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| Power Style Wellness Connections |
DOCS WITH A NEW DIRECTION
By Mary Jo Harrod
“Let me see your tongue,” says nutritional counselor Debbie Alsheimer, who owns
Simply Nutrition in Shelbyville. “How have you been sleeping? How is your appetite?
What is your energy level like?”
These are just a few of the questions Alsheimer asks clients who seek her help through
improved nutrition and biofeedback treatments. Her curiosity and enthusiasm for
learning about how the body works have enabled her to help others improve their
health through nutrition. It was when her own health deteriorated that Alsheimer began
her research. She suffered from severe asthma, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and a
complete neurological breakdown that left her using a walker for three months and a
cane for 11 months.
“I have studied applied kinesiology, acupuncture, cervical biophysics, neurology, and
herbology,” explains Alsheimer, who taught English for eight years and was a wedding
consultant for 20 years. “In 2006, I graduated from Parker Chiropractic College in
Dallas, Tx. I have learned that everything hinges on how your body breaks nutrition
down and uses it. It causes a chain reaction, so it is really important for me to do the
research. The body will break itself down to get what it needs and then you have a big
mess.”
Alsheimer said that most of the time we hear the signs and symptoms of what is going
on with the body, but then there is a compound problem because of the domino effect
of one deficiency. The longer the problem goes on, the more difficult it is to get to the
root of the problem and convince the person to stick it out with a nutritional program to
create a metamorphosis in the body.
Alsheimer, who has been married to her husband Tom for 30 years and is a mother and
grandmother, makes no claims of being a miracle worker. Instead, she credits her faith
in God and her biofeedback system with helping her to track nutritional deficiencies in
her clients. Constantly researching health issues and their root causes, Alsheimer is
fascinated with the way the body works and spends many hours each week looking for
solutions to a variety of health problems.
“I look at the whole body, not just bits and pieces, but how muscles relate to bones,
vitamins to muscle, and the body’s ability to break down those vitamins,” she says.
“Every four months our bodies get rid of and make new red blood cells. So, with any
lifestyle changes you make, you will get the greatest benefit after four months.”
Through her nutritional counseling and biofeedback treatments, Alsheimer has been
able to help clients with depression, anxiety, weight loss, irritable bowel syndrome,
arthritis, ulcers, autism, and many other conditions. She conducts a health talk each
month at the Shelby County Family Activity Center.
“Never in a million years did I think I would do this,” says Alsheimer, who had been
diagnosed with a learning disability when she was young. “It compels me to seek new
frontiers as far as body function goes. There are not enough of us connecting the dots
and finding the root of the problem. Medications are used to solve a problem and they
are effective, but I don’t think the function of the body is taken into consideration. My
philosophy is about how the body functions and how organs interact with each other
and the nutrition they need to do their job. Give the body the fuel it needs, and it will run
and run correctly every time.”
After years of searching for the best way to explain hormones to her patients, Dr.
Rebecca Booth hit upon a solution –– write a book.“Ever since entering the field of
gynecology, I have tried to use comparisons and analogies to help explain to my
patients the complexities of their hormones,” explains Dr. Rebecca Booth. She is a
board-certified OB/GYN practicing with Women First of Louisville since finishing her
training at the University of Louisville in 1989. “I found the use of the goddess metaphor
to be helpful in conveying the influences of these hormones on our appearance,
feelings, and behavior throughout our lives after puberty. The explanation using this
metaphor helped enlighten many of my patients, and I felt a book would be the best way
to bring this understanding forward.”
Dr. Booth’s book, The Venus Week: Discover the Powerful Secret of Your Cycle...At
Any Age (Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2008) is the result of five years of work. According
to Dr. Booth, the “venus week” is the grouping of days “during which Mother Nature
mixes up the perfect chemistry for self-confidence, communication, and romance,” with
these days coinciding with a woman’s most fertile days. The book deals with how these
influences change after ovulation and how other parts of a woman’s cycle affect how
women relate to one another and themselves in many ways. She said the balance that
can be achieved by this remarkable chemistry is vital to understanding women’s health
and metabolism as well.
Besides being in a practice for 19 years, Dr. Booth is a fellow in the American College of
Obstetricians & Gynecologists, a member of the American Medical Association, the
Kentucky Medical Association, the American Association of Gynecologic
Laparoscopists, and the International Society for Clinical Densitometry.
When Dr. Booth first approached publishers about her book, she was fortunate to find a
good deal of interest in the topic from a number of them. Though she learned a
tremendous amount about the publishing business through this process and was
blessed to have excellent help along the way, what Dr. Booth found to be the most
refreshing was a genuine feeling from those in the publishing industry that her message
is fresh and unique, which is a rare thing these days in the nonfiction world.
“My family has been extremely supportive,” says Dr. Booth. “My husband has stepped
up to catch the slack left from my fairly distracted self these days. My children, now
teenagers, have been truly excited about their mom having a book, even as they frown
when I must have them repeat questions over and over — again, the product of a
distracted mind.” Her two sisters, Lady and Cecil, have been part of the team since the
beginning. Cecil (Booth) is her business manager and partner, and Lady (Booth Olson)
is a helpful copy editor. Friends and family have been incredibly positive with sponsored
signing parties, events, e-mails, cards, and letters galore, she says. “The greatest
response has been from my partners who have truly felt the book will be helpful to our
patients. Their excitement has meant more to me than all of the good (so far) reviews.
“I do feel other books are needed in this genre. The Venus Week covers women of all
ages and the scope is very broad,” continues Dr. Booth. “As I wrote Part 2, which deals
with each age group, I found I could write an entire book on certain phases of life.”
After spending several years working in traditional medicine, Dr. Lori Sweat is not afraid
to think outside the box for solutions to health problems.
It was through her desire to help her patients that she began researching more natural
remedies and finding ways to treat the sources of health problems rather than just the
symptoms.
“I am always looking for a challenge and want to learn new things,” says Dr. Sweat, who
is an integrative hormone specialist in Louisville. Dr. Sweat received her medical degree
from the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine where she also completed her
residency in internal medicine. She served an additional year as chief medical resident.
It was after spending several years as a practicing hospital specialist that she became
interested in the more nontraditional integrative and functional medicine.
“As I learned more about issues of unwellness, I found that the root cause is hormonal
decline, and I realized that I had not been trained in this [in medical school],” explained
Dr. Sweat. Her areas of special medical interest now include Bioidentical Hormone
Replacement Therapy (BHRT), women’s health, nutrition, and fitness. “There is a lot of
controversy and ignorance on the subject.”
Dr. Sweat, whose practice is Integrative Hormone Specialists, feels that the key to
optimal health and wellness is hormone balance. Since hormone levels fluctuate as a
person moves through various phases of life, BHRT provides a natural way to restore
hormone balance. Dr. Sweat also treats symptoms or problems related to
premenstrual syndrome, infertility, perimenopause, menopause, thyroid and cortisol
disorders, insulin resistance, male menopause, fatigue, low libido, weight issues, and
sexual dysfunction. The individualized care that Dr. Sweat and Jenny Ostertag, ARNP,
provide in the practice includes treating both females and males, from adolescence
through adulthood. She teaches lifestyle counseling and coaching. Her goal is getting
people feeling well and functioning optimally, so she works to get to the bottom of the
problem, not just treat the symptoms.
If a patient complains of indigestion, Dr. Sweat searches for the cause, rather than
prescribing something that might mask the symptoms. If a menopausal woman comes to
the office with complaints of lack of sleep or energy, mood swings or other menopausal
symptoms, she may be given natural hormones and nutritional supplements and
instructed to make lifestyle changes.
Dr. Sweat says, “If you give the body something that it naturally knows how to handle, it
will perform. The body can metabolize natural hormones. When I see that same woman
make a complete 180-degree turnaround in how she feels, that is gratifying.
“Women know intuitively about hormones,” continues Dr. Sweat, who is married to Matt
Sweat, also a physician, and is the mother of two children. “I listen to people’s intuition
about their body, because we are seeking to find balance. Since my family is my priority,
I have limited hours in my practice. If I am preaching balance to my patients, I need to
live it.”
By Mary Jo Harrod
“Let me see your tongue,” says nutritional counselor Debbie Alsheimer, who owns
Simply Nutrition in Shelbyville. “How have you been sleeping? How is your appetite?
What is your energy level like?”
These are just a few of the questions Alsheimer asks clients who seek her help through
improved nutrition and biofeedback treatments. Her curiosity and enthusiasm for
learning about how the body works have enabled her to help others improve their
health through nutrition. It was when her own health deteriorated that Alsheimer began
her research. She suffered from severe asthma, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and a
complete neurological breakdown that left her using a walker for three months and a
cane for 11 months.
“I have studied applied kinesiology, acupuncture, cervical biophysics, neurology, and
herbology,” explains Alsheimer, who taught English for eight years and was a wedding
consultant for 20 years. “In 2006, I graduated from Parker Chiropractic College in
Dallas, Tx. I have learned that everything hinges on how your body breaks nutrition
down and uses it. It causes a chain reaction, so it is really important for me to do the
research. The body will break itself down to get what it needs and then you have a big
mess.”
Alsheimer said that most of the time we hear the signs and symptoms of what is going
on with the body, but then there is a compound problem because of the domino effect
of one deficiency. The longer the problem goes on, the more difficult it is to get to the
root of the problem and convince the person to stick it out with a nutritional program to
create a metamorphosis in the body.
Alsheimer, who has been married to her husband Tom for 30 years and is a mother and
grandmother, makes no claims of being a miracle worker. Instead, she credits her faith
in God and her biofeedback system with helping her to track nutritional deficiencies in
her clients. Constantly researching health issues and their root causes, Alsheimer is
fascinated with the way the body works and spends many hours each week looking for
solutions to a variety of health problems.
“I look at the whole body, not just bits and pieces, but how muscles relate to bones,
vitamins to muscle, and the body’s ability to break down those vitamins,” she says.
“Every four months our bodies get rid of and make new red blood cells. So, with any
lifestyle changes you make, you will get the greatest benefit after four months.”
Through her nutritional counseling and biofeedback treatments, Alsheimer has been
able to help clients with depression, anxiety, weight loss, irritable bowel syndrome,
arthritis, ulcers, autism, and many other conditions. She conducts a health talk each
month at the Shelby County Family Activity Center.
“Never in a million years did I think I would do this,” says Alsheimer, who had been
diagnosed with a learning disability when she was young. “It compels me to seek new
frontiers as far as body function goes. There are not enough of us connecting the dots
and finding the root of the problem. Medications are used to solve a problem and they
are effective, but I don’t think the function of the body is taken into consideration. My
philosophy is about how the body functions and how organs interact with each other
and the nutrition they need to do their job. Give the body the fuel it needs, and it will run
and run correctly every time.”
After years of searching for the best way to explain hormones to her patients, Dr.
Rebecca Booth hit upon a solution –– write a book.“Ever since entering the field of
gynecology, I have tried to use comparisons and analogies to help explain to my
patients the complexities of their hormones,” explains Dr. Rebecca Booth. She is a
board-certified OB/GYN practicing with Women First of Louisville since finishing her
training at the University of Louisville in 1989. “I found the use of the goddess metaphor
to be helpful in conveying the influences of these hormones on our appearance,
feelings, and behavior throughout our lives after puberty. The explanation using this
metaphor helped enlighten many of my patients, and I felt a book would be the best way
to bring this understanding forward.”
Dr. Booth’s book, The Venus Week: Discover the Powerful Secret of Your Cycle...At
Any Age (Da Capo Lifelong Books, 2008) is the result of five years of work. According
to Dr. Booth, the “venus week” is the grouping of days “during which Mother Nature
mixes up the perfect chemistry for self-confidence, communication, and romance,” with
these days coinciding with a woman’s most fertile days. The book deals with how these
influences change after ovulation and how other parts of a woman’s cycle affect how
women relate to one another and themselves in many ways. She said the balance that
can be achieved by this remarkable chemistry is vital to understanding women’s health
and metabolism as well.
Besides being in a practice for 19 years, Dr. Booth is a fellow in the American College of
Obstetricians & Gynecologists, a member of the American Medical Association, the
Kentucky Medical Association, the American Association of Gynecologic
Laparoscopists, and the International Society for Clinical Densitometry.
When Dr. Booth first approached publishers about her book, she was fortunate to find a
good deal of interest in the topic from a number of them. Though she learned a
tremendous amount about the publishing business through this process and was
blessed to have excellent help along the way, what Dr. Booth found to be the most
refreshing was a genuine feeling from those in the publishing industry that her message
is fresh and unique, which is a rare thing these days in the nonfiction world.
“My family has been extremely supportive,” says Dr. Booth. “My husband has stepped
up to catch the slack left from my fairly distracted self these days. My children, now
teenagers, have been truly excited about their mom having a book, even as they frown
when I must have them repeat questions over and over — again, the product of a
distracted mind.” Her two sisters, Lady and Cecil, have been part of the team since the
beginning. Cecil (Booth) is her business manager and partner, and Lady (Booth Olson)
is a helpful copy editor. Friends and family have been incredibly positive with sponsored
signing parties, events, e-mails, cards, and letters galore, she says. “The greatest
response has been from my partners who have truly felt the book will be helpful to our
patients. Their excitement has meant more to me than all of the good (so far) reviews.
“I do feel other books are needed in this genre. The Venus Week covers women of all
ages and the scope is very broad,” continues Dr. Booth. “As I wrote Part 2, which deals
with each age group, I found I could write an entire book on certain phases of life.”
After spending several years working in traditional medicine, Dr. Lori Sweat is not afraid
to think outside the box for solutions to health problems.
It was through her desire to help her patients that she began researching more natural
remedies and finding ways to treat the sources of health problems rather than just the
symptoms.
“I am always looking for a challenge and want to learn new things,” says Dr. Sweat, who
is an integrative hormone specialist in Louisville. Dr. Sweat received her medical degree
from the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine where she also completed her
residency in internal medicine. She served an additional year as chief medical resident.
It was after spending several years as a practicing hospital specialist that she became
interested in the more nontraditional integrative and functional medicine.
“As I learned more about issues of unwellness, I found that the root cause is hormonal
decline, and I realized that I had not been trained in this [in medical school],” explained
Dr. Sweat. Her areas of special medical interest now include Bioidentical Hormone
Replacement Therapy (BHRT), women’s health, nutrition, and fitness. “There is a lot of
controversy and ignorance on the subject.”
Dr. Sweat, whose practice is Integrative Hormone Specialists, feels that the key to
optimal health and wellness is hormone balance. Since hormone levels fluctuate as a
person moves through various phases of life, BHRT provides a natural way to restore
hormone balance. Dr. Sweat also treats symptoms or problems related to
premenstrual syndrome, infertility, perimenopause, menopause, thyroid and cortisol
disorders, insulin resistance, male menopause, fatigue, low libido, weight issues, and
sexual dysfunction. The individualized care that Dr. Sweat and Jenny Ostertag, ARNP,
provide in the practice includes treating both females and males, from adolescence
through adulthood. She teaches lifestyle counseling and coaching. Her goal is getting
people feeling well and functioning optimally, so she works to get to the bottom of the
problem, not just treat the symptoms.
If a patient complains of indigestion, Dr. Sweat searches for the cause, rather than
prescribing something that might mask the symptoms. If a menopausal woman comes to
the office with complaints of lack of sleep or energy, mood swings or other menopausal
symptoms, she may be given natural hormones and nutritional supplements and
instructed to make lifestyle changes.
Dr. Sweat says, “If you give the body something that it naturally knows how to handle, it
will perform. The body can metabolize natural hormones. When I see that same woman
make a complete 180-degree turnaround in how she feels, that is gratifying.
“Women know intuitively about hormones,” continues Dr. Sweat, who is married to Matt
Sweat, also a physician, and is the mother of two children. “I listen to people’s intuition
about their body, because we are seeking to find balance. Since my family is my priority,
I have limited hours in my practice. If I am preaching balance to my patients, I need to
live it.”