Transcription of Alban Maino & Dr. Sarah Kotzur for the show Harvest and Health #264
Dr. Lisa: One of the things that I enjoyed doing the most as a non-doctor because I like being a doctor, I like being a radio show host but I really like working with people during events. Today, I’ll get to speak with two individuals who I’m working with in an upcoming event. This is Alban Maino who is the program director for the Center for Wellness Leadership which is holding its 2016 Symposium on Integrative Health in Sports Practice on October 29th at the University of Southern Maine. Dr. Sarah Kotzur who is speaking at the Symposium has a Portland-based family practice, naturopathic doctor, author and teacher. I have both Alban and I’m sure I’m pronouncing your name incorrectly so you can definitely tell me if it’s wrong and also, Dr. Sarah Kotzur here in the studio with me today. Thanks for being here.
Alban: Good morning, thank you for having us.
Dr. Sarah: Good morning.
Dr. Lisa: Pronounce your name for me now.
Alban: Alban.
Dr. Lisa: Alban, that’s right because of the French.
Alban: That’s right.
Dr. Lisa: Because you’re from France.
Alban: Nobody’s perfect.
Dr. Lisa: Yes, well I’m definitely not perfect although with my French background, I should have a little bit better take on the accent. How long have you been in Maine?
Alban: I’ve been coming to Maine for about 25 years but I’ve been a resident of Portland, Maine for three years now, happily so.
Dr. Lisa: You have a link to Swan’s Island.
Alban: I do. Yes, I spent most of my summers for the past three decades on Swan’s Island. I had a house on Swan’s Island so it was a lot of fun attending the Sweet Chariot Music and art festival.
Dr. Lisa: Which I believe that Maine Magazine will be doing an article on next year.
Alban: I saw Maine Magazine there this summer, yes. Some great photographs of all timed sessions were taken there, yes.
Dr. Lisa: Which is intriguing to you because your background is in documentary filmmaking.
Alban: That’s correct. Actually, I started to go to Swan’s Island and to that festival in order to document it because it was extremely visual and since you cannot stay on Swan’s Island, the only way to get there is to actual go on boats, there is no restroom, there is no where to stand and so, the public actually arrives on beautiful schooners and the performers sings songs to them. I thought, “Wow, this is a documentary ready to happen,” but then I moved to Swan’s Island and it became my family so I stopped. I continued to document it for many, many years but I didn’t pursue the documentary idea.
Dr. Lisa: Dr. Sarah, you have come through Maine on a different avenue, a different channel. Tell me about that.
Dr. Sarah: I grew up in Northern Vermont and I went out west to get my naturopathic medical degree and I thought, “I’ll come back to Vermont and settle in in the woods.” I got to Vermont and I realized there was so few people, I didn’t think I can make a living so I started looking around in New England and I was looking for a place that had a walkable downtown and little cute coffee shops and bookstores that were independent. I drove into the downtown and I thought, “This is the place.” The next day, I signed a lease on a medical office space and then, I had to find a place to live and love at first sight. I’ve been here about nine years and love Portland.
Dr. Lisa: I’m intrigued by the work that you do as a naturopathic doctor because you’re working on the same field that I’m working in, family health but you approach it from a different angle. You have a lot of medical background but naturopathic doctors, they have a very different set of classes that they take in their training.
Dr. Sarah: That’s right. Naturopathic doctors are trained in the current medical sciences. We do human dissection, we learn about anatomy and physiology and all that but we start with the basics of the least invasive methods, first, with nutrition and lifestyle medicine and herbs and homeopathic remedies and physical adjustments like chiropractors do and mind body medicine. You try to use those tools before we use pharmaceutical medication. We are also trained in the use of drugs and here in Maine, we can prescribe some drugs. We have a limited formulary that we can use but it’s a great profession and I just totally love showing up and doing what I do everyday. It feels like a party.
Dr. Lisa: Well, few people in the medical field say it feels like a party so …
Dr. Sarah: I know.
