Stance on Specific Issues

Testing

Some patients come in asking for specific tests to be done. While I am open-minded, I do use my training and I exercise sound clinical judgement when ordering tests to ensure that the tests ordered are appropriate for the patient in front of me. I do not order extensive lab testing that is not medically reasonable.

Vaccines

I believe that vaccines are one of the greatest (if not the greatest) public health achievement of the last 150 years. I encourage all of my patients to get the recommended vaccines, including COVID-19, but I don’t require patients to be vaccinated if they don’t want to be. I will work with families on alternate childhood vaccine schedules, so long as they are in compliance with Maine law for public school education by the time the child enters school. I do not write for vaccine exemptions, including the COVID vaccine, unless standard medical exemption criteria have been met.

Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is a systems-based approach to identifying and addressing the root causes of an illness. While I believe this approach dovetails nicely with the philosophy of integrative medicine, I am not a certified functional medicine physician nor do I do extensive functional medicine testing (hormone testing, organic acid testing, food sensitivity testing). I have not seen the results of many of these tests lead to improved patient outcomes… and the tests aren’t cheap. That being said, I hope to further my education in the future and learn more about specific gastrointestinal testing as I expect the human microbiome to be one of the next frontiers in medical science.

Chronic Lyme/Post-lyme Syndrome

Lyme disease is no cakewalk - people can get really sick from this tick-borne illness. There is a subset of patients who continue to feel poorly after their lyme has been treated per standard antibiotic protocols. My belief is that lyme can probably do something to our immune systems that we don’t fully understand and it will be interesting to see what future clinical studies discover.

I am not a lyme specialist nor do I believe in treating patients beyond the standard 14-28 day antibiotic regimen. I try and support patients who have had lyme disease by working with them on lifestyle factors we can control - nutrition, exercise, stress reduction, and sleep. For patients who are looking for a lyme-literate physician or are looking for herbal or botanical protocols to treat their chronic lyme, I refer patients to physicians whose practice centers on chronic lyme.

Naturopathy

While naturopathic physicians can certainly help some patients, I’ve decided to no longer accept patients whose primary source of care is a naturopathic physician. The reason for this is the idea of having ‘too many cooks in the kitchen.’ While I am happy to collaborate with naturopathic physicians, I feel as though I practice my best medicine when I am the true provider and coordinator of primary care services.

Dietary Supplements

I like dietary supplements. If given the choice of two pills of equal effectiveness, I’d rather take a supplement than a prescription medication. And I use a small number of supplements to help patients with common ailments. But I’m also a supplement minimalist. I’d rather patients work on their nutrition and exercise instead of trying to make up for poor health habits by taking a bunch of pills. For folks who really like supplements, I try and optimize their regimen to a few key supplements so side effects and cost are minimized.