Meet Dr. Mindy Curry

Dr. Mindy Curry is an Oregon licensed Naturopathic Doctor (ND). She trained for her doctorate at the oldest accredited naturopathic medical school in the United States, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM) in Portland, OR. This four-year post-graduate medical degree includes both academic and clinical training, is accredited by the Council on Naturopathic Medical Education (CNME) and is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. She maintains her Oregon license and is a member of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP).

As a licensed primary care physician, Dr. Curry can address virtually every aspect of family medicine. Dr. Curry believes that the body has an amazing ability to self-heal yet sometimes needs a little support and direction. Dr. Curry treats a variety of conditions in the comfort of your own home using a variety of methods of wellness including herbal medicine, diet/nutrition, food as medicine, supplementation therapy, lifestyle counseling, hydrotherapy, food/environmental allergy testing via blood or saliva testing, allergy treatment, minor surgery, massage, energy-work, low-impact naturopathic manipulation, exercise therapeutics, pharmaceuticals and general medicine. Dr. Curry can work with you to identify and address mental/emotional/spiritual stressors that may be contributing to your disease states. Dr. Curry also offers preventative medicine for patients without illness hoping to improve their overall health for vital longevity. Dr. Curry strives to involve patients in their own care by creating wholistic treatment plans to not only address specific illness, while decreasing stress, anxiety, depression, inflammation, but also increase energy levels, sleep quality, memory, concentration and overall quality of life. Dr. Curry wants to find the root cause of your concern, then support your body's inherent ability to heal so that you can experience optimal health. Dr. Curry understands that everyone has their own healing process and meets patients where they are in their person healing journey. True health is more than the absence of disease; it is the balance of the mind, body, spirit, wellness, and vitality.

A Message from Dr. Curry:
Her life, her inspiration, in her words

I have always had deep reverence and connection with nature, especially plants, but my personal journey to becoming a Naturopathic Doctor was not straightforward and was indeed sometimes downright uncomfortable. Each twist in my path, however, exposed me to populations that have inspired me to strive for a better way of living and giving.

My earliest exposure with natural health was a consequence of being raised in a religious community whose teachings include eating a healthy vegetarian diet and clean living which they believe will bring the human lifespan closer to the long lives of those who lived before the Biblical Old Testament's great flood. This understanding that what you eat and drink is the basis for your health approaches the naturopath's use of individualized clinical nutrition to correct health problems. It was a good start that instilled in me an interest in eating healthy. As I grew older, my now single mother exposed me to her emerging interests in Eastern religions and alternative healing. She read and went to a variety of faith/psychic healers, allergists, herbalists and gurus for her spiritual and health issues. I observed that some were snake oil salesmen selling the placebo effect, yet others had remedies that were very effective at treating problems that conventional doctors did not understand or were unable to treat. Later, in my late teens, my grandfather was diagnosed and treated for colon cancer. When surgery, chemotherapy and radiation had nearly taken his life, my grandfather turned to Traditional Chinese Medicine instead. He recovered fully without relapse. He attributed his cure to integration of natural and conventional therapies. This showed me some of the true power and legitimacy of natural medicine.

As children will, I didn't pay too much attention to the details of my family's path towards self help, and as time passed my lifestyle and diet became more standard. By college I had mostly forgotten about alternative medicine, more interested in art. Fate soon provided its own special way of bringing me back around, however.

Valentine's Day, 1993, was the day that put my life on the strange path that has eventually led me to naturopathic medicine. While working at Kentucky Fried Chicken, only 19 years old, I slipped on a wet, greasy floor and fell in the 380+ degree hot oil vat. I lost 10% of my skin to second degree burns, from shoulder to fingertips of my right arm. The initial pain of the accident was nothing compared to the treatment and recovery including skin grafts, Job's Skin pressure garments and a year of occupational therapy to regain full function and mobility. This life trauma helped focus my determination and drive as well as provide "first hand" experience with personal disability. Awed by my restored arm function, I decided become a Plastic Burn Surgery myself.

