Stars of Medicine

Welcome to a dynamic section of Helfgott Blog. Medicine is above all about people. Too often when studying or investigating healthcare we become overly focused on theories. We sometimes can forget that the most vital moment of any medical interaction happens between two people in an office talking about what’s going on.

To celebrate the people-ness of medicine, we offer two people focused sections of this blog. One focuses on patient perspectives. The other, which you are viewing right now, focuses on doctors and doctors in training. The hope is that the diversity of approaches and backgrounds will become apparent through these stories and descriptions. Further, we hope that readers will be able to see what incredible people have chosen to learn more about the healing power of nature.

Interviews with our Stars of Medicine:
Khivan Singh: Natural Medicine’s Contemporary Magdalene
Eric Grey: Superbibus Genius
Michael McMahon ain’t a comic book illustrator, but a shaker and mover!
Introducing….A Student of Natural Medicine: John Luchs

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Khivan Singh: Natural Medicine’s Contemporary Magdalene

It is my pleasure to induct Khivan Singh into the cyber walls of Stars of Natural Medicine. Khivan embodies Mother Magdalene with a spicy flare. She’s a sarcastic and saucy type of individual and carries herself with a presence that is unmatched when it comes to motherly attributes and intelligence. Her humor is sly, slicing through dialogue in ways that only subtle wit can accomplish… and her interjections are contextually elegant, adding insight that is easily overlooked. It catches you off guard, yet you remain at ease because you know she’s just adding humor to daily activity, prompting you to looker deeper than the superficial film of life. The natural sciences act as a bridges for Khivan, an inherent artful structure of form meeting function and explains where she first became fascinated with how all aspects are put together for health and well-being. She sees the human being as a beautiful fit, an interpretation of specific mechanistic interrelationships between bodily systems, and that compensations and adaptations of the body are the ways that we can understand optimum health. Moreover, she understands the subtle nuances of community support as well as what role she is to play in the wide-open fields of natural medicine. All of her thoughtfulness and though-provoking tendencies will carry her far in any endeavor, and a glimpse at her motivating force is nothing short of inspiring.

Khivan grew up in the realms of natural medicine and that her life is simply a continued evolution of what she experienced at home and her relationships therein. Her dad is a software engineer and her mother a drug and alcohol counselor, a marriage of analytical and esoteric that seems to form a nice compliment to Khivan’s current pursuits. Another influential person is her Great Uncle who introduced her to the scholarly variety of medicine; he is a graduate of National College of Natural Medicine (NCNM) from late 1970s and to this day happily specializes in primary care with a focus on homeopathy, metroceuticals, and nutrition. Her uncle’s influence supplied her with insight into how one can provide others with the tools of obtaining ideal health through a personalized health care plan. Not surprisingly, her interests as an undergraduate dabbled in both biology and psychology with an emphasis on health, and it sort of makes sense because of her parental combination and the family dynamic centered on discovering the paradoxical boxes of unknown.

The puzzle pieces for Khivan are pretty black and white; each grey matter is quickly directed left or right into its respective category and act to expedite her medical pursuits. It boils down to two ideas: choices and support systems. She explains that every opportunity presents a choice and that choice is restricted by the influencing circumstances. Support systems are what influence the success of personal goals and choices, as well as why things are the way they are and how they got to be that way in the first place. When a choice is made that is not a viable option (maintaining sustainability for the individual), then consequences result. Sounds simple enough: make choices here and there to pursue one’s goals, look for existing support to implement these ideas, and if there is not any support go out and find it or create it from scratch. Struggling without support is also an option for individuals out there, but this an aspect that Khivan avoids and in turn is how she is able to maintain health and balance in her experiential world. When pressed to define her line of struggle, she condenses it nicely, “my struggle is learning how to increase my awareness about disharmony and dis-ease with decision-making processes that are made without regard to a support system. My greatest struggle is accepting that I don’t know everything and… that’s okay.”

