I am honored to host this online discussion about "Alternative and Complementary Medicine for Persons with Disabilities" and  look forward to your questions, please submit them by August 9, 2000, so I can research your areas of interest.

After a brief introduction about myself, I would like to present my initial research in this area.  Also, I would like to invite you to submit your areas of concern that relate to the body’s health and function so that I can address these during our "live" online discussion on Wednesday, August 16th at 3:00 p.m. (CST).  Please submit your questions to sfinney@ilru.org.

Dr. Merritt is a board certified Internist who is also boarded in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine.  She has practiced as an internist in Galveston County since 1987 after finishing her residency at Baylor College of Medicine.  During this time she was the medical director of 5 nursing homes and the original hospice organization for Galveston County.  She is married, she and her husband of 20+ years have 2 girls, aged 12 and 16.  Since 1997 she has developed an integrated approach to medicine that combines nutritional, herbal, homeopathic modalities with the relaxation response and body work that have resulted in major reductions in the cost of medical care to her patients at the Primary, Preventative, and Palliative Care Clinics.  As of June 1, 2000, she joined Texas Gulf Coast Medical Group, a large group practice.  She also developed a business called Wellness Solutions (http://www.wellnesssolutions.com) that allows businesses to provide this approach to their employees directly, thus saving money!

In 1997 I agreed to have some of my patients participate in a study that SpectraCell (http://www.spectracell.com), a local lab that does lymphocyte assays that measure cellular nutrient levels, was doing.  I subsequently did 350 or more assays that year on patients that came to the office.  The following results, really shocked me because I didn’t believe that this level of deficiency existed in the general population. The disbelief in the results soon dissipated as the patients got off medications and relayed incredible boosts in energy and stamina.  After I saw the general pattern of deficiencies, I started putting everyone on a multiple vitamin with antioxidants and minerals, as well as NAC (N-acetyl cysteine) an essential amino acid.  Essential fatty acids are also very important and I suggest borage oil with flax as one of the best combinations for those that are going to use supplements.  Chronic fatigue, depression, muscle aches, infections, hypertension, diabetes, and pains were some of the conditions that were relieved first.  The first set of independent “report cards” that I received from my managed care insurance companies told the story: my admissions to the hospital had dropped to 1/3 of my peers and the medication requirements were 1/4.  The result of integrating this approach into my practice across the board was that 50-80% of the conditions that affect my general adult medicine population were taken care of by this simple combination of supplements.  The next challenge, now that my mind was wide open to “alternatives,” was to figure out how to “fix” the other 20-50% and how to make my very conventional and traditional patients and peers understand these alternative methods in terms that they could deal with BioMeridian analysis, the relaxation response, and that proper nutrition and supplementation are the answers I’ve found.  I like to find patterns to life because that is really the way nature works.  I find it interesting that for 3000 years the Chinese have practiced acupuncture and medicine using the knowledge of how energy flows in the body and we are now rediscovering it in various forms of “Energy Medicine.”  My goal is to reintegrate these complementary forms of medicine in a scientific and holistic approach that is easily accessed, inexpensive, and more successful than what we typically do now.

Please read some of the selections or check out the articles section on the Wellness Solutions Web site for more.

SpectraCell and BioMeridian Testing Helps Local Internist Integrate Eastern-Western Medicine

The Relaxation Response

The 22 Non-Negotiable Laws of Wellness

Glutathione: Natural Antioxidant and Key to Longevity and Health

Link to Alternative and Complementary Medicine References