About Dr. Martin

I am able to do this because of my unique training in Internal, Integrative, Functional and Holistic Medicine. This education allows me to see things from an entirely different perspective incorporating a variety of diagnostic and treatment modalities that conventional Western doctors don’t utilize. Below are some things that I place tremendous value on:

1. Time. My first appointment with you is 55-85 minutes long. This is determined by you when you schedule your appointment. If you have complicated issues, a long medical history, have been to many other healthcare providers, or have had many diagnostic studies you would like me to review, an 85 minute session is a better option, as it gