How I Work
What's it like to work with Otis? On this page I'll tell you what kind of results my patients have reported and also give you a sense of my guiding beliefs, approach to treating patients, and how I'm different from other physicians, even holistic ones.
When you consult with me I will listen carefully and fully to what you tell me. You have knowledge of your body that I will never have. If I am to be of maximum service to you I must gain some of that knowledge that you and only you possess. My patients find it remarkably encouraging and freeing when I totally listen to them. In fact, when I'm listening with my full attention they hear themselves speaking wisdom that they did not know they knew.
I will answer your questions thoughtfully and to your satisfaction to the best of my ability. My recommendations to you have to make sense to you; otherwise, they won't be useful to you. If something doesn't make sense to you at first, tell me. I'll try again. If I still can't make it make sense, we will forget it and go on to something else. In fifty years of medical practice I've learned several different ways to do most things. My patients do not have to attempt treatments they fear or do not understand. I will search tirelessly with you for the root causes of your health issues. I'm not into just masking symptoms with drugs or anything else. Doing that is like taking the batteries out of you smoke alarm because it waked you up at night and going back to sleep. Tracking down the root causes takes good detective work in which the patient has many essential clues. Many patients find our cooperative detective work fascinating and fun. It isn't unusual for us to be laughing together. Patients sometimes say they never imagined they would ever look forward with pleasure to a doctor visit but now they do. Part of the reason is that they get satisfying answers to questions that had baffled them for years.
I will teach you how to be specialist in your own health care. This will give you a huge margin of safety, security, and satisfaction as you feel your dependency on a broken healthcare system decreasing.
I will prescribe for you the safest, most effective, simplest, and least expensive natural remedies before I reach for my prescription pad. I start with orthomolecular substances, which are normally present in your body and necessary for your health. If necessary, I may prescribe herbs. Prescription drugs are usually a last resort and my patients rarely need them unless they were taking them before consulting me. I use only bioidentical hormones.
I will treat you and not just your lab work. It's crazy to tell a patient who is in pain and struggling, "You're fine! See, your lab work is all normal." Yet patients tell me over and over that's what they've have been told. They also tell me how freeing it is to understand what has been making them miserable and it's not that they are inadequate or getting old.
I will tell you powerful things you can take and practical things you can do to greatly improve your chances of keeping your mind sharp and clear until your last breath. Senility and debility are not mandatory. I know and love to teach people how to extend vitality and creativity far out toward the end of physical life. Many of my patients actually decrease their biological age (what they can do compared with most people of a particular age).
I will help you discover if you are participating in one or more of the hidden epidemics that are devastating the health of the American people and grossly accelerating aging and degenerative disease. These epidemics include inflammation, insulin resistance, deficiencies of vitamins C and D, gluten sensitivity, hypothyroidism, and low adrenal reserve. You can opt out of any and all of these and many of my patients do and have, but first you must know if you have these conditions. If you do, you find out how to free yourself from them.
Guiding Beliefs and Values.
I believe that the single most powerful thing you can do for powerful healing, great vitality, and remarkable longevity is to have clarity about your life purpose and take action every day to fulfill that purpose. For people who do this, life takes on a magical quality and help and health come in the most amazing ways while challenges abound.
I believe in the awesome healing power of the human body-mind-spirit balanced and working in harmony. I believe because of what I have consistently seen and experienced over the course of 50 years of medical practice. I have found that healing is often possible after conventional medicine has declared it impossible.
I believe in the power of co-creative effort of patient and doctor to improve the quality of the patient's life. And it's not just powerful; it is often fun and exhilarating. It can also be hard work.
I value the determination, courage, and action to fully use one's talents and resources to fulfill the purpose for which one came into this life. When my patient is showing these qualities, I am inspired to push myself to my limits to put in my very best. And I highly value the joy and fulfillment that results from doing so.
My Approach
Each person is unique. No two are alike. I must get a feel for each personality and life history so as to fit my recommendations appropriately to each patient.
Life was meant to be a treat, not a treatment. Humor helps. My patients and I often have fun with our serious work and laugh together. Patients sometimes say to me, "I never imagined I'd look forward to and enjoy a doctor visit but here I do."
Find the simplest, safest, least expensive, most effective and most comfortable way to get the job done. In 50 years I've learned several ways to do most things so I can pick and choose. That's part of the fun of having practiced medicine for a long time.
My Uniqueness
I have practiced medicine longer than any other holistic physician I know and longer than most physicians of any kind. And I've never stopped learning.
My practice is truly holistic: body, mind, and spirit. Most physicians who say they are holistic actually focus on one or two of the three areas and neglect the third. I have learned that one or two won't unlock your full healing power any more than dialing one or two numbers on your combination lock will open your locker at the gym.
I have found a practical way to do all three and still live your full, busy life. Working this out has been the hardest part of the whole process and it took nearly 50 years but it is now in place and working. People are actually doing it. See an illustrative case history.
Now that you have a better idea about the results you can expect by working with me and my approach and philosophy of working with you, I invite you to call 706.782.1219 or email me for an appointment or to schedule a free 20 minute telephone consultation to explore further whether the holistic approach is for you. I'll ask you what your health concerns are, tell you whether I think I can help you, and then you decide if you wish to schedule an evaluation with me.