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Seeing patients' sickness despite loss of eyesight |
By Laurent
Bonczijk, Newberg Graphic reporter
E-mail Laurent at bonczijk@eaglenewspapers.com
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Christina Cooke, 42, has
a talking thermometer and a talking blood pressure reader. It’s not
that she lacks company for conversation, but when you are blind and
a doctor those are the tools of the trade.
Cooke is a doctor of naturopathic medicine. She earned her
doctorate in June 2006 from the National College of Natural Medicine
in Portland after five grueling years of graduate school.
Notwithstanding class time of about 25 credits per term, her program
included 1,000 hours of clinical training and 264 hours of observing
other naturopathic doctors.
She
said her blindness was not the most challenging part of becoming a
doctor. “It wasn’t the things that required sight, but what everyone
else had challenges with,” she said. Learning hundreds of pages of
materials while trying to have a little bit of a life proved
difficult.
Being a naturopathic doctor is not much different than being a
medical doctor, Cooke said. Both are primary care physicians. But
naturopaths focus on the cause of illness so as to educate people
and treat the whole person. She cited the example of a middle age
man’s waist transitioning from six-pack- to keg-like. Her goal would
be to educate the patient so that he changes his diet to prevent the
onset of diseases related to being overweight.
It’s “all about educating patients,” she said.
Cooke graduated from George Fox University in 1987 with a bachelor’s
degree in piano performance. For many years she taught private
lessons as well as at Open Bible School.In the mid-1990s her health
unraveled following a blow to the head and a broken nose. She was
ill for two years. She became interested in how she could improve
her overall health and found out about naturopathic medicine.
“We really try to stave off things before they happen,” she said.
“If you break your arm you need to go to the emergency room.”
Where naturopaths shine, she said, is treating patients with
chronic diseases.
It begins with a taking a thorough patient medical history. Then
comes a physical exam conducted mostly by touch. Cooke said that for
those people that require a visual examination she will have an
assistant, who would not be diagnosing. Being blind has advantages
she said: “People love it that I don’t get distracted by something
out the window.”
Another asset is a 4-and-a-half-year-old Yellow Lab named Lorena,
her guide dog. During her training she witnessed the dog being a
moral boost for the mentally ill, asking for tummy rubs from
depressed patients.
Cooke has just opened a practice in town, Healing for you, leasing
space in the Springbrook Chiropractor building located at 1015 N
Springbrook Road. Appointments are available by calling
503-984-5652.
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Published
June 6, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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