It seems as though when doctors present their credentials and experience, it is done in a “third-person” sort of way in which the doctor sings his accomplishments as though he were not the one communicating such. E.g. "Dr. Dean Raffelock has earned these credentials and does this and that." There is a little bit more to it than that, and I’d prefer to tell you about it from my own “first-person” perspective, if you’d be so kind to read on:
My parents began encouraging me to become a medical doctor when I was 6 years old. That was in 1957…yikes. They carefully taught me to say the word pediatrician. Six years of age was also the time that I witnessed my first medical miracle. My seemingly all-powerful father took to his bed, unable to walk due to back spasms. A big man with a shaved head who had the beautiful flower garden down the street, came to see my father that day. I watched from the bedroom doorway as he placed his hands on father, gently moving and stretching him. Then my dad was able to get up and get out of bed. He was no longer in pain! The man winked at me and gave me a big smile as he was leaving our house.
I excitedly asked my father what our neighbor had done to help heal him. Seeing the look of amazement in my eyes, my father told me that the man was Herman the chiropractor, "but you Dean, are going to be a real doctor!” That explanation helped to prepare me for an entire a career of being compared to “real” doctors. But at this writing I am happy to say that I have both taught many “real” doctors at medical conferences, mentored quite a few, learned from them and, in most instances, have been respectfully accepted into their world of patient care including having written chapters in medical textbooks used in medical schools.
During undergraduate studies at Rutgers and again at Dalhousie University, I became ill with a mysterious condition that left no less than five medical doctors scratching their heads, unable to diagnose let alone resolve the health challenges I was having. Desperate for help, I went to a doctor of chiropractic who successfully treated me with acupuncture, nutritional supplements, herbs, and structural adjustments. Best of all though, was the sense of inspiration that the doctor gave me to want to help others with natural modalities. In the early 1970’s the concept of holistic health care was still very new. So off to school I went.
The University of Western States graduating class of 1976 was filled with young, eager idealists. I was out to help change the paradigm of health care and that is what pushed me through the grueling 4,600 hours of the physical sciences and finally earned me the degree of Doctor of Chiropractic. And though I hold that honor close to my heart, the hours of nutritional biochemistry and endocrinology were my passion and would continue to inspire my continuing education long after graduation. Eventually I would earn board certifications in Clinical Nutrition (DACBN), Acupuncture (Dipl. Ac.), Integrative Medicine ((DAAIM), and Applied Kinesiology (DIBAK), as well as clinical nutrition certification (CCN) from the International and American Association of Clinical Nutritionists and become certified by and a teacher for the Institute for Functional Medicine.
From 1977-1981 I began to realize my dream by helping to establish and practice within Baraka Holistic Health Center in Santa Monica, California. Baraka was the first successful holistic, integrative health center in the West Los Angeles area; comprised of a psychiatrist, 2 Ph.D psychologists, an acupuncturist, a nutritionist, 2 other D.C.s and myself. Twice weekly 3-hour meetings were held to discuss individual patients from psychiatric, psychological, psycho-spiritual, neuro-structural, nutritional and Chinese Medicine points of view. This foundational experience would help me to form a multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional perspective of health and disease. More importantly, it taught me to appreciate, respect and utilize the expertise and points of view of other health care professionals.
Fascinated by how unresolved emotional experiences could block the flow of energy and cause disease, I began intensive Reichian Therapy studies at the Radix Institute in Santa Monica, where I witnessed many medical conditions and social phobias resolving when anger and fear were safely released, tears flowed, and community support was provided. During this same period of time, I became fascinated by how acupuncture also explained that unresolved emotional experiences caused energetic imbalances in specific organs and meridians; and that imbalances in the flow of electrons within their meridian channels eventually caused psychological, musculoskeletal or organ dysfunction. This inspired me to begin many years of training in Chinese Medicine culminating in my board certification in acupuncture from the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.
In 1981 I founded my own holistic health center in Pacific Palisades, CA. I was blessed to meet the father of Applied Kinesiology, Dr. George Goodheart. Dr. Goodheart was a visionary and genius who took me under his wing and worked closely with me as I completed a 450 course in functional neurology leading to a board certification in Applied Kinesiology. I was able to honor his generous mentoring when I was chosen by the International College of Applied Kinesiology to receive a research grant, and became the treating doctor at an Olympic training center where my growing expertise in manual muscle testing was evaluated using 3 dimensional computerized force plate analysis. This successful research won the ICAK Selected Paper of the Year Award and attracted many high profile professional athletes to my practice and to other board certified applied kinesiologists. Today it is quite common for professional sports teams to have a qualified applied kinesiologist on staff. Along the way I've had the pleasure to treat numerous starting players on the 1997-1998 Super Bowl winning Denver Broncos, 2 of the most well known #1 ranked professional women tennis players of all time, starting players on the MLB Colorado Rockies and Boston Red Sox, NHL Colorado Avalanche, NBA basketball players, numerous professional golfers in both the PGA and LPGA, Mr. Olympia body builders, National Champion woman bodybuilders, Olympic skiers, marathon runners and cyclists, and ultra marathon (100 mile race) runners.
During my time in Pacific Palisades, I was honored to be elected to become the only ‘alternative medicine’ member of the Progressive Biognostic Diagnostic Team- a 16 member team of physicians and surgeons that met monthly to brainstorm treatment protocols for patients experiencing very difficult to resolve health conditions. During my participation within this diagnostic group, I learned a great deal more about the skill sets and points of view of many medical specialists. This fostered a deep appreciation for physicians and surgeons and all that they are capable of doing. It also helped me become more aware of the medical limitations of over-focusing on symptomatic relief but and not seeing and evaluating the whole person or getting to the root cause of the problems. Turning off a fire alarm does not put out a fire! My growing ability to diagnose complex problems from an “alternative” medicine perspective lead to me being accepted as an “equal” member of this rather prestigious medical team.
I have enjoyed teaching research based clinical nutrition at medical conferences and have immensely enjoyed seeing medical doctors, osteopaths, naturopaths, chiropractors, acupuncturists and nutritionists all learning together in the same room. I have taught biochemically based clinical nutrition for the Institute for Functional Medicine, Crayhon Research, the International and American Association of Clinical Nutritionists, the National CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Disorder Syndrome) and Fibromyalgia Symposia and the BoulderFest and GlacierFest medical conferences. I’ve been a website host for the Institute for Functional Medicine-a multi-disciplinary organization that focuses on teaching doctors of all persuasions research-based clinical nutrition. My job was to present complex cases online, hear how other doctors would approach that illness, and then present what I did (types of lab testing and treatment protocols) to help resolve that person’s health issue.
When I was teaching, I always encourage doctors to cultivate their “deep listening” skills because this is sometimes the most profound and compassionate form of healing any doctor can offer. Patients, through sharing their traumas, fears, anger, losses and emotional wounds (as well as how they view the meaning their human existence), often give valuable clues as to the appropriate diagnosis and treatment that is best for them. Sometimes being truly heard by another compassionate soul is all they need to heal. I now use these same listening skills to ascertain the needs of the people and companies I consult with.
In 2002, I wrote a book with Robert Rountree, M.D. called A Natural Guide to Pregnancy and Postpartum Health, published by Avery, Putnam, Penguin. This was a project initially started by my wife Stephanie who became aware of a growing population of women who were experiencing postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety. As with so much of my life, my wonderful wife seems to drop these little gems into my lap! In the book, I put forth the premise that many pregnancy and postpartum mood disorders as well as physical ailments are caused by nutritional and hormone deficiencies. A mother’s body donates all the nutrients needed to form her baby’s body and placenta and nature has it wired that any deficiency cause by this fact will be borne by the mother and not the baby. Blood loss during the birthing process can make this nutritional depletion even worse.
Because I did a great deal of laboratory testing in my office to validate the need and specificity of nutritional care, I had looked at a lot of comprehensive lab testing (fatty acids, amino acids, intracellular minerals, organic acids, antioxidants, inflammatory chemicals, hormones, and neurotransmitter urine metabolites) before writing A Natural Guide to Pregnancy and Postpartum Health. This was impetus for my wife Stephanie and I to form our own nutriceutical company, Sound Formulas. Using my formulas, we manufactured the world’s first and only clinically tested postnatal recovery nutrient system and a very comprehensive prenatal formula. It was where I would cut my teeth in learning all the" ins and outs" of the nutrient industry including formulations, contract manufacturing, pricing, quality assurance, record keeping and FDA/FTC regulations.
In my last decade of practice I also enjoyed being the integrative medicine expert on the most popular morning drive time radio show in the Rocky Mountain region. Recently I wrote two chapters for the very first Integrative Psychiatry medical school textbook called Integrative Psychiatry and Depression. It was published in December of 2015 by CRC press. This book has 25 other wonderful authors and it was an honor to be asked to write those two chapters in a very well research medical textbook.
These are some of the events and experiences that influenced me during my 37 years as a practicing integrative doctor. In many ways, the young idealist (the one with hair) who wanted to help change the health care paradigm in the U.S. back then is just as passionate about this dream today.
So now, after almost four decades of clinical practice, (I retired from clinical practice in October 2013), I still consider myself an avid student of healing and of life! I continue to study the functional medicine, nutritional, hormonal, neurological, herbal, psycho-spiritual and Chinese medicine approaches to most of the common diseases that presently plague humankind. Keeping up on the research and staying informed guides my work as an informational and nutriceutical/functional food consultant, product developer and formulator for various nutrient/natural products companies. I'm told by many of my clients that having their products developed by a clinician with decades of experience treating real people using 'before and after' nutritional lab testing is much preferred to working with 'white coat' Ph.Ds who never have seen how their chosen ingredients work in the bodies of real people.
I very much enjoy my work as a consultant and formulator with Barlean’s, one of the largest and finest nutrient companies in the world, as well as my work as Chief Science Advisor and product developer and formulator for Natural Health Sherpa and Metabolic Living. My dream is to do much more in helping to heal many of the ills that presently plague humanity. Helping companies that truly want to help others by offering excellent, research based products is presently my way of doing this. It is deeply satisfying that I have become a member of two highly creative teams, able to brainstorm and offer innovative, highest quality, research-based educational and nutriceutical product solutions to help relieve human suffering.
Thank you so much for your kind patience in reading this. If you are someone whose company shares these values and would like Raffelock and Associate's assistance in offering cutting edge informational and/or nutriceutical products that truly enhance the lives of others, please feel free to contact me. I can be reached at 720-352-7235 or dr.dean.raffelock@gmail.com.
Very Sincerely,
Dr. Dean Raffelock
