It was a pleasure to read Wellness Piece by Piece, by Pat Sullivan. My medical practice is devoted to treatment of illnesses characterized by multiple symptoms, especially chronic fatigue. A large part of that practice involves research into the underlying physiologic disturbances that cause the chronic illness. By simply reading Pat's excellent overview of "what is out there," patients and physicians alike can begin to sort out what approaches to illness make sense for their own cases.
More than being just a compendium of good ideas from caring professionals, Wellness Piece by Piece is a reflection of an attitude I salute: we are all searching for answers and all of us have something important to add. We can all learn by listening, keeping in mind that each of us has something worthwhile to say.
My experience with Pat supports the idea that he is putting pieces together like few others have. Wellness sits in a prominent location on my bookshelf and probably should be on yours as well.
Ritchie C. Shoemaker MD Pocomoke, Md July 8, 2005
I asked Ritchie for a "blurb of endorsement" and quite frankly, I am honored and humbled by what he wrote.
After meeting him about a month ago, we have had several email and phone conversations as my test results have come back. It has been very exciting to work with him! He is one of the most competent and yet humble doctors I have ever met. I believe that he is truly practicing medicine in a way that is beyond most other physicians.
Now, I'm not ready to share all the findings from my trip to Pocomoke, but I think what piqued Ritchie's interest in me (and my book) was that as my blood tests came back, he made guesses on other markers that would come from the results of other tests (ie. because you have ABC geneotype, you're going to have XYZ hormone marker, etc.) based on his experience with a 3000+ other patients with chronic conditions. Many of his guesses were right on but he was suprised when some of my markers were normal.
In his words, I had an "incredibly deranged physiology but somehow I was still functioning at a very high level." He told me, "You're doing something right and next time we talk I want to get into all the things you are doing nutritionally."
This was exciting to hear! Even more exciting was that he clearly discovered a few very important new puzzle pieces for me! We have started working on fixing my deranged physiology! More to come in later posts.
I blogged about Ritchie Shoemaker previously here. Here is what he had to say about my book.
I asked Ritchie for a "blurb of endorsement" and quite frankly, I am honored and humbled by what he wrote.
After meeting him about a month ago, we have had several email and phone conversations as my test results have come back. It has been very exciting to work with him! He is one of the most competent and yet humble doctors I have ever met. I believe that he is truly practicing medicine in a way that is beyond most other physicians.
Now, I'm not ready to share all the findings from my trip to Pocomoke, but I think what piqued Ritchie's interest in me (and my book) was that as my blood tests came back, he made guesses on other markers that would come from the results of other tests (ie. because you have ABC geneotype, you're going to have XYZ hormone marker, etc.) based on his experience with a 3000+ other patients with chronic conditions. Many of his guesses were right on but he was suprised when some of my markers were normal.
In his words, I had an "incredibly deranged physiology but somehow I was still functioning at a very high level." He told me, "You're doing something right and next time we talk I want to get into all the things you are doing nutritionally."
This was exciting to hear! Even more exciting was that he clearly discovered a few very important new puzzle pieces for me! We have started working on fixing my deranged physiology! More to come in later posts.
Thanks Ritchie!