Instead of Drugs or Surgery, This Holistic Doc Prescribes Healthy Food
Hippocrates, the ‘father of modern medicine,’ has known for his quote ‘let food be thy medicine.’ Many of us live by that quote, and even doctors are adopting a more natural, holistic approach in the medical field.
One doctor in Houston, Texas takes that advice to heart. Instead of prescribing an infinite number of expensive pharmaceutical drugs to his patients, Dr. Garth Davis makes eating right the foundation for people’s health.
Why such an out-of-the-box attitude toward healing? Dr. Davis has treated so many patients with diabetes and high blood pressure, knowing that diet could treat their ailments, becoming increasingly frustrated with a medical system which simply doles out another prescription drug instead of addressing the problem at its root.
As a doctor of bariatric surgery at Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center, he no longer hands out prescriptions for pharmaceuticals, but instead teaches his patients about diet and lifestyle changes that can lead them to better health. He says that so far, patients have responded very well to the change.
Dr. Davis explains:
“As physicians, we perform surgery or prescribe medications to our patients to make them well. Why not also educate them on healthy eating, and make fresh fruits and vegetables readily available?”
Together, Dr. Davis, Kristina Gabrielle Carrillo-Bucaram, the founder and chief co-operator of Rawfully Organic, the Memorial Hermann Memorial City Medical Center Hospital, and the Memorial Hermann Foundation have opened the “Farmacy Stand,” where from 10am to 2pm every Wednesday, patients can order boxes of organic food for $10 off the normally-priced $25 a box if they were prescribed fresh produce for their health.
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Some are confused by the idea:
“I have people come up to me and tell me that farmacy was misspelled,” said Renee Garrett, senior patient access representative at the Davis Clinic. “I tell them that it is spelled correctly. We get organic vegetables from farms, and then the people want me to tell them more about what we are doing.”
Garrett helps to run the stand every Wednesday.
Dr. Davis even has prescription pads he has shared with other doctors so that they can prescribe fresh, organic fruits and vegetables for their patients, too. Dr. Davis hopes other hospitals will continue what he started and teach patients just how important good food is to their overall health.
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Featured image credit: Tom Behrens
This is great. So if a doctor prescribes certain foods for some disease or condition and the patient buys it from him, does their health insurance pay for it?