Hi, I’m Dr. Dina Elsalamony, a physician with a master’s degree in Public Health. I graduated medical school in 2012 and practiced medicine as a doctor and in other health-related roles since. My journey into holistic medicine started with me working in the emergency room as a young doctor, while seeing so many people coming to the ER with complications from conditions that are easily preventable, or seeking help too late where most of the damage has been done.
I decided to follow a master’s degree and specialty in public health so I could make more sense of all the causes and complex risk factors that are related to the epidemiology of a disease, with a focus on preventative medicine, to have a proactive approach rather than always just being reactive as most physicians are.
In the midst of this, I was diagnosed with a rare condition, after being dismissed by 5 doctors until I advocated hard for myself to get a specific test done. Afterwards, I was told there is nothing they can do and I’ll just have to live with it and just try to control the symptoms, I was 24!!
At first, I was shocked, but had to blindly follow their recommendation as we all do, initially not questioning the system. However, things kept getting worse and more symptoms kept appearing, with more visits to the emergency room myself.
After sometime, I realized that I needed to take control of the situation, I felt really bad and many other random unrelated symptoms kept appearing without a specific cause!
First, I looked at nutrition as major key to get a handle on this, unfortunately, they don’t teach us proper nutrition courses in medical school, so I had to work hard and study to educate myself in the roles and complexity of all the compounds that our foods are made of, how they interact with each other and with our body and any illnesses that we may have. That includes herbs, which opened a wide door for me into the worlds of traditional medicines.
I was introduced to the fields of integrative and functional medicines where we can understand the environment, food, illness, deficiencies and other needs of each individual and work through all the information we have to get to the bottom of the causes of a certain illness not just treat the symptom. This coupled with my knowledge of public health allowed me to paint a more complete and holistic picture of my health and the health of people around me.
I am not pretending I have all figured it out, definitely not! but I’m working through this journey and I’m doing my best every day to educate myself more in all areas and types of medicine, not disregarding or looking down on certain approaches, as I take the time to study all the evidence and learn about the history before making an informed decision on the topic.
Looking everywhere for a source to gather the information I needed, I couldn’t find any, and despite my research ability, it was such a daunting task to dive in and find all the relevant data, through trials, different sources, languages etc. I felt exhausted doing this and I felt empathetic to anyone trying to gather any of this information for themselves or loved ones, with no medical experience and how difficult that would be, while also navigating a health crisis. So, years into this, I feel like it is time for me to share this, I want to do my best to offer this information freely for anyone to find, and update it as often as I can with all the evidence-based developments. I want this blog to be a library for anyone who is looking for a more holistic approach to health and living, those who are tired, as I’m, from the conventional health system, and how narrow focused and money-motivated it is.
What To Expect From Holistic Medical Treatment blog?
I’m working hard to compile all the available science-based evidence on environmental and lifestyle risk factors, nutrition, herbalism, other systems of traditional medicine, such as Ayuvada and Chinese medicine that are related to the prevention and management of the most common health conditions.
This blog is not a 100 person company of researchers, writers, content managers and editors, this is just me on my own trying my best to provide you with the most accurate and up-to-date information in the holistic health sphere. So doing the research, compiling data, writing and editing each article take quite a bit of my time! You probably should expect me to upload 2 to 4 articles a moth! So please bare with me, your patience and support is really appreciated!
On the other hand, don’t expect me to be all over your social media platforms, as I don’t have any since I quit social media years ago to protect my mental health. Of course, this is not the case for everyone, I totally understand, but for me personally, making that decision was a pivotal moment in my holistic health journey that had a profound impact on overall well-being!
Yes, I’m a physician! but I’m also just a human, and I may not always have all the answers, nobody does! But I just hope that this blog would become your destination for all the information you may need for yourself and your loved ones, to lead a healthy long life while reducing reliance on pharmaceuticals (unless of course necessary to maintain in certain conditions), and if you are looking for an alternative or a complementary approach to the current stagnant healthcare system.