Multiple Sclerosis: Understanding & Hope, #100

Paul Leddy:

program and this was the first person I ever knew personally that was diagnosed with Ms. It really debilitates somebody in their motor skills and things like that, but their mind stays pretty sharp. And to see this beautiful woman now needing a cane and assistance now, and she still, by my standards, very young and vibrant, but not so young and vibrant because of this disease and it makes you really think about our own lives and how you really are lucky. I mean, I feel lucky to get up in the morning.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

They appreciate the simple things in life, which I think is probably a common theme in any area if we look at it in detail. They enjoy their friends and family, they enjoy the life that they have and they make the best of it. And they really enjoy life. They concentrate more on the good things that they have. And I think that's an amazing talent to be able to have it.

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

The practice of functional medicine is to go go upstream, find the underlying depletions, errors, complicating factors, make them as little as possible, try to minimize any of those upstream issues to prevent the downfall of the diagnosis. That can give patients at least hope that something they could do will really help their situation.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

are listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Hour and podcast show number 100, Multiple Understanding and Hope, airing for the first time on Sunday, August 11, 2013. Today's guests include Paul Letty, captain of the Crazy horse in the Ms. Harborfest and also of Letty Howser Associates Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt, multiple sclerosis specialist and neurologist with Pen Bay Medical center and Dr. Sunny Raleigh of True North Health center in Falmouth. Doctors know a lot about many things. About some things we know little. It is our great frustration. I became a doctor because I wanted to help people. I thought that my education would enable me to do so, which has largely been the case. I believe that what I have learned has, for the most part, contributed positively to the lives of my patients. I am still learning every day. My education will never be complete. I hope that someday my education will include a greater understanding of diseases such as multiple sclerosis. Like many conditions of the brain, nerves and spinal cord, multiple sclerosis continues to be a puzzle. We have yet to sol. We have many talented health care providers and researchers working on this puzzle, but it remains what is called a disease of exclusion. That is, we make a diagnosis of Ms. When we are unable to diagnose anything else that the symptoms could possibly reflect. We have few perfect answers when it comes to ms, and we decidedly do not have a cure. Thus, we must remain hopeful even in the face of uncertainty. Our hope is strengthened by individuals like Paul Letty, who races in the Ms. Harborfest each year in honor of his friends with Ms. Our hope is strengthened by neurologist Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt, who cares for Ms. Patients out of her Pen Bay office in Maine's Midcoast, and Dr. Sunny Rally of True North Health center in Falmouth. We doctors do not know everything that is clear, but we haven't given up on attempting to learn about multiple sclerosis and diseases like it. We hope that you will learn something about Ms. And hope on today's show. Thank you for joining us today.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I'm a person who loves the ocean and loves boats. I don't have one, so I always rely upon other people's generous boat lending. And last year, Paul Letty invited me and Kevin Thomas, the publisher of Maine

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Magazine, to be on his boat during the Ms. Harbourfest.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I, of course, was unable to go, so I've regretted that every day since. And this year I believe that, Paul, you're doing it again. And I believe Sean Thomas is going to be on the boat taking photographs, if I understand correctly.

Paul Leddy:

I just met Sean, actually, so I didn't know that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I think that's the arrangement. And I'm so jealous because you're always invited.

Paul Leddy:

You have a standing invitation, you and Kevin, of course, both.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, thank you. And thank you for doing the Ms. Regatta, because you've been doing this now 10 years.

Paul Leddy:

About 10 years. I think I missed a year or two in there.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And this is something that raises money,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

obviously, for multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And it brings together a lot of your different interests, I think, you know,

Paul Leddy:

community sailing and, you know, there's all kinds of fundraisers that people get involved in because they like running or they like biking or, you know, these type of things. And sailing is my thing. And actually skiing, too. So I'll also get involved in the. Try for a cure in the wintertime with the skiing. So if it's something that somebody. An individual is interested in, yeah, that would fit right into raising funds for it. Makes it more of a purposeful challenge than just going out and having a race.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As far as multiple sclerosis, you actually have people in your life that you know who suffer from this disease. Of course, it's a devastating disease for which we have no cure.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Tell me how this has impacted you.

Paul Leddy:

Well, I do. I have three people in my life. Two closer than one. One is a very, very good friend of mine's mother, and, you know, just to see. And this was the first person I ever knew personally that was diagnosed with Ms. And, you know, as you know, it has something to do with the neurological parts of our body, but. But it really debilitates somebody in their motor skills and things like that, but their mind stays pretty sharp. And to see this beautiful woman now needing a cane and assistance now, and she's still, by my standards, very young and vibrant, but not so young and vibrant because of this disease. And then in the past 10 or 15 years, a good friend of mine that I went to high school with also is diagnosed with it. He works every day. He is my cork dork, so to speak. He's who I go to. He recommends good wines for different foods, although he thinks there's no reason to pair wine with food. You could just have wine, but anyway, this is something that you can just see. These people and my other friend, too, they lose a lot of weight. They lose a lot of motor skills. They're not as active as they can be. And it makes you really think about our own lives and how you really are lucky. I mean, I feel lucky to get up in the morning, walk on the beach every morning. And, you know, I might. At my age, I might feel a little crick here and there, but, you know, I feel a lot stronger than a lot of people my age that can't feel strong.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It does seem as though you live life pretty fully.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know that I'm friends with you on Facebook. I see the pictures of you and your wife, Jen, and you're out. You're on boats, you're skiing, you're here, you're there. I know you work very hard, but you also really seem to embrace all that is good about life.

Paul Leddy:

As Jen says, if I could only live in your head when she. She knows that I accentuate all of those things in our lives. You know, when we're together and we're talking to friends and I'll tell them about sailing and this and that, and she's keenly aware of the other side, which is probably the 90 percentile side of our life, which is, you know, just the hard work that we end up doing. But, yeah, you gotta stop. And every single morning I'm on the beach. If you see the posts on Facebook, it's just sometimes just a picture of the sun rising. And good morning to all my Facebook friends. But we do. We get on the boat as often as we can. In the wintertime, we're at Sugarloaf skiing every weekend if we can, and then we take breaks to go down. We've got a house in Florida that we'll go visit as often as we possibly can. Not as often as Jen would like, but again, that work thing gets in the way.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And you've also tried to, it seems,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

incorporate bringing happiness to other people into your work.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I mean, you are a builder, a master craftsman. You do a lot of work with aesthetics, so there's that happiness. You have also Willard Scoops in South Portland, which, I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but I was there the other day, and while I was there, there were two women.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

One, I think was from New York. She said, I'm here from out of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

town, and your ice cream store is one of the first places I'm going to.

Paul Leddy:

That's a riot. Oh, my God. We do get that a lot, though. We get people that come out of town and either they've been to us once before or they heard of us and they stopped. And, I mean, it's just ice cream, but it's good. I mean, we make it.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I know it's not just ice cream, I can tell you this. I mean, the solid caramel nut and I don't eat a lot of things, but even John, who our audio guru over here, it's not just ice cream. If you're going to have ice cream, which I don't very often, you need to go to Willard Scoops.

Paul Leddy:

Well, that's awesome. I mean, it's awesome to hear that, you know, And I have to give most of that credit. Well, I'll get a lot of that credit to Jen. I mean, you know, when we decided to get into it, we weren't going to do it unless it was different and quality. And it kind of reflects everything else that we try to do in our life. If I'm going to build a house, I don't want to just build a house. I don't even know how to vinyl side. Like, I don't know how to put that on a house and I don't want to. And I never want to learn. So we took the same philosophy of quality and natural and everything towards ice cream. And it pays off to an extent. It's probably more tedious. It's more money for ingredients, so your profit margin is less. But we get. Yeah, you get a lot of satisfaction when you get a line out the door and everybody's happy and everybody when they're getting an ice cream is complimentary and they come back from out of town like you suggest and you know, can't wait. We've got a Facebook page, so we get people from all over the country really commenting on the Facebook page. So that is pretty cool.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, ice cream might suggest, you know, you're an individual who likes sweet things and likes dessert, but you're actually a very well balanced individual. You were taught, you and I were talking and you eat a lot of organic foods. You said maybe 70% organic.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're very much into fruits and vegetables

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and cooking in a healthy way. You've gone gluten free. You're really paying very.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You're being very mindful of your health.

