NMD
I am a Naturopathic Physician who graduated from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine 2018. I focus primarily in Pain Management, Bio-Identical Replacement Therapy, and Sports Medicine. I have worked in the healthcare field for nearly 20 years. Thirteen of which were in Radiology at a major hospital system. During this time, I developed a great love towards medicine and service. What I discovered is mainstream medicine excels in saving lives, emergency interventions, and surgeries while Naturopathic Medicine excels in saving and changing life, preventive medicine, optimization of health, and treating chronic conditions. When I discovered natural medicine, I also discovered my passion for pain management and regenerative injections. Using the body's natural ability to heal tissues, joints, and connective tissue by stimulating a localized immune response that truly works!
In my last year of medical school, I hit a wall, I was in school 120 credit hours a semester for the past several years, I was married with a family of four, and I was a business owner. I was under/over/submerged in stress and I got lost in the blur. It was as if I was sailing in a boat with a great gust of wind pushing me into my future and then the wind died, and I was out on the ocean drifting. I could see my wants, goals, desires but the wind just stopped. I knew enough to know my hormones were the issue. I connected with a resident physician who ran my blood and I discovered my thoughts were true, I was deficient in “everything.” It was after that I was put on Hormone Replacement Therapy and discovered the power hormones have on mental, emotional, and physical health. It was like breathing for the first time again, a whole new world! After I discovered the power of hormones and injection therapy, I found such great passion and synergy between the two, using both therapies with my patients made sense.
As a Native Arizonian, I was born and raised in Mesa and am overjoyed to have the opportunity to serve my city and state. I knew as a young man I wanted to help others but truly working in medicine as a Naturopathic Physician has been one of the greatest honors of my life, impacting my life, my family, my friends, and my hope is to make a positive impact on others to help them create the best life lived.
What makes me unique is my diverse medical background and the connections I have made during my time spent in healthcare, I have a great foundation and a wealth of resources which have built me into the physician I want to be and to truly make a positive impact on those I serve. The passion and desire I have to work in the medical industry has really happened by fate.
I chose to go into healthcare as a result of the experiences I had with my children. I have two children and both were born with cleft lip and my son was born with cleft lip and palate. Both required services and continues to receive services from specialists both in and out of state. I have been to far too many appointments (so have they). My children have had countless surgeries and hospital stays. I have spent many a night in surgical centers, hospitals, airports, Ronald McDonald houses, and hotels. But what ignited the fire in me, is the compassion and passion of those who have impacted me and my family during those experiences.
I have such love and respect for the physicians who have spent hours speaking and working with us for best outcomes for my children. A great example of what drives me is an experience with Dr. McGee, a renowned plastic surgeon, at Shriners Hospital in CA. He just flew in the country after an extensive surgery. Prior to my daughter’s cleft repair, he sat and spoke with my wife and I in the PreOP room. I asked him if this surgery was a piece of cake, mildly nervous and jokingly. He said no surgery is a piece of cake, but he would work meticulously and to the best of his ability. A few hours after the surgery he came into the room and spoke again with me and my wife. We were concerned about my daughter's pain not being managed by the pain medications because she was very upset and still a baby. He smiled and held her in his arms and looked into her eyes and spoke to us with such a soft and caring voice as he soothed my daughters’ cry into silence and then after a minute of holding her and speaking to us, he handed her to us and smiled, shook our hands and walked out until our next adventure. It’s Men and Women like him that pushes me to be a better physician and to impact others, to give back, because my family have received so much.