NCNM is where Khivan found her personal stopping ground and where she feels that she finally made a niche for herself in the world of possibilities. The nature of this natural medicine school is to provide any budding physician with ample skills and know how of how to understand disease patterns and health for any set of circumstances. Each toolset taught is built upon a repertoire of dynamic interpretation designed in a positive and responsive way to provide a quality treatment plan for each patient. Thoughtful, team-oriented decision making between practitioner and patient are paramount to its success. Khivan’s favorite quality about the medicine is the underlying, innate intuition of understanding the relationships between the systems and mechanisms of the human body and its external environment.

“Our strongest tool is connecting people with their own roots, the surrounding community, and learning how to just be present with our patients. Our greatest asset is our ability to understand internal and external influences and how situations got to be the way that they are, as well as how to restore balance for each individual.”

Currently, she is taking the research community by storm with one of the latest NCNM- OHSU collaborative research studies, the Relaxation-Visualization Therapy for Fatigue and Skin Toxicity an in-depth examination of how relaxation and visualization might affect breast cancer patients’ healing rates and energy levels. This study represents one of the first NCNM student-initiated research projects with OSHU and the Helfgott Research Institute, and a true pioneering step towards integrating conventional and natural medicine. That’s pretty impressive if you consider the fact that Khivan is only in her second year of study at NCNM pursuing a naturopathic degree. When prompted about her interest in the study, she responds in the most natural way, citing that little changes make big changes: “Dochere: doctor as teacher. We know so much, if we simply share and impart what we know, we can make significant changes in our own lives and also in the lives of others. 20 minutes of meditation, focusing, and believing that you can be healthy can make you healthy. Empowering yourself with small choices towards achieving health will provide health on a structure and model at a comfortable speed makes sense for you. Small changes create substantial changes. It’s simple.”

For Khivan, the future remains about integration of support and health care and there is no doubt that she will be successful; her sophisticated outline for growth is adequately backed with sound reasoning as well as a means to regenerate her passions again and again, each time blossoming into a new paradigm. Having this vertebral and systematic stacking of support will undeniably make Khivan a fabulous physician…. In the meantime, continue your own personal pursuits of health through your own definitions of support systems and small steps towards optimum because after all, this is the basis for dynamic and sustainable systems, and it is an extension of what Khivan wants everyone to know. Moreover, this line of reasoning is the basis of health care’s newest revolution, and Khivan is right up front, riding the crests change, balanced upon her personal streamlined board, gracefully aimed for higher ground. Welcome aboard Khivan, we’re glad to have you be part of the team.

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Eric Grey: Superbibus Genius

Eric Grey is far from dull and nondescript, in fact, he’s one of the most articulate and interesting human beings on the planet. Imagine a mad scientist in plain-person’s clothes, the type of individual you’d catch staring at the back of a box of Cherrios and you kinda want to know what he’s thinking. You can almost see the hamsters in his head cycling through his thoughts, making concepts complete and accessible to those of us less fortunate folks that have to work at problem solving. His attributes are worn so comfortably upon his sleeve that its not uncommon for people to ask him confounding questions because anyone who meets him just knows he’s got all the answers. He’s a sponge for information, sopping up the sweetness of intellectuality of tomorrow’s soup de jour. These supranatural abilities have helped him help others, and in turn, help one another make health happen, AND in ways that are innovative and fun. Now that’s what I call pretty freakin’ cool.

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How he figures out what to do next is anyone’s guess, for the path traveled thus far is as close to random as one could imagine, dabbling in philosophy, a brief stint in the veterinary sciences, followed by a devout pursuit of Chinese Medicine at the National College of Natural Medicine. He’s a realist with a striking rebel red cry against the traditional and established rule of order; this, in the very least, explains his passion for philosophy. For him the pursuit of Western science became stale and static relying too much upon the tired rhetoric of conformist thinking. That’s probably why he is where he is today, and doing what he’s doing. When asked about his life choices and the chaotic nature therein, his bushy eyebrows pensively pinched above his striking eyes, and he then thoughtfully began:

“I’m not necessarily guided by intuition, but something more like big knocks, too obvious to avoid. I want save the world from itself and be nourished spiritually at the same time, that’s what I always searched for with my life choices.”

And you believe him because you can see that he’s got those gems of genius tuck neatly in his breast pocket. In some divine accord, I found myself knowingly nodding. Yes, I thought to myself, this makes perfect sense.