Paul Leddy:

Yeah, well, you get to a point if you weren't. And again, if you look at people that have debilitating diseases or just don't take care of themselves, that in its own way is debilitating, as you could imagine. And again, I'm very lucky to have a wife who is very conscious about what we eat. And I'm not a tough sell, though. I used to certainly love to eat bagels and sweets, cookies in the afternoon and stuff like that. Again, the last probably five or six years of my life with more healthy products out there. If you look around and see gluten free bakeries that are now available and organic food is now available, for crying out loud, Hannafords and Shaws, you don't have to go too far out of your way. But we would eat 100% organic if you could, but you just, you kind of can't. I mean, that's a really tall order. And then the gluten free, as I explained to you, that's. That came about really from Frank Gentile, who suggested if I want to ski for the rest of my life and not have ice packs and Advil or cortisone shots, that I probably should look at gluten building up in my joints. So he suggested I try it for 60 days. And that was about five or six years ago. And it was hard to do at first. First of all, I didn't know what gluten was. What's gluten? And then when he told me what gluten was, I'm like, how the heck do you. I mean, gluten's in everything. Well, turns out it's easier than you think. And when you get into that routine and now that there's more gluten free alternatives out there, it's actually a piece of cake. But once you start going down that road, like I recently cut out, most of the time cut out sugar and dark chocolate does not count, by the way, in the sugar thing. So every once in a while I will eat some of our ice cream, but it's not something that I go for anymore. But once you cut that out, your cravings stop. You don't have that. So if you can get over that hump, like the gluten hump for me, else if you're willing to try it and you get over that hump, then it's. You actually don't feel good. When you go the other way again and you go back there, like, you know, if I had, if I went to Q street and had breakfast instead of eating, you know, granola and fruit or something in the morning, I actually don't feel good. And I never, you know, before I never knew that. I mean, I just meet, you know, the crew down at, you know, the local, you know, greasy spoon and have bacon and eggs in the morning and. Yeah, just don't do that anymore.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Paul, I am looking forward to someday spending time with you and Jen on your boat, the Crazy Horse. And I thank you for putting Crazy Horse into the Ms. Harborfest again this year for the tenth year, I guess, minus one. And thank you for all that you do to bring joy and good tasting ice cream and beautiful homes and designs into the community.

Paul Leddy:

Well, you're welcome, Lisa. Thank you. And again, you and Kevin know you always have an invitation. Anybody here? Steve and those guys, I'd love to take you guys out. And I thank you guys actually for giving me your banner to fly on the boat in the parade and sponsoring Crazy Horse. I've always gotten a sponsor, but it's nice to have sponsor that I have a real connection to. So thank you for that.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So anybody who's looking for the Crazy Horse out on the bay, it'll be under the Maine Magazine.

Paul Leddy:

Maine Mag. Yep, yep. On one side it says Maine Home + Design, and the other side it says Maine Mag. And it'll be a lot of fun. Actually, now that you told me Sean's on board, I think he'll have a lot of fun. It's a crazy crew. He's gonna have to. He's gonna have to watch himself. But we got a good crew.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, thanks, Paul. I appreciate your coming in.

Paul Leddy:

You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We'll return to our program in a Moment on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've long understood the important link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the subject is Tom Sheppard of Shepherd Financial.

[Unidentified voice]:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician, I've spent many years caring for patients who have various acute

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and chronic diseases, and some of the diseases that I find most challenging and difficult to deal with are those that are Neurologic in origin, that is, the

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

diseases of the brain and the nerves

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and the spinal cord.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

And I'm privileged today to have with

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

me an individual who is spending her life now dealing with these diseases.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

This is Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt, who is a multiple sclerosis specialist and neurologist at Pen Bay Medical Center.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Thank you so much for coming in and talking to us today.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Thanks for inviting me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Neurology is a pretty highly specialized field, and it's something that not all medical students know that they want to go into when they're first going through their process of deciding. What was it about neurology that interested you at first?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Well, I think a lot of people of our generation are drawn to the brain because there have been a lot of discoveries and there's so much to discover. So I think it's an area that does interest a lot of people. And then I just ended up in it because I still found it the most interesting as I went through. But there are so many interesting areas of medicine, so it's the one that captivated me the most.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

