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Health Counselor
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Health Counselor
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One of the true pioneers in the in natural health field, Carolyn DeMarco, M.D. is devoting her life to making ours better.
For over 25 years, Dr. DeMarco has been advancing the cause of women's health in her mottler country of Canada. She has played an integral role in promoting natural childbirth and is a leading advocate for midwives.
Since the early 1970s, Dr. DeMarco has pioneered the movement toward a woman's right to have natural childbirth at home as well as at the hospital. "At that time it was very controversial. Today, it's much more accepted," she states. In fact, midwifery is now legal in two provinces, Ontario and British Columbia.
Although she is passionately dedicated to natural health, Dr. DeMarco's primary goal is to combine the best of both worlds. This calls for health professionals in conventional and natural medicine working together to provide optimum health care for everyone. It's called complementary medicine and it is the future. And few health professionals work harder at getting that message to the people than Dr. DeMarco.
"Information is power! I feel it is extremely important that the public be aware of complementary medicine and what their health choices are," she explained.
"In fact, I prefer the term complementary medicine rather than alternative because natural medicine should act as a complement to conventional therapy. There is a real time and place for conventional medicine, especially in emergencies."
Communication is the key
Fortunately, Dr. DeMarco takes her role as mass communicator very seriously. Currently, she is a nationally syndicated columnist for newspapers across Canada, including the country's largest, the Toronto Star. Her column is appropriately titled "LifeLine" and in it she educates readers about women's health topics and natural alternatives of interest to both genders, such as acupuncture, naturopathy, homeopathy and chiropractic. Through this column she reaches millions of readers on a monthly basis.
But that's just the beginning of her informational impact on the mainstream. Dr. DeMarco works as a medical advisor and contributing writer for Health Naturally magazine, one of Canada's leading natural health publications. She is a regularly featured guest on a variety of television and radio programs broadcast across the country. She is a weekly health columnist on cable television, and, once a month, Dr. DeMarco can be seen on the national call-in talk show City Line, on the network station, CityTV, where she fields health questions from the live audience and telephone callers alike.
Read all about it
Dr. DeMarco is also the author of a best-selling book tilled, Take Charge of Your (Body, Women's Health Advisor. This revolutionary book was written specifically to inform and inspire women about their rights to a better quality of life. It covers every important health issue women face, including estrogen replacement therapy, stress, pregnancy, yeast infections, mammograms and menopause. Take Charge of Your Body is a detailed, yet easy-toread reference book that has received critical acclaim, and welcome approval from women's groups across North America.
"A sixth edition of my book is already available. There is so much information out there, that it has quadrupled in size since I first published it in 1992," said Dr. DeMarco.
In this ground breaking work, she urges women to educate their doctors and to treat them as a resource rather than an authority. She warns about the overuse of tranquilizers, antidepressants, antibiotics, and hormones. She supports the use of simple and safe natural alternatives to the drugs and surgery of conventional medicine. She reminds women of their power in the midst of hormonal upheavals like PMS and menopause. Ultimately, Dr. DeMarco teaches women to listen to their bodies, to educate themselves and explore alternative treatments.
"We must be informed consumers to make the proper health choices. Women are very pivotal in the changes that are happening because they not only help to educate their doctors, but they're also the primary caretakers of their own families," explained Dr. DeMarco.
From the beginning
Carolyn DeMarco graduated with a medical degree from the University of Toronto in 1972. She soon discovered through trial and error that her training as a general practitioner in women's health was "maybe not so optimal."
"I only received one day of nutrition education while in medical school, so I basically knew nothing about it. So it didn't take long to realize that there is more to health than what I was taught" she said.
It was her passionate involvement in women's issues that first led this medical doctor to include natural health alternatives in her practice. A number of her patients suffered ailments that failed to respond to traditional treatments. The standard investigations failed to find anything wrong with them, yet they still had aches and pains. Other doctors told them that the pain was all in their heads.
"It was extremely frustrating because I could find no diagnosis and nothing to offer them. That's when my interest in natural medicine started," she said.
Another event confirmed for her the value of nutrition in health. Her early work in natural childbirth revealed a startling truth, that unlike her meat eating patients, vegetarian women did not suffer from toxemia during pregnancy. This was a remarkable discovery because toxemia, or eclampsia, is one of the three main causes that can lead to the death of the mother and/or baby. Suddenly, she realized just how critical diet is to not only good health but to possibly making a difference between life and death as well I.
Learning from her mentors
Two individuals played a key role in turning her attention toward natural health treatments. They were Harvey Taylor and Millie Anderson.
"Harvey was a caretaker for a museum and Millie was a hairdresser, but they were very unusual people with a wide scope of education and experience in natural health. People used to come to them from all over to get their advice," said Dr. DeMarco.
"From early on they both instilled in me the notion that I could not be a real doctor without practicing natural therapies. They were my mentors," she said.
Perhaps buoyed by Millie and Harvey's dedication to natural health, Dr. DeMarco is taking her cause to the people who can possibly make the biggest impact on changing the traditional approach to healthcare -the medical doctors themselves. Through seminars and lectures, she has been reaching out to her colleagues, who, for the most part, have been responsive. Through her many years of effort, Dr. DeMarco is finally convinced that, `'the time is ripe for change!" As one of the few physicians in Canada who is involved in both conventional and alternative medicine, she is definitely making her voice heard.
Expanding her horizons
Although she regularly travels to work in Toronto from her home in British Columbia some 3,000 miles away, Dr. DeMarco is gradually moving away from her clinical practice and more into research, education and writing. This change will involve more travel to other countries, including the United States. And this is great news because she'll be able to reach a far greater amount of people with her message of complementary medicine and personal empowerment.
"My philosophy stresses taking control of your own health; being aware of complementary medicine and the choices in health care. You are ultimately the best judge of what will make you healthy and whole," said Dr. DeMarco.
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