Dr. Lisa: It seems like probably something people should check out from a patient’s standpoint.
Dr. Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. There are about 30 naturopathic doctors licensed in Maine, we’ve been licensed for the last 20 years. We can operate as someone’s primary care physician if they don’t need certain drugs we can’t prescribe but we can diagnose and treat disease, we can order lab work, we can do physical exams and gyno exams that sort of thing. For some people, it’s a perfect fit and for a lot of people that have a conventional doctor and then they have a naturopathic doctor in their team to give them feedback about how they could be eating, what supplements they might want to take, a more alternative approach.
Dr. Lisa: Well, I have a number of patients that also have naturopathic doctors and it works out really well for me because I always learn from the patients. They’ll come back and they’ll say, “My naturopathic doctor said this, this and this,” and I’ll say, “Well, that’s really fascinating. I need to learn more about that.” It seems like it can be a really nice collaborative.
Dr. Sarah: Absolutely, it’s an effort.
Dr. Lisa: Yeah, absolutely. It’s not an exclusive thing where you can only see a naturopath and people can’t be on medications. It’s a very blended method. It seems as though what you are trying to do, Alban, from the Center for Wellness Leadership is this integrative type of care. The Symposium is actually called The Symposium on Integrative Health in Sports Practice. You’re trying to bring together the worlds of all the different health practices to see what you can offer to people.
Alban: That’s right. The Center of Wellness Leadership is a young organization but as Sarah mentioned during our conversation prior to here, it’s a world that has been in motion since several decades and we’re just newcomers here. We felt that there was a need to raise awareness and to bring together that community that has a really wide scope of practitioners. Maine is extremely rich. We have lots of incredible acupuncturers and Chinese medicine or healers and naturopath and homeopath.
We decided that we would start this organization around three pillars which were education, research and provide resources for also the general public to understand what is homeopathy. It’s for you who had been in the field for many years, when we talk about osteopathy or acupuncture. It’s something that seems very natural but I think there is a strong need for education and this is why we came here.
We decided to launch that organization about a year ago and had given birth with our main event which is coming, as you mentioned Lisa, October 29th at USM and focus on something that we all do here in Maine and in the States and focus on athletic performances and see how, from the point of view of prevention but also post-injuries, how those alternative health modalities can be used to prevent those injuries or to heal them quicker, faster.
Dr. Lisa: Sarah, you’re going to be speaking at the Symposium.
Dr. Sarah: I am.
Dr. Lisa: Give us a little pretty preview of what you’re going to be talking about.
Dr. Sarah: My colleague, Nancy Frederick, and I will be speaking about homeopathic medicine and its use in preventing and treating sports illness and injury. One of the things that we both specialize in in our practice is the treatment of head injuries with using homeopathic remedies. Often, while there are things that can be done immediately after a head injury from the conventional point of view, if there are lingering side effects from those head injuries, there are not a lot of options. People can get put on like anti-depressants because they aren’t functioning the way they used to or whatever.
I think homeopathic medicine really has a lot to offer in terms of that so we’re really excited to share the possibility of people living with head injuries and the use of homeopathy for that. Then, we’re also going to give people a short rundown about, first of all, what is homeopathy and how does it work but then, based on the types of sports people might be practicing, two or three common injuries that come along with practicing those sports and then, what remedies could be helpful for that so that if they want to try it at home, they can use some of these natural medicines on themselves. We could give them a little teaser about how to get started doing that.
Dr. Lisa: If I were to come to you as a patient and ask you, “What is homeopathy?” As a runner, what could you recommend? What would you give me for an answer?
Dr. Sarah: What is homeopathy? Homeopathy is a 200-year-old system of medicine that was discovered in Germany by a German physician and it is basically the use of highly diluted natural substances that stimulates the body’s self-healing mechanism in a very specific way. Each remedy is for a different type of injury or situation and so a remedy that I might use in a runner who, let’s say people who do long distance running, they overdo it, they can’t stop themselves, they might need a remedy called arnica which is for overuse. It’s for injuries like if you broke a bone, it would help you heal faster but also just for wear and tear on joints.