When you were dealing with patients who

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

had neurologic issues, did you find it challenging at first? Because it's not as if they are, you know, if somebody comes in with a broken leg, it's a broken leg. Somebody comes in with, say, a cough, you can say it's bronchitis. Neurologic issues are not always straightforward and they're not always things that can be diagnosed by MRI or CAT scan or any sort of testing that we have available. How did you deal with that sort of challenge?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

I think it's actually really fun because the. I always viewed it as, you know, a primary care physician has to integrate so many different aspects of medicine and they really get a hands on approach approach with patients. And that's hard these days. And in neurology it's similar. There are a lot of complex pathways to think about, and then you only figure it out by putting your hands on the patient and examining them in detail. And that's much better than an MRI for most things. So I thought that was especially fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That's an interesting commentary because you're right. Many specialties these days, they don't even feel like you need to put your hands on. It's sort of an afterthought. It's like, well, I'll touch the patient just so that I can say I touched the patient. But I know that if you're testing cranial nerve function or you're testing reflexes, or you're testing Touch sensation. You actually have to put your hands on that patient in front of you. And that's the sort of intimacy with a patient that I think many people feel is lacking these days. Between physician and patient.

Paul Leddy:

Yeah.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

And I think the reverse is true. I think for a lot of physicians, they might miss that as well, because you do gain a better understanding of people and their bodies, I think, when you've got your hands on them. So I think it's nice. And then it's fun, too, because if you can figure things out that a machine can't figure out, then that's fun.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Yeah.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's almost like detective work and can be very satisfying. Detective work?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Yep.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Talk to me about that. I know that in our state and in the northern latitudes, we actually have an increased incidence of multiple sclerosis. Did that play into your decision to come practice in our state?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Well, partly, especially because I super specialized in, you know, after neurology, spent a lot of time in it. So it was nice to be able to find a beautiful place to live that was so interesting and be able to continue my practice. So that did play a role. So I feel lucky that I was able to carry on working here in that area.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So for people who are listening, who

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

aren't familiar with multiple sclerosis, tell us what that is, what it means, how it's diagnosed, how people might. What symptoms they might have.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Well, the funny thing about it is it can affect any part of the nervous system in terms of the brain and the spinal cord, not the nerves outside of the spine. And that really can encompass any sensation, any movement, any experience that a person has. So it's very hard to limit the definition in terms of what someone experiences, which also creates a lot of confusion and anxiety because there are a lot of people who do read things about it and then think that they have multiple sclerosis. And probably there have been many medically trained people as well who think that they have it. The key thing is that it's recurrent inflammatory episodes, predominantly that does affect these regions of the brain and spinal cord. It doesn't have to affect all the regions. It just has to affect more than one region and be recurring. And that recurring pattern can vary from 1 every 30 years, 2 every couple weeks. So the point there is that it just has to be recurring. And so there's a large variability in what people experience, which makes it very frustrating for the person experiencing it, but that's how it's defined. And then by exclusion, other diseases are ruled out. And that's a combination of a good general exam, a good medical history, an MRI these days, and often a lumbar puncture, not always. Sometimes the MRI is enough, and then usually some blood tests as well. And when things are ruled out and there's no other possibility, then the diagnosis is given as multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So the types of symptoms that people might have include what?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

So if we talk, start from the top of our bodies, really, there can be headaches for some people, but that's not a predominant symptom. There can be visual changes, blurry vision, pain behind the eyes, double vision. There can be changes in color detection. So colors may appear different in one eye compared to the other eye. Especially reds tend to be affected early on. There can be numbness in the face, pain in the face. There can be slurred speech, trouble moving the face. There can be trouble swallowing. There can be trouble moving one arm, both arms, one leg, both legs, one arm, one leg on one side. There can be pain. So skin sensitivity, pain in many areas of the body. There can be bladder dysfunction, there can be memory dysfunction, cognitive dysfunction. So it really encompasses so many different symptoms.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

That sounds like it could be a really frustrating problem for patients and their families to deal with, especially if it's changeable over time.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

