This is how it all started…
I have always known that I was going to be a physician. I knew that I was going to do other things but being a physician seemed to be part of my DNA…an unchangeable destiny.
My Father was in the Air Force and when I was young (4-5 years old) he was stationed at a base in Oklahoma. One day I went with him to the base and met his commanding officer. As I was standing in the back of the commanding officer’s office, he leaned over his desk and said to me, “So young man, are you going to be a soldier like your father?”
I looked at him and without hesitation replied, “No sir. I am going to be a doctor.” My Father was so surprised, he did not say a word on the ride back to our house. That was the first time I voiced my destiny to anyone. As I grew up, I tried many other pathways in an effort NOT to be a physician. It did not matter what I did, all roads ultimately lead to medical school.
Interestingly, my medical training was not limited to traditional western medicine. While in medical school, I had opportunities to meet physicians form other culturally-based medical systems. I soon realized that there were “holes” in the western medicine approach to health AND there were “holes” in the health practices of other culturally based medical systems. For example, traditional western medicine was not very good at preventing and reversing chronic disease. Other culturally-based medical systems were terrible are treating acute, life-threatening conditions. It appeared that combing the best of traditional and other culturally-based medical therapies, a more complete health care methodology could be used.
So during and after medical school and residency, I endeavored to fill in my own “holes” in knowledge studying other culturally-based medical theory and therapies. Ultimately I combined much of what I have learned into my current medical practice, ALT-MED Medical and Physical Therapy (click here).
One the important roles of being a doctor is to educate patients how to take care of themselves and bypass a destiny filled with illness, hardship and pain. The Latin root of the word “doctor” does not mean to heal. It means to teach. I have a newsletter (to sign up, click here) with little bites of interesting developments in medicine but the focus of this blog is to be more in-depth on topics directly involved with staying healthy. Thank you for reading this and please consider signing up for my blog. Sign-up page is that same as for my newsletter (click here).
Patrick Massey MD PhD MhD
Father, husband, physician, healer, researcher and author