For people or a runner who let’s say says they do a run, the next day they’re so creaky and it takes them a half hour to warm up, they might need a remedy called Rhus Tox which is a remedy made from the poison ivy plant actually and that is a remedy that’s for joints that are much better once they get moving and also better from applications of hot water. When people say, “I’m so much better from the bath and my joints are better after I warm up a little bit,” then Rhus Tox is often a remedy that gets at the root cause of that and takes away those symptoms. I’ve also used that actually for cases of chronic Lyme Disease where people have that joint problem, that rusty gait kind of joint problem.
Dr. Lisa: This is interesting because I have used arnica for patients before with usually bruising. That’s what I think about arnica for.
Dr. Sarah: Yeah, it’s good for that but it can also be from surgery, it could be from a fall or a broken bone or just an overuse. Usually, the person who needs arnica feels like they fell off the back of a truck. They’re just sort of like achy all over, everything hurts. However, you get to that state, it could be helpful to help reverse that.
Alban: It’s funny you mentioning arnica too because Roberto Forleo who’s an international ballet dancer that will be in the panel discussion in the afternoon along with Dave Cowens was mentioning arnica, whether it’s in gel or in its homeopathic form, as a natural go-to remedy to prepare for those types of injuries. We’re going to be talking also about very practical ways of dealing with that from, not only, the practitioner and the provider and healthcare provider but also from the other hands when athletes or you and I really actually need that, what do we do?
Dr. Lisa: Yeah and how do you take it and …
Alban: How do you take it?
Dr. Lisa: Yeah, where do you find it and …
Alban: Where do you find arnica?
Dr. Sarah: You can find arnica at the Whole Foods or a natural food store. They’re very inexpensive. A little bottle of arnica cost about $7.50.
Alban: Is it reimbursed, Sarah?
Dr. Sarah: It depends. I think if you have a health savings account and your physician says that it’s a required medicine, you can usually use your health savings account money but I don’t think an insurance company will cover your arnica.
Alban: This is one of the things that we actually would like to see happening in the future. The CWL’s work and advocacy for more free healthcare and alternative ways of dealing with our health and not only the pharmaceutical companies doing that. Coming from France where we have a free education and free healthcare, I think, this is the model that we should be trying to implement slowly. I think it’s coming slowly but we’re going to be working at it.
Dr. Lisa: During the Olympics this summer, I was watching with my daughters and occasionally, my son and they’re all have been athletes or are athletes and we saw a lot of cupping going on. They almost look like bruises, often on backs or shoulders or knees of swimmers and I was explaining to them that this is acupuncture, this is moxibustion, these are things that are being done which had been done for thousand of years in other parts of the world and we’re bringing them now into the mainstream. That must be encouraging to see it when you’re watching the Olympics.
Dr. Sarah: It’s awesome.
Alban: It is. We just launched what I called the Media Vault Journal on Wellnessleadership.org on our website where you can find all sorts of really interesting approach to different modalities but also very practical. We did blog articles about cupping during the Olympics and you’re right, it’s something that has been used for a long time. I remember in these flea markets, finding old cups from 1940s and I bought some decades ago, I didn’t know they were actually used. You’re right, Chinese medicine has been around for thousands of years and they’re used so this is why we’re here for is to say there are so many different ways in which we can help.
Dr. Lisa: I think the thing that I like the best about the integrative approach is that you’re offering things that people can do for themselves and I think, naturopathic medicine is particularly good at that because you talk a lot about diet, lifestyle, homeopathy and I would like to see mainstream medicine get closer to that because I like the approach a little bit more than, “Come see me, I’ll give you a medicine.” I like it when people engage in their own care because I really think that that’s ultimately how they’re going to become the healthiest.
