Growing up in New Jersey, near Rutgers University, Kim Furtado always knew she wanted to be a doctor, but it took a little more than insight to figure out her true calling — naturopathic medicine.
Coastal Point • Monica Fleming
Kim Furtado always knew she wanted to be a doctor, but it took a little more than insight to figure out her true calling — naturopathic medicine.
“I was always interested in science, psychology — and I really love biology,” she explained. “I was pre-med in college, but after doing some hospital work and rounds, I got disillusioned and started to question how much doctors that were living on candy bars and coffee had to offer to patients. And I got disillusioned about them not spending enough time with patients.”
In college, Furtado got more interested in psychology and how it worked with neuroscience and immunology. She ended her undergraduate degree with a bachelor of science degree in biology. It met the pre-med requirements, but she had no intentions of going to medical school.
“I took an internship after college with the National Institutes of Health — it used to be the office of Alternative Health, and now it is a center. In 1993, Congress mandated that the National Institutes of Health study alternative health,” Furtado recalled, “and I started in 1994, in the second or third year of its existence.”
It was at NIH that she realized the limitations of scientific research and the pharmaceutical model and got interested in studying whole systems of treatment rather than “one medicine that could fix everything.” She turned instead to naturopathic medicine as her field of interest.
According to Bastyr University — one of the U.S. universities offering naturopathic medicine as a graduate program, “Naturopathic medicine is a distinct profession of primary health care, emphasizing prevention, treatment and the promotion of optimal health through the use of therapeutic methods and modalities which encourage the self-healing process, the vis medicatrix naturae.”
Furtado said that, when the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching published the Flexner Report — a study written by Abraham Flexner and published in 1910 — schools whose focus was on remedies other than drugs and surgery didn’t get a grade above “C,” and so drugless healers were virtually eliminated from modern medicine. The report “called on American medical schools to enact higher admission and graduation standards, and to adhere strictly to the protocols of mainstream science in their teaching and research.”
Naturopathic medicine always remained, even though at one point there were virtually no schools teaching it. In fact, Connecticut is one a few states where licensing laws always existed. In 1956, the National College of Naturopathic Medicine, the first of the modern naturopathic medical schools offering four-year naturopathic medical training with the intention of integrating science with naturopathic principles and practice, opened in Portland, Ore. It remains one of six accredited naturopathic medical schools in America, with one of the other five being Bastyr, where Furtado received her training.
At Bastyr, students learn basic sciences and have clinical training, and graduates can sit for board examinations. Furtado, with her specialization in naturopathic medicine, does not replace a primary-care physician — rather patients integrate her naturopathic service to complement their other healthcare. She is a Vermont-licensed naturopathic doctor — Vermont being one of the 15 states that license naturopathic doctors as primary-care providers.
As it is for many people not originally from coastal Delaware who have relocated to the area, the idea of living near the beach is what brought Furtado to the Lewes area in 2001. She said the reception from local patients has been great, and she has hopes that it continues.
“People were hungry for it,” she said. “And, as more and people come from metropolitan areas where thy have had exposure to it, it will continue to grow.”
“I have a cool bunch of people,” Furtado said of her patients. “I see all ages. I have a strong pediatric practice. Very few holistic providers have pediatric training, and children respond beautifully to natural remedies. I see a lot of women with menstrual and menopausal issues — mood, anxiety, fatigue — I like to consider that my specialty. They really respond to herbs. Heart disease and diabetes patients respond beautifully to the medicines. I offer supportive care for cancer patients, post-chemotherapy or -radiation.”
According to Furtado, most of her patients have had personal experiences with natural remedies or don’t have anywhere else to turn and want to try something new.
“They want to try it,” she said. “The idea of stimulating the body’s own ability to heal and to get to the root cause of the problem makes sense to them. Here they can spend one and a half, hours with a doctor and we can talk about what they are eating and about how stress affects physical symptoms.”
Furtado noted that most insurance carriers don’t cover naturopathic medicine, at least yet. But the costs can pay off for her patients, she said.
“It’s an out-of-pocket expense,” she acknowledged, “but for people without insurance, you would spend the same and might get 10 minutes with a doctor. And for people with insurance, it’s an investment in their health.”
For more information on Kim Furtado, N.D., call (302) 945-2107 or visit her at her office, Nature’s Path of Integrated Health, at 35252 Hudson Way Unit 2 Rehoboth Beach.