Integrative Approaches to Chronic Infections

Amy Joy Smith is a Nurse Practitioner specializing in Functional Medicine and now has an office at Pacific Frontier Medical, Inc. in Redwood City, California. Amy, a renowned pioneer in the PANDAS front, takes a holistic approach to medicine and has experience as a clinical nutritionist. She is also the mother of an amazing child with PANDAS and a dedicated PANDAS awareness advocate.

Amy serves on the PANDASNetwork.org Board of Directors and was the lead organizer of the West Coast PANDAS/PANS Parent Symposiums in 2012 and 2014. She is active in social media and parent groups, has spoken at a number of conferences and trainings around the country and like many providers that see children with PANDAS/PANS, works with patients from around the world.

Amy has practiced functional and nutritional medicine since the early 1980′s and has studied with a number of pioneers in the field.  She attended Syracuse University School of Nursing where she received her BSN in Maternal-Child Nursing, and all of her acute care and hospital experience is in pediatrics. While currently she is working with complex patients of all ages, Amy’s has a passion for working with children and teens.  She was a Fellow in the World Health Organization’s renowned Adolescent Health Training Program in the University of Minnesota Medical School, and in addition to being a Nurse Practitioner, has a Master’s Degree in Adolescent Health with a focus on Youth Development and Community Health, from the University of Minnesota.  She loves educating patients and families and has extensive experience in community education and program development for families as well as vulnerable youth populations. In addition, Amy has precepted and mentored numerous nurse practitioner, midwife and clinical nutrition students.

Kristine Gedroic, MD, is an integrative physician and founder of The Gedroic Center for Integrative Medicine in Morristown, NJ. She attended medical school at Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Gedroic completed her internship at Cornell University in NYC, followed by a residency in Family Practice at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ. She later completed a fellowship at the University of Arizona in Integrative Medicine, and received board certification in acupuncture from the American Board of Medical Acupuncture and the newly established Integrative Medicine Boards. Dr. Gedroic was also the Medical Director of the Chambers Center for Well-Being at Morristown Hospital in NJ. She serves as volunteer faculty for Rutgers University in the Department of Anesthesiology and the Center for Immunity and Inflammation. She lives in Morristown with her husband and three young sons.

Dr. Corson grew up in Southeastern Pennsylvania, was educated at Franklin and Marshall College, did course work toward a PhD in Neuroanatomy at Penn State’s Hershey Medical School before obtaining her MD degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, PA in 1982. Dr. Corson had residency training in Internal Medicine, Neurology and Family Medicine. She has been Board Certified in the practice of Family Medicine since 1993. In 2005, she began studying and practicing Integrative Medicine and was Board Certified in Integrative Holistic Medicine in November 2011.

Dr. Corson has been a member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) since 2003.  She has studied with Dr. Joseph Burrascano and Dr. Charles Ray Jones on grants provided by ILADS-Turn the Corner Foundation.  Her practice in Chester County, PA is devoted full time to the treatment of patients suffering from Lyme and associated tick-borne diseases.  In November 2009, Turn the Corner Foundation awarded Dr. Corson with their Physicians Training Program Impact Award. Dr. Corson’s wealth of knowledge and experience in treating tick-borne illness will make this opportunity to hear her present one not to be missed.

Dr. Amanda is a non-traditional chiropractor in Ottawa, Canada. She received her B. Sc. from Carleton University and went on to complete her chiropractic education at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. She was originally trained in traditional chiropractic techniques and now focuses on neuro-optimization.

Using light touch and gentle treatment protocols, she targets physical, emotional and mental tension patterns associated with complex chronic illnesses. A significant portion of her practice is dedicated to those with chronic tick-borne diseases.

In her spare time, Amanda enjoys a daily movement practice, meditation, reading and travel.

Dr. Amy Derksen is a Naturopathic and DAN! Physician, Fellow Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs and Board Certified in Integrative Pediatrics with a full scope of practice in Washington State since 2003. She did her undergraduate studies in Biochemistry, which she applies to understanding the newest research on detox and genetic susceptibilities. She was fortunate enough to do her medical post-graduate training with Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD for over 2 years. Dr. Klinghardt has developed an amazing system of advanced kinesiology called ART (Autonomic Response Testing) that helps determine stressors to the autonomic nervous system. During that training, she learned extensively how to use his system of autonomic response testing to help with tailoring a protocol to each individual. She specializes in working with both Autism and chronically ill patients, including Lyme disease. She is involved in a summit brain-storming group through that includes Dr. Klinghardt, Dr. Cowden and many other physicians looking outside the box at how Lyme and Autism can be treated.

Dr. Derksen has been involved in teaching various topics with Dr. Klinghardt since 2004, and has also been a speaker at Autism One, LIA and Hope to Heal Lyme conferences. She is one of the only physicians Dr. Klinghardt has honored to teach his work in ART and feels fortunate to be able to share this tool both with patients and other practitioners. All patients seeing Dr. Amy will experience the ART testing as part of their visit and clinical evaluation, in addition to lab and traditional physical exams, etc. One of the most important things ART helps her with is to identify the priority of where one needs to focus to attain wellness. In other words, the ART makes it obvious what issue, infection or stressor needs to be addressed first. It also helps her to identify which treatments are the best for YOUR body at this particular moment in time. Using the ART technique, along with reviewing your history and appropriate lab testing can help to get you on the road to health faster.

Her typical patients tend to be those who have already seen several doctors and specialists, and who have relatively “normal” labs that don’t match with the symptoms they are experiencing. She is also very familiar in working with people who tend to be more sensitive and reactive to foods and supplements. In these cases, the ART testing really helps to limit those reactions.

One of her passions is working with autism. She feels that the more we can understand about our kids, the more we will understand everyone’s health. The autistic child is very similar to a toxic adult, they have just accumulated those toxins in a very short amount of time. This is often due to impairments in detox capabilities or a tendency toward immune dysregulation.

She also works providing support to many patients who are on heavy antibiotic protocols with other Lyme doctors. Her goal is to keep open communication and work as a team to provide the best of both worlds, so that patients can get the full benefit of these protocols while maintaining digestive integrity, reducing Herx symptoms, and supporting the organs of elimination. This partnership has also helped when patients have encountered a plateau in treatments, so that we can help assess what microbe is not being addressed and help provide some insight as to where treatment protocols should focus.

Marie Matheson, ND, is a naturopathic doctor who practices in Ottowa, Canada at Hampton Wellness Centre. She specializes in treating Lyme and other tick-borne diseases and is particularly interested in infectious causes of chronic and complex autoimmune illnesses. Her family practice focuses on patients with chronic parasitic, fungal and viral infections, mold toxicity, pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome, pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS/PANS), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, environmental and food allergy desensitization, and other digestive disorders such as Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis.

She is a member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS), and completed her physician’s training program with Charles Ray Jones, MD in Connecticut, who is arguably one of the top Lyme disease practitioners in the United States.

Neil Nathan, MD has been Board Certified in Family Practice and Pain Management and is a Founding Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine. With Dr. Rich van Konynenburg he did the ground-breaking clinical research which demonstrated the role of methylation chemistry in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and he has just completed a study with Dr. Robert Naviaux on the metabolomics of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. He has written several books, including Healing is Possible: New Hope for Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Persistent Pain, and Other Chronic Illnesses and On Hope and Healing: For Those Who Have Fallen Through the Medical Cracks. He is the host of an internationally syndicated radio program/podcast on Voice America called The Cutting Edge of Health and Wellness Today.

He has been practicing medicine for 44 years and has recently relocated his medical practice to the Redwood Valley Clinic in Northern California. He can be contacted most easily through his website, www.neilnathanmd.com, through which consultations are available.

Dr. Nathan has been treating chronic complex medical illnesses for 25 years now, and Lyme disease for the past 15 years. He has been a member of ILADS and lectures internationally on a wide range of medical topics. He has just completed a new book Mold & Mycotoxins: Current Evaluation and Treatments, 2016.

Dr. Ou (pronounced “oh”) is the eldest son of 2 Taiwanese acupuncturists, who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1960’s.  The name Ou is an uncommon Chinese name, which literally translates to “Europe.”  He was born near Los Angeles and grew up in New York, Virginia, and Florida.  He has lived in the Atlanta area since 1996 when he started his residency at Emory.

Dr. Ou went into medicine to ask a simple question that very few physicians ask: Is there a way to effectively and reliably tap into the body’s natural ability to heal? This simple question was motivated by 2 reasons. He wanted to know: 1) if there was a way to come off of medications for his own chronic medical problems and 2) if there was something else he could do to help his family, friends, and patients with conditions such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, Hashimoto’s disease and other conditions that many people continue to suffer from despite the best efforts of conventional medicine.

He has dedicated his career to finding ways to help his family, friends, patients and himself naturally heal from illnesses, including serious ones. His first experience with alternative medicine was watching countless number of people helped by his parents with acupuncture. His earliest formal training in alternative medicine began in 1991 when he attended the International Acupuncture Training Centre in Beijing, China and the Florida Acupuncture Tutorial Program. He received further training in acupuncture through the Academy of Pain Research in association with Stanford University after his residency.

Dr. Ou was the first doctor in the world to be certified in Field Control Therapy by its creator, Savely Yurkovsky, M.D. As noted on the welcome page, Dr. Ou was one of the first medical doctors to become certified in NES Health and Matrix Energetics. He is also a certified Matrix Energetics Study Group Leader and has been part of the teaching staff for Matrix Energetics seminars.

He has also studied the principles of nutrition, mind-body medicine, naturopathic medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, classical homeopathy, hormone replacement therapy, and energy medicine.

In addition to his conventional training, he was also on staff at Rockdale Medical Center where he served on the Formulary Streamlining, Information Systems Steering Committee, and as chairman of the Bylaws committees. Dr. Ou is also a member of the American College of Physicians, the Institute for Functional Medicine, and the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.  He previously served as the webmaster for the National Association of Asian American Professionals and as the vice president of the Chinese American Lions Club of Atlanta.

Dr. Christine Schaffner is a board certified Naturopathic physician who graduated from Bastyr University in Seattle, Washington. She completed her undergraduate studies in Pre-medicine and Psychology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Dr. Schaffner’s style of practice is strongly rooted in traditional Naturopathic principles. She believes in the importance of establishing a strong health foundation in order to achieve optimal health. Dr. Schaffner combines both Naturopathic and Conventional therapies to develop individualized treatment plans that focus on addressing the underlying cause of complex chronic illness.

Dr. Schaffner listens to her patient’s story and actively involves them in their health plan. She enjoys educating her patients so that they feel empowered in making decisions in their health journey.

Dr. Schaffner has trained extensively with Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD.  She has also completed Dr. Robert Rowen’s Oxidation Therapy Course, Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker’s Biotoxin Illness Course, Advanced Classes in Biotherapeutic Drainage, Methylation seminars with Dr. Paul Anderson and Dr. Ben Lynch, and attended Medicine Week 2012 & 2013 in Baden-Baden, Germany.  She thoroughly enjoys staying current with the latest developments in chronic illness so she can better serve her patients.