Dr. Sarah: Absolutely, because if you can teach them how their body works and why it’s doing what it’s doing, then they have more buy-in for like, “I’m exhausted, because I’m not eating or my digestion is off or something.” They can fix that on their own, it’s not that they’re in this passive role of, “I’m ill and now, you have to come rescue me with some high and mighty medicine or something.” Yeah, it’s great to see a patient learn about themselves.
Dr. Lisa: Alban, tell me what else we can expect to see at the Symposium. Who are some of the other speakers?
Alban: Well, first of all, we wanted this day to be exciting for all of us so we made and had a really fun path. We wanted to interactive and most of the speakers will come and speak for 15, 20 minutes and we’ll have time to get Q&As during and after. There will be vendors, it will be really something that anyone should attend, not only practitioners that want to enhance their practice or learn about new practice but also, students. I want to mention that it’s free for all students and it’s a very affordable day for everyone who wants to attend so go on Wellnessleadership.org and you can find the whole detail.
We’re going to have a crescendo day. We’re going to start with Dr. Schneider who is going to tell us about integrative health and what has been happening in Maine for the past 20 years and then, Dr. Gillespie who was actually the Maine Red Claws head physician, will come and tell us about how, from a very practical point of view, western medicine was used and is used currently for athletic performances. Following those two great keynote speakers, we’ll have Dr. Diane Hayden from Natural Nutmeg will come and tell us about what can transform an athlete into a champion which is, I think, a really fascinating topic.
Then, we’ll have a little coffee break and after that, Sarah and then she will come and tell us about homeopathy. Then, we’ll lead on to some, actually, case studies, a very short interactive case study with Dan Katz. He’ll come and tell us about acupuncture and Chinese medicine and then, Tom Gilson will come and tell us about osteopathy. I’m sure some of your listeners are not familiar with that, lots of them probably are. After our lunch break in the afternoon, we’ll move onto a fun, interactive panel discussion. Dave Cowens from the Celtics will be there, we’ll have also, thanks to Maine Live Events which was incredible, I met … Help me out.
Dr. Lisa: Julia Clukey.
Alban: Julia Clukey accepted to come and will come and be a speaker as well along with Robert Forleo for an hour talk where we can get some very practical feedback from international athletes on how they use integrative health in their daily practice. That’s most of the sense of the day.
Dr. Lisa: I think I’m interested lately and not just in preventing injuries or dealing with injuries that one has but also optimizing performance and I think you mentioned this a little bit. [In Title Nine, 00:42:52] women have been involved in sports more actively and we never really realized how much the variations in women’s cycles actually could impact what was going on athletically. I just read a book about this and it was really fascinating to me and it’s something that I would assume that people who are doing naturopathic medicine have probably paid closer attention to for quite some time.
Dr. Sarah: Wow, what were the basic findings about performance in women cycles?
Dr. Lisa: Well, the interesting thing was that as the cycle begins, you would expect that women would feel more depleted when they’re out running a marathon for example, but really, what they’re finding is once the hormone levels changes and the cycle is happening, women are actually more similar to men in their performances. That’s actually not the most difficult time to be out running a marathon and I think we’re fairly early on in trying to understand what actually does happen over the course of time with women and their hormones but it’s a no brainer, why weren’t we paying closer attention to those from the very beginning?
Because hormones can impact muscles and bones and joints and ligaments and all of our internal organs, our respiratory rate, our heart rate. I think until women really were in the mainstream doing athletics, nobody was really thinking about it at all. Also, aging. That’s another thing that I think I’m fascinated by too probably because, like everybody, I’m aging. There are things that happened to our bones, joints and muscles. It happens to everybody as we get older so how do we maximize and optimize the performance, no matter who we are, male, female, older, younger. I’m assuming that some of these conversations at your Symposium will start to touch on this.
Alban: Absolutely. You mentioned aging and I thought this was a very important topic to address by all means because we all are in the process of using an integrative medicine approach as Sarah described it, a holistic approach to health in general. It’s also very related to very concrete things that we do everyday, the way we eat, the way we exercise. It’s not necessarily something that’s provided by a provider. You need to go and see a physician to get better. There are very simple remedies that we do apply and as we’re getting older, there are also very simple things that we can do to exercise and act upon it. Yes, hopefully we’ll be tapping into that. I wanted to have a speaker that would come and speak specifically about that, maybe it would be for another Symposium where we can address those issues.
Dr. Lisa: Sarah, circling back to the conversation about head injuries. I’m wondering if there is a larger conversation that will be generated about things like dementia which I know Alban, you have a special interest in, and seizures and some of the other strokes, some of the other neurologic things that have happened which I know that Chinese medicine has dealt with really well over the years. Then Alban, you had done some work with music and memory and dementia but is there a broader application, Sarah, to what you’re going to be talking about at the Symposium?
Dr. Sarah: Absolutely. My dad actually had a stroke a couple of years ago and so, it has been a learning journey with me helping him regain some of his language and his functioning. He’s in his mid-70s and it’s a challenging road but to look at him, he’s sort of the case study of someone who’s really in the conventional world and also, we’re trying to keep his functioning as high as it can be, keep the quality of his life as high as it can be.
Yeah, I have a special interest in these sort of neurological kinds of conditions because it seems to me that, and maybe this is just that I don’t know, but it seems to me like the allopathic approach, there’s a certain limit to what’s hoped for, what can you regain after you had a stroke, what can you get back after you have a seizure disorder and now, you just have to be on all these medications and I don’t necessarily think that’s true.
I feel excited to be in a position to be able to offer another possibility and certainly, I never tell people, “Just go and get off your meds and do whatever you want,” I like to work in conjunction with other physicians. It’s a dance that we do and the patient directs that dance but also, I think there is the potential for people to get themselves back after these really life-threatening, life changing kinds of either injuries or accidents. That, to me, is exciting to share that because life can be really good even after some of those things.
Dr. Lisa: What’s your thinking on this, Alban?
Alban: I was reflecting about my own personal experience. My brother passed away when I was 20 years old from a disease that is very similar to ALS and I was involved in that palliative care approach very early on. That’s what kept me excited about alternative medicine because I realize that allopathic health in general didn’t have any solution to take care of those people. I started documenting it because I wasn’t a physician myself and later on when my grandmother, a few years ago, was affected by dementia and Alzheimer’s.
I realized that we could really have a direct impact on the well-being of people by using alternative methods such as meditation and meditation is a very easy thing to do, breathing is a very easy thing to do and when you’re affected by dementia or Alzheimer’s, whatever level it is, we can help people dream. I use my background as a cinematographer, as a music passionate to bring together those two worlds, the world of virtual reality to, for the lack of a better word, using guided imagery and passive meditation.
Bringing back the music, the sound, even the olfactory stimulation to a pathological situation and geriatric physicians got really interested in the work that we were doing because we realized that the impact was directly in correlation with diminution of medication, for example and that we were able to increase the well-being of people. We’re talking about a specific pathology but I think this can be applied to anyone of us.
Using integrative medicine in our daily life can improve our productivity at work, our interaction with other human beings everywhere we go and it’s a natural exercise that is not very complicated to do. When I discovered that a few years ago, I said, “Wow, this is good. This is something that I can work on and help disseminate and use my diminutive expertise as a storyteller to tell the world.
Dr. Lisa: I encourage people to learn more about the Center for Wellness Leadership. We will have information about the center and also, the 2016 Symposium on Integrative Health in Sports Practice on our show notes page. We’ve been speaking with Alban Maino who is the program director for the Center for Wellness Leadership and also, Dr. Sarah Kotzur who is speaking at the Symposium. Thanks so much for coming in today, we’ll see you at the Symposium.
Alban: Thank you.
Dr. Sarah: We’ll see you there. Thanks for having us.