It's incredibly frustrating. And that's one of the hardest things about multiple sclerosis, because it pretty much remains frustrating. In the beginning. There's always this uncertainty. A lot of times if someone has it. A lot of people experience going to multiple physicians before they get diagnosed, or even multiple neurologists. And then sometimes it's a waiting game. Sometimes one episode occurs and that does occur in an isolated phenomenon, and then that's not called multiple sclerosis. But then a lot of people go on to have future episodes if they have this relapsing, remitting type. And then they're given the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis and then they play a waiting game. So there's a lot of adjustment. There are very excellent treatments available, but it is a difficult waiting game for many people and it adjusts, period, as well as things that they adjust to over time. Different experiences, different medications, and then how people around them adjust. Because a lot of people see these individuals as looking normal, but they are actually not always suffering, but they are going through a lot of turmoil and experiences that are very difficult to go through.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

For that reason. Is it important for patients to have someone like you or another specialist to create a long term relationship with?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

That would be the perfect scenario. So luckily most of the time we can develop a long term relationship. For some people, they actually do have to travel quite far in order to see their specialist and then their primary care physician. That they have a long term relationship maybe may take over a lot of that role if they have to travel quite far. And then there are a lot of people who can have a neurologist over time. But as I'm sure you and everyone else knows, there is an unfortunate turnover in the medical profession in terms of a lot of people moving. Patients move, physicians move. And that happens more and more these days. So that makes it difficult.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast hope that our listeners enjoy

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

their own work lives to the same

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

extent we do and fully embrace every day.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a physician and small business owner,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

I rely on Marcy Booth from Booth, Maine to help me with my own

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marcy

[Unidentified voice]:

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Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It sounds like, from what you're telling me, that this field continues to evolve. And what we know about multiple sclerosis, like what we know about, say, the neurologic problems associated with Lyme disease or other diseases, we need to have more information on them. We need to keep researching this. We need to be spending money and energy on really understanding all of this.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Definitely. And I think in terms of the state in Maine, both those issues, both Lyme disease and multiple sclerosis, although they're not linked, it'd be great. People tend to move around less here than in many other states. This is two big problems in the state here, and it would be great to spend more time researching it here.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

So in some ways this could provide an interesting and helpful population of research subjects.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Yep. And hopefully be able to quite quickly get some answers that would help a lot of people.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Dr. Dangenhart, you work with people whose lives are impacted by a variety of problems, neurologic, in really significant ways. And over the long term, you're a young physician and you're living your own life.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What sorts of lessons have you learned from your patients?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Well, they're quite amazing. And I think anyone who's in a field where they're exposed to a lot of people finds meeting so many different people amazing. So it has that aspect to it. But also you're seeing them when they're. They're really put through so many trials and difficult times. And it can be. You really see the raw nature of human behavior, which isn't always nice, but then again is comforting when you see them feel better and get control of their lives and enjoy their lives. And also you see how well some people deal with these difficult times that, you know, probably I don't think I'd do as good of a job, but there are many people who do amazing jobs of that. And so there are many people who I admire that they're able to go through this. And really they appreciate the simple things in life, which I think is probably a common theme in any area. If we look at it in detail. They enjoy their friends and family. They enjoy the life that they have and they make the best of it and they really enjoy life. So they concentrate more on the good things that they have. And I think that's an amazing talent to be able to have it. I don't think I have it, but I think it's Amazing.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Do you enjoy having these long term relationships with patients? I know you've been at Penn Bay for about two years, but do you enjoy being able to see people over time and become a part of their lives?

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Yeah, that's wonderful to be able to see people over time. And it does lend itself to better medical care too because then you know when there's a change in their examination and you know how they're going to deal with things and you know what medicines they tend to react poorly to and how they tolerate all these changes and so you can do a much better job.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Dr. Degenhardt, how do people find out

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

about the work you're doing?

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a multiple sclerosis specialist and neurologist with Pen Bay Medical center, there are

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

a number of different ways and there are a few other people in this area state as well who are concentrating on this area. So in Portland, there's a very good Ms. Center here and they have a website to find out more information about them and I can easily be found on the web as well. Our office can be called and the office staff is very friendly and helpful. There is another Ms. Specialist in Waterville and there's one in Belfast and then there's a new Ms. Center in Bangor that's just being developed and they have a website as well. So there are a small number if you compare them to other states, but they're nicely spread out and there are many more now than there were a few years ago. So I think that that's great for the state. The National Emma Society is also getting more and more involved in Maine and that's wonderful. And so they often make they're based in Massachusetts, but they make a lot of trips up to the region and they try and improve and coordinate some resources. And they also are a resource for persons with multiple sclerosis who are trying to find people, for example, a physical therapist or a psychologist or an ophthalmologist or a neurologist in Maine who has this area of specialty. They're able to hook people up as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

We've been speaking with Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt, a multiple sclerosis specialist and neurologist at Pen Bay Medical Center.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

As a primary care doctor myself, I'm very appreciative of people who are in your field helping me care for the patients in the state of Maine and the work that you're doing on Ms. And really thank you for coming down and speaking with us today.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Great, thanks very much.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is to help make connections between

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

the health of the individual and the health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscape Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world. Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.

[Unidentified voice]:

This past weekend, I went to a party that one of my clients was throwing for their 25th wedding anniversary, and they were both turning 50. And he met me at the door and gave me a great big bear hug. And she was so welcoming and the family was beautiful. And I thought, wow, what an amazing thing to be invited to this. And it's on such a personal level, but that's what happens when you design for people. You really go into their lives and try to understand who they are and build something that really speaks to who they're about. I was talking to another man at that party and he was saying, well, you've really done a lot of work in this area and you've changed the way this whole place looks. And he said, for the better. And I thought, well, that's good.

[Unidentified voice]:

He said, we really appreciate what you do down here. And I said, well, that's nice. I try not to really take it in and let the ego take over because it's really important that we keep that in check and in bounds, but realize that this energy flows through us and out of us and we don't own it. And we pass on. Just like our bodies pass on, we just move with the flow. And staying in the flow is very important. So when I look at a willow tree or I look at a birch and I see how they're all weighted down with snow in the wintertime and they're bendable and they're shapeable and malleable. That's what I think of when I say we've got to bend and move and stay in the flow and not get too rigid and not get too tight about things. I'm Ted Carter, and if you'd like to contact me, I can be reached@tedcarterdesign.com

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

At the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast, we believe we are helping to

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

build A better world with the help of many. We like to bring to you people

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

who are examples of those building a better world in the areas of wellness, health and fitness.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

To talk to you today about one of these fitness is Jim Greidericks, the president of Premier Sports Health, a division of Black Bear Medical.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Here's Jim.

[Unidentified voice]:

Have you heard the buzz about the great new pain relief device at Black Bear Medical? The Laser Touch one is a new technological breakthrough that is effective in relieving muscle tissue and nerve pain 93% of the time in most people. And the great part is that it is a two minute treatment. Come into our Marginal Way showroom in Portland for your demonstration today and see why this is the buzz around town. I'm Jim Greatorex, president of Black Bear Medical. Come on in and see our trained staff down at the 275 Marginal Way and at www.blackbearmedical.com.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

it can be challenging to be a

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

physician in today's health care setting because we really want to help our patients and we know that patients are coming to us with increasingly complex medical issues,

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

but also social and emotional issues.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

It's always wonderful to spend time with other physicians who take a broader view of medicine, as I think most of

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

us are attempting to these these days.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

But some of them, like Dr. Sunny Raleigh, who is at the True

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

North Health center in Falmouth, really are

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

dedicating their lives to looking at health

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

and wellness in a bigger way. So as we're talking about diseases such as Ms. That we don't really have

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

good answers for, it's important to be talking to people like Dr. Sunny because maybe she can think about ways that she can support patients that are outside of the medical mainstream. Thanks for coming in.

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

Thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Now, Dr. Sunny, I am impressed that you are raising three little boys, Canning fresh tomatoes and sweet pickle relish from the family garden, going to the Saco River. I know you have a background playing, I think, is it Division 1 soccer? You've been all over the country, I think actually all over the world. Your husband's working on his PhD dissertation on back to the Land. Going back to the land. I mean, you just have this broadly varied background and yet here you are in Maine and you're working at True north and you're bringing in your specialties of family medicine, neuromuscular medicine, and I believe functional medicine as well to help treat patients. You're sort of, you're honing down on what it is that you really want to be Doing professionally. How did you get to this place?

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

I was born in Northern Illinois and raised on land there with a family that was involved in the tile and slate roofing business. And when I spent quite a few summers repacking hundreds of year old slate and tile and getting my hands dirty and finding all kinds of creatures buried in there, I know knew that that would not be my future. And it was in high school when I was doing a biology class that I had the thought, I will be a doctor someday. So through my journeys through high school, into college and then even beyond, I did not really know where and what I would do specifically, but I knew that I would somehow be in a healing profession. And it was when I had a life altering appendectomy when I was living out in Sun Valley, Idaho, that really prompted me into action. And then that just catapulted me into the many states that I've lived in for furthering my education. And through it, my boyfriend became my husband, who is now the father of our three boys. And we were guided by what we believed in and where we wanted to settle, establish some roots and then begin a family. And when we were living in Tampa, which is where he was Studying for his PhD, we discovered Maine. And neither of us had ever been here. And as soon as we visited, it was established that this is where we were going to make it happen. And I did my residency through the University of New England in both family practice and neuromusculoskeletal medicine, which was the crux of, I think, how I became the kind of all encompassing physician that I have tried to become. Because in osteopathy it's the A.T. still our founder, his adage was, you know, anyone can find disease, it's the goal to find health in the system. And so by doing that, I feel that that's, that's what offers a different approach, specifically in osteopathic medicine and then in my practice trying to really support and nurture that hope for finding health in the system. And in doing so, I was in another model of medicine that was not satisfactory. And I felt there was an unresolve within me. And when the medical director of True North, Bethany Hayes, approached me about really changing my practice, I was both intrigued, worried and very hopeful. This is a rare opportunity. And so when I made the leap this past January to full time at True North, I no longer had the sleepless, insomnic nights of, you know, that performance anxiety that I have when I only have that 15 minute appointment. And what did I miss, was there something I could have done more thoroughly? And there always was. And now when I have this opportunity to truly listen to their story and

[Unidentified voice]:

then

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

capture the highlights and put it on a timeline and make connections, and when it's a simple practice of a timeline on a piece of paper. But when, you know, 1989, what was it that happened? That was the last time you felt well. And then it was like, oh, foreign travel three months prior. Okay, well then let's dive into that a little deeper. And so those different connections that turn on a light bulb for them to see that there could be this connection, whereas before, well, those stool studies were always negative. It's not that or the, that test is fine. It's not your thyroid or it's not Lyme disease, or, you know, you're not anemic, your hna, your hemoglobin and hematocrit is fine. But when you delve in a little deeper, you can elicit more pieces for the puzzle. And that's what the time that I now have allows me to do. I try to complement their specialists as their family doctor and, or a consultant and say, okay, I know that your specialist is excellent at managing this disease. I would like to support your entire system to optimize your functioning whole body to then support this disease process. So by looking for the health in the system and making suggestions for lifestyle modifications and making sure that their iron stores are truly at their optimal level and taking the time to Discuss their last 24 hours of nutrition and really, how do your bowel movements affect your life? All of those seemingly littler components have such a foundation that my goal is then to broaden their eyes to see how that choice is then going to affect whether or not they're going to need that intensive steroid treatment from their specialist and can we prevent that? So maybe your Last treatment was 10 years ago with high dose intravenous steroids. How can we make that 10 years further down the road, if ever again? And by supporting those patients that have such a potentially debilitating disease and to see how it affects their psyche and that they can fall into a categorization and then become labeled and then they could potentially begin to live that label. That's where I try to find their barriers to overcome that and then slowly break those down. I always give the analogy of peeling back the layers of an onion. And with each visit, let's remove a layer and really analyze what now lies beneath it. And where are we going to go next? I try to lay out a plan so options, here's the spectrum. This end versus this end. Where can I meet you? Is it in the middle? Are you ready to go for the gusto? Or are you a little timid still and really need the guidance of someone else and need a little more feeling me out and making sure I know what I'm talking about, which I can support in that realm as well.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Describe to me how something like functional medicine or neuromusculoskeletal medicine can be helpful in dealing with, well, really any sort of chronic problem such as Ms. Or maybe Lyme disease or, you know, any other of these issues that we have are challenged by in medicine.

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

The practice of functional medicine is to go upstream, find the underlying depletions, errors, complicating factors, make them as little as possible, try to minimize any of those upstream issues to prevent the downfall of the diagnosis, and then by optimizing the nutritional status of the individual, for one example, treating underlying chronic bacterial infections or yeast overgrowth, or analyzing medication and or supplement interactions that are causing X, Y and Z, by truly looking at the foundation of the problem and then knocking out each leg of the stool of that to then break it down, and then by bringing that awareness to the patient that we have to think back higher upstream as to where we can have control over this really awful disease process when it's gotten to this big of a problem, because it can seem very overwhelming, but by going to smaller individual supportive pieces that gives them some ownership of I can not only just manage this, but perhaps overcome this to a greater degree. So I think with the approach with functional medicine, that can give patients at least hope that something they could do will really help their skills situation. As far as osteopathic manipulation, I find that by having that hands on connection with a patient brings the rapport to another level. And not only does the patient usually look very forward to, you know, just the manipulation appointment as a family doctor, I can not check in with this, that or the other thing, you know, before they lay on the table. But I try to reserve that time for, okay, as we're here together, my hands on your body, let's see where we can improve. On a muscular level, are there restrictions in myofascia and in the muscles to get your hip more flexible, you know, on a deeper level, at a visceral level, am I gonna help with your intermittent constipation? And let's see if we can tone down some of the nervous system that's preventing nice regular bowel movements. And then, you know, I feel like on the the deepest level that I attempt to attain with each patient is that connection to the spirit, the whatever drives the patient towards health where they're drawing their energy and if I can meet them there and rest and settle and allow that embryo within the human to breathe, that is a very powerful connection for the patient that allows extra, I consider it extra healing to come in. The body has that inherent ability to heal. It's a marvelous, marvelous miracle. And I am there to kind of just give it a little pat along the bum to say, okay, don't forget about this area and let's really expand over here. And so allowing that expansion to happen within the entire body and then beyond is my connection that I ultimately aspire to attain.

Dr. Alexandra Degenhardt:

Dr.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Sunny, how do people find out about your services and also the services at True North?

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

The best referral source that I have had is through word of mouth and most physicians feel that that is always kind of speaks for itself. The wonderful social media has been great for True north of late and you know, our Facebook page has wonderful, wonderful links for everyone on multiple hot topics that we're discussing. And our website@truenorthhealthcenter.org has pages on all of the providers, our services, the different ways to access our care and gives a great thorough foundation of our philosophies.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

What do you and your children and your husband look forward to doing this fall?

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

Apple picking and lots of preparing the beds for rest for the garden and planting our cover crops. And our boys hopefully will get on their soccer teams for the fall and, and I'll get back into my indoor soccer and Christopher is a professor so he'll start classes again. And I've got a couple two boys in school so it'll be great fun carpooling and getting into the school scene again.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

Well, you are a busy woman so we are very privileged to have spent time with you. Today we've been speaking with Dr. Sunny Raleigh of the True North Health center in Falmouth. Thanks for coming in and thanks for offering this broad based care to patients.

Dr. Sunny Raleigh:

Dr. Lisa it's been my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Lisa Belisle:

You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast show number 100, multiple sclerosis, understanding and Hope. Our guests have included Paul Letty, Dr. Alexandra Dagenhardt and Dr. Sunny Raleigh. For more information on our guests and extended interviews, visit drlisabelisle.com we hope that you will join us at two events coming up next weekend. These are the Ms. Harborfest which is taking place on August 17, 2013 in Portland and the Try for Preservation, which is taking place August 18, 2013 in Cape Elizabeth. For more information on the Ms. Harborfest Regatta, go to National Ms. Society. For more information on the Tri for preservation, go to capelandtrust.org the Tribe for Preservation Triathlon benefits the Cape Elizabeth land Trust. The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and Podcast is downloadable for free on itunes. For a preview of each week's show, sign up for our E. Newsletter and like our Dr. Lisa Facebook page. You can also follow me on Twitter and Pinterest and and read my take on health and well being on The Bountiful Blog bountifulpath.com We love to hear from you, so please let us know what you think of the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour. We welcome your suggestions for future shows. Also let our sponsors know that you have heard about them here. We are privileged that they enable us to bring the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour to you each week. This is Dr. Lisa Belisle hoping that you have enjoyed our Multiple Understanding and Hope show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.