I finished my pre-med credits and received a Bachelor's degree, magna cum laude, in Biology at California State University Sacramento. During this time I worked a couple years in an upscale nursing home. I was appalled by the day-to-day lack of dignity given even our once-leading elderly citizens. I switched to working in-home with quadriplegics and found great inspiration in these individuals' achievements in independence against all odds. Despite being a busy working student, my passion for nature was still there, now manifested as leadership of an environmental hiking group.

I was accepted to the Medical College of Wisconsin and for nearly two years I enjoyed learning about medicine and spending time with my clinical mentor (a pediatric burn surgeon). In my second year my health failed me. I went to the schools large medical center for help and was given pills. These pills did not help much, but the side effects were progressively severe. My doctors assured me, even after trips to the emergency room, that the pharmaceuticals were good. Eventually I left that school feeling betrayed not only by my doctors, but also by the insensitivity to student health demonstrated by this medical school's Dean. Knowing what I do now, aggressive diet and lifestyle modification with herbal supplementation would have eliminated the imbalance without such lingering toxicity. Only when I listened to my body's inherent wisdom did my health begin to return.

After mostly recovering I took an entry level social work position helping developmentally disabled adults achieve relative independence in their homes and the community. Once again I found inspiration in these individuals finding their own lives in a society that treats them at best like children, but far too often much worst. By this time I had realized that I feel passionately about improving the lives of such challenged populations. People with disabilities need special, often relatively expensive assistance long-term and so tend to fall through the cracks in our society. I think everyone should be treated with dignity, regardless.

During this time, finally, I discovered the field of Naturopathic medicine. I was looking into botanical science and discovered there was indeed a field that combined both science training and traditional nature cure. I started training with local herbalists and making the intensive lifestyle and diet changes my Naturopath recommended. With newfound vitality, I attended Naturopathic medical school with success, having finally found my true calling. Naturopathic medicine is a good fit for me. In my own life I have seen the ways that allopathic medicine has failed to bring health. Now I understand a better way to heal.

So where have these life experiences led me today? I am most impressed by nature-cure for myself and for my patients. I'd love to see everyone taking time to go to the mountain and walk in the sun, breath in the fresh air and the heart-warming aroma of wildflowers. Nearby hot springs are special fountains of hydrotherapy which can boost immune function while relaxing tight muscles and steaming stress away. Regular massage added to this good life can counter many workplace stresses and stress related diseases. I also advocate a return to real, natural food as building blocks for healthy bodies, and as medicine. Despite clever marketing schemes, truly healthy food doesn't need a lot of processing, special packaging, health boasts or multi-syllabic ingredients. Replacing exciting colored fizzy drinks with plenty of pure filtered water will wash away toxins as well as reduce your glucose and empty calorie burden. If your condition has progressed so far that exercise, diet, stress management, fresh air and sunshine isn't enough, I again look to nature first for medicine. I love to go out to the garden or forest to harvest fresh local herbs and berries, and then process them for immediate or later use. Unfortunately wildcrafting is not always practical, so I do regularly use premade products from herbalists I trust, often blending individualized formulas of teas, tinctures, washes, salves, etc. Sometimes capsules are the easiest way to get clients what they need. With the depletion of nutrition in the American diet, poor digestion and functional differences in enzyme systems, many patients require vitamin, nutrient, and mineral supplementation. Naturopathic medicine provides so many options for me to treat un-wellness. I will likely offer you several ways to approach your concern so that you can choose which you want to try. I understand not everyone can spend time regularly hot springing, receiving massage, herb gathering and hiking in sunny mountain air, but wouldn't that just be an ideal life! Realistically there are many ways to bring natural healing into your own home.

My experiences working with disabled persons in their homes in the past have shaped my desire to offer house calls today. Populations such as quadriplegics, paraplegics, ventilator patients, and the elderly often have difficulty arranging transport to appointments. Fairly recently more medical doctors have returned to offering house call services. I love offering a natural approach instead. Naturopathic House Calls can also be ideal for busy families or those with concerns over privacy. Sometimes people just feel too sick to drive themselves, but not sick enough for an expensive hospital stay. In all these cases a Naturopathic House Call can offer you both convenience and dignity. I truly feel a great pull to improve the lives and the health of others, and in doing so, help myself.

Thank you for visiting my website; I hope to meet you soon!

Dr. Mindy A. Curry