A self-proclaimed Aquarius, citing his innate love for all humanity, Eric is all too familiar with salvaging mankind. In college, he lobbied for political and legislative action on behalf of minority groups and equal rights. To this day he remains actively involved LGBT communities working tirelessly for justice on their behalf. And it doesn’t stop there, on the day-to-day level, he meets everyone where they are at expressing support and providing any form of help in the worldly struggle… and this leads me to his latest projects….

Through is innate curiosity of the electronic world, Eric, is able to keep up-to-date with the latest technologies, teaching luddites how to organize all those ones and zeros for the betterment of humanity. Performing amazing feats such as his Deepest Health blog as well as masterminding the Helfgottblog. Deepest Health, Eric’s cutting edge blog, explores Chinese Medicine from a contemporary perspective. What makes his site unique is that he doesn’t become too bogged down with the academic details, relating foreign concepts to the medical community and the public at large, serving as a valuable asset to the integration of healthcare. Moreover, by utilizing the power of the internet and its search engines, his impact works on the worldwide level, and in turn working on the globalization of our understanding of Chinese Medicine. It’s not surprising that when asked about how he is able to remain so intimately involved, he somewhat brushes off the statement, like it just another drop in the bucket for him and his daily routine. Keep an eye out for him folks: he’s a swami swimming amongst the future of natural medicine.

Through these endeavors, he’s recognized that nearly everyone suffers from a “wound” on the body, mind, and/or spiritual level. Personal awareness and action can only happen when each person begins to unhinge disruptive and destructive patterning, which is the basis of balance taught through Chinese medicine. Eric believes that if he focuses on helping everyone’s individuals needs, those rusty internal gears begin to shift in accord with Nature’s cyclic changes, and the awareness of place and purpose on this planet and this lifetime become apparent. After an individual manages to self-correct and remain upright despite the ever-changing world, then and only then can world peace happen. All of this is an oversimplification of Eric’s master plan: making the world aware of itself so that it can advert the unnecessary disasters. Spirituality naturally arises out from this process, so as far as Eric is concerned: right here, right now, his needs and the world’s needs are being met. His altruistic pursuit of lifetime goals somehow go beyond a win-win situation performing synergistic feats, trouble-shooting problems even before they occur. As Wile E. Coyote would say: “Super genius.” I’d even venture to say that he’s more than dynamic, using his forward minded thinking to cause creative waves shaping our society right under our very noses. He’s that subtly good.

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Michael McMahon ain’t a comic book illustrator, but a shaker and mover!

If you’ve met Michael McMahon, you know him through the fertile terra firma of his imagination and presence. When you first connect with him, it is as if the landscape around melts into surreal abstract Dali interpretation. You begin to care less about your surroundings, instead focusing on the details of thought-provoking words and ideas; chewing on the potential of what is possible. If you’ve met the man, you’d know the context I speak of; and if you haven’t, well, keep an eye open for him, a happen-chance encounter just might change your life. He’s Michael McMahon: a man about town, ahead of the curve, involving himself in the healthcare and writing communities, permeating into all types of social circles and workshop varieties.

Michael does not fit neatly into any definable mold, his fashion remains uniquely formless, adapting to a spectrum of circumstances, remaining ever-present in the present moment, so it’s hard to know where he’s been. I found this characteristic of him intriguing, and I just had to ask how his pursuits played a part in defining himself. Michael’s occupational resume is speckled with a variety of different working collages, all of which seems to bleed from one story to the next. Lessons and thoughts picked up here and there seem to still remain actively part of his life, sculpting this character in the daily plotting of present day Portland, Oregon.

Michael was a wilderness program counselor and provided personal direction for teenagers, cast aside by society, lost in the woods of life. His work involved teenagers and respective parents, allowing past experiences and constructs to dissolve within the presence of mind. Through these actions, he was able to achieve the impossible. When asked what he learned from this experience, McMahon mentions two deliberations:

Everyone has a gift in this world, pain and suffering results from not being able to express this gift in a conditional world of authority and responsibilities;

Identifying and obtaining this gift gives the individual a greater quality of life, however, achieving this gift is only through unconditional compassion and non-directional guidance, allowing the individual to actively define his personal gift.

Michael’s nurturing and supportive role doesn’t stop there either; he continues his pursuit of gift-giving through his massage practice and simply loves working with his clientele. Expressing the same inner observations of life, growth, and self-discovery, this time working with the physical constructs of the body. His part as a caretaker is so profound, that his desire to know more about medicine led him to NCNM to study classical Chinese medicine. Both healing pursuits act as an unshakable taproot, as an extension to belong and be an active part of a community. Eventually, with his medical knowledge and holistic thinking, he hopes to hold a solid backbone of support for the community at large.

As a poet, Michael is able to transcribe the immaterial into the material, a literal musician of words; his pages of poetry freely flirt with the fibers of form. McMahon knows west coast writer’s groups like the back of his hand, and has managed to shake hands with all the right people. His bleeding-heart tendencies spill over into the written word, cross-pollinating various groups with one another in order to communicate the needs and concerns to a larger community. His personal army of coalitions with numerous writers’ organizations, such as Write Around Portland, and other fellow poets like Jerry Martien and Clemens Starck, have networked a wider audience for his personal pursuits. Writing for him is a “branch off that same underlying tree” for the social community and has taken his pastime and turned it into a working avenue for the mentally blocked writers out there, the Helfgottblog as an example. Aside from his written musings, his service work for writers is equally as humbling.

The remainder of my interview questions faded into that surrealist background, and I discovered myself fixated and fascinated with his underlying business of gift-giving. I asked Michael, what his personal gift was, and secretly delighted that I caused him to pause in reflective thoughts. His gift is evolving he says, forever deepening, growing, and embracing his personal passion in writing and poetry. His gift comes from there. Through his gift, he is able to understand love and recognize its value in the communal experience and to facilitate the communal experience inothers. He takes a lot of meaning from the connections that he can make in the community and enjoys acting as a facilitator.

Michael is an editor for the Mt. Shasta’s Moving Mountain and collects a cornucopia of chicken tracks for poetic reading. His latest research project for the Helfgott Research Institute attempts to use poetry to treat chronic forms of pain.

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Introducing…. A Student of Natural Medicine: John Luchs

One of four boys, I was born in then serene Singapore with my twin Marc. My first memories are from Paris. I crawled through puberty in fragrant tri-racial KL, Malaysia. The Joshua Tree. I came of age-in several ways-in quirky Canberra, Australia. And as an adult I courted Ithaca, NY, the ideal return from my childhood odyssey-luscious woods and water, cultural creatives, hard beautiful seasons. Achtung! Baby.

An Irish friend of mine would regularly encourage people to “Get over yourselves!” My formative college experience was a volunteer group, CommUnity, and in particular our visits to the traditional Mohawk community at Akwe:sasne These trips were joy-week-long slumber parties engaged in service work-an ideal foil to somewhat self-absorbed academia. By example and story, our Mohawk hosts introduced us to the gifts of land-based cultures, especially their hard tested social and ecological wisdom.

Pop. I was accepted to the NCNM Admit 1998 class, but wasn’t yet fully committed to the work and debt of our program. After a six month stint as a software support techie, I decided that my gorgeous Victorian apartment wasn’t cutting it, and returned to the business of getting over myself.

In the wild and wonderful mountains of West Virginia, I lived in an intentional community, the usually wiser child of the 60’s communes. At the Gesundheit! Institute, I worked on the front lines of a social experiment-not an active clinic at that time-alongside a Quaker quilt maker, a pragmatic and goofy RN, and other nurses and doctors-social change artists-the wisest women I know grounding the most charismatic man I have known, Patch Adams. Via social organizing, volunteerism and performance this movement is committed to bringing “fun, friendship and the joy of service back into health care.”

Saturn returned-I was having serious trouble getting over myself.

I returned to Ithaca to apprentice with herbalist 7Song, a field botany, wildcrafting wizard. All That You Can’t Leave Behind. I settled into a truly romantic life of woods, slate stone steps, campfires and deepening friendships. I managed an information system for a mental health services agency, made good money and lived well. I befriended ND Les Moore, who emphatically encouraged me to reconsider becoming an ND at NCNM. This time I saw the investment of ND school as an opportunity for life-long learning, community service and comfortable living. Hello. Hello.

Jon Luchs, ND3