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In this episode Dr. Carrie Dennie discusses the personal path that led her to the field of Naturopathic Medicine, its benefits and the value in collaborative healthcare.
Dr. Dennie is a doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, Acupuncturist, and Certified Nutrition Specialist who graduated summa cum laude. She is from Kalamazoo, Michigan and has been living and practicing in Grand Rapids for four years. Carrie has always wanted to be a doctor, initially wanting to pursue dermatology, but while in undergrad at Michigan State University she realized that something wasn't right with her health and she didn't enjoy taking medication. This led her to pursue naturopathic medicine and acupuncture to help her and others reestablish the foundation for health, and achieve their health goals.
Dr. Dennie did not set out to go into the field at first. After graduating from college, she found herself feeling unfulfilled and prayed for guidance. Surprisingly, God pointed her towards naturopathic medicine, something she’d previously dismissed. She enrolled in a school in Chicago, and the doctoral program was an intense experience with classes running from 8 a.m. in the morning until 10 p.m. every day. Despite the rigorous schedule, she felt she knew this was where she was supposed to be and felt comfortable in the whole process.
They discussed how having a plan doesn't mean that you're perfect or always motivated and requires discipline and consistency. The speaker mentioned how taking the medicine path wasn't necessarily the ideal route for them and shared the moment when they decided to take the naturopathic medicine path instead.
A Few Highlights
“It's beautiful in my practice, too, because we have two medical doctors that work with us. One is an integrative cardiologist, one is more an independent primary care doctor, so she doesn't accept insurance, but we actually collaborate on our cases and on our treatment plans and whatnot. And if I have questions, I can ask her, or if she has questions, she can ask me. And this is what I think medicine should do.”
“A big misconception is you literally just come and instead of taking drugs, you take supplements. And that is not the case. That's not how I practice. There are some people that do so, like, there'll be people that come from a different holistic doctor and they'll say, oh, excuse me, I'm on 152 supplements. And I'm just like, you know what I mean? I've got this long list of supplements that I take every day, and I'm like, Aren't you tired?”
We do functional lab testing. Because I'm an acupuncturist, I also use that as an adjunctive therapy. But there are just so many different avenues that we can go or we can use to, again, to help people optimize their health and their wellness. And so that's another thing that I love. And like I mentioned, if there is a situation when the person needs pharmaceutical drugs, then that's where we go. But that's also not to say that we still can't be doing other things lower on the therapeutic order, because those pharmaceutical drugs are really high up to, again, support the foundation.”
“I like to tell people I have this huge toolkit of tools or therapies that I use. And so I'm always doing lifestyle and dietary counseling across the board, no matter who is coming in, no matter what. But then we can use things like supplements, which we're very much known for, right? I'm also a big fan of hydrotherapy, which is a therapy to use water.”
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