just try and do the best I could.
The pinnacle of humility in one‘s life usually comes thru personal pain or crisis. When my wife’s health took a turn for the worst, I didn’t know it at the time but all that I had learned and done suddenly didn’t matter and became meaningless. I was to embark on a journey that would forever change me and how I viewed my life, my practice and my constitution as a man was about to be seriously challenged.
A law that is understood in treating patients is you don’t treat relatives or loved ones. This is for obvious reasons. First and foremost your emotions may cloud your judgement. Second, one’s judgement may be challenged because the person they think they know is still the one in their mind they grew up with or in my case married. There was however a bigger problem; no one knew what was wrong with her. From the brilliant minds at Mayo Clinic to the many specialists who tried to understand, no one seemed to know how to help. They were doing the traditional blood tests and cardiac tests and the list of diagnostics became ominous and overwhelming. She wasn’t getting better and her health was failing. I suddenly found myself desperately taking over and dedicating every ounce of my time and life to try to save her. Sounds like one’s wor
st nightmare or the bad movie you’re trying to wake up from. Except, you don’t! It was my reality and one which for almost 10 years of personnel struggle finally led me to the answer that I promised myself and her I would find. I wasn’t going to lose her! During that span she was bed ridden for 2 years, almost died on me four times and made her beg me on several occasions to just let her go. If there was a hell on earth, I was living it. I never thought I could ever be so unselfish, so dedicated and most of all have the capacity to love another more than myself. You know what life says, it has a way of giving you what you need although you may not realize it at the time. I learned thru duress many of the missing links to health that most may never notice, learn or appreciate that I now use to help others get their lives back. I now have evolved in this life to become a problem solver and fulfill that long road which was to be forever my destiny.
Since my childhood, many years have passed, over 50 to be exact since that boy of 12 first embarked on his journey of health and the learning process has never stopped, nor has my passion ceased. I have had many obstacles along the way. From a world which wasn’t ready to hear what I had to say, to no educational institutions of the times that would clearly nurture the education I longed for, or the license to practice health I had yearned for. What I learned that was most valuable didn’t always come from a book, but thru hands on experience and my many failures. The availabilities to me over those earlier years were traditional dietetics and health study for professions that didn’t have the core of study that I was so desperate to grasp. I was on my own seeing people here and there who would listen, but making a living doing other things to make ends meet. It has been a long journey since I last heard the laughter of many who called me quack and had no idea of what I was talking about. Today I am sought out by those in need of answers from all walks of life, and it is indeed my honor to serve them the best way I can; thru empathy, humility, honesty and the willingness to forever learn!