The Founding Patient.
Dr. Lori's story is unique to her — but it sounds familiar to many. It chronicles her journey to find answers to health issues that traditional medicine failed to solve. Her story, as our Founding Patient, is the reason Dr. Lori is Dr. Lori.
What I thought was normal.
When I was a child, my school mornings were typical — Kix cereal, milk, bananas, and orange juice. Sometimes the orange juice was even fresh-squeezed. Then I was off to walk to the bus stop.
Twenty minutes later, during my bus ride and throughout my morning, all I felt was heartburn.
Each day of my childhood started out the same — other than a few variations in what I ate. Cream chipped beef, heartburn. Bagel and cream cheese, heartburn. Waffles, heartburn.
The labs looked better. I didn't.
Heartburn was a mainstay of my life through college, medical school, and then into residency. And during residency — while studying for my boards — I developed autoimmune thyroid disease.
The exhaustion was incapacitating.
Traditional medicine dictated that I start Synthroid — one of the most prescribed drugs in the U.S. After starting it, I felt no improvement. But my labs looked better.
Then, a few years later, pregnancy brought a new symptom: mouth swelling and a tingling of my lips with throat itching, triggered by eating thin-skinned fruit — all thin-skinned fruit.
Now, even as a doctor, I couldn't find answers in traditional medicine. Allergists, GI doctors, and immunologists couldn't help.
So I decided to look for my own answers.
Quickly, my diet became more and more limited. Increasing food sensitivities meant that eventually it consisted only of meat and vegetables — with very limited fruit and all gluten-free products.
Would you believe that even after eliminating gluten and most fruit on my own, the heartburn continued? So did the fatigue from hypothyroid. The weight gain. The food sensitivities continued to escalate.
I needed to find answers ASAP.
The moment my eyes opened.
I finally found answers in alternative integrative medicine. I enrolled in an integrative and functional medicine course in Las Vegas — originally to add a wellness program to the weight-loss practice I'd just started.
I was sitting in that conference by myself, listening to medical professionals talk about how human physiology tells us what's happening in our body — if we connect the dots and pay attention to the symptoms.
Now they had my attention. Not only did each patient they described sound like me — they also sounded like many of the patients coming into my practice complaining of difficulty losing weight and going through hormone changes.
What most patients were missing, I realized, was someone to be their integrative medicine detective — a medical guide to find the missing links between each body system.
I rushed out into the hallway to call my husband — in excitement and outrage that we weren't taught this in medical school.
Becoming the detective patients needed.
At that moment, I knew I needed to use this integration of body systems in my own life and my own health — and I knew I had to teach it to patients. I needed to be their integrative medicine detective and guide.
Traditional medicine leaves patients on pharmaceuticals and treats diseases instead of finding and treating root causes. Patients rarely feel better. Their longevity and vitality don't improve.
Through the Dr. Lori proprietary R3AL³™ Method of Integrative Health, I intend to bring my integrative medicine detective skills virtually — to as many patients as possible, across the country.
It's time we changed the way we think about our health, and our healthcare.
"My own health story was just like many of the patients that now walk through my door. That's exactly why I do this."
Your story is worth retrieving.
Whatever you've been told is "normal" — it may not be. Let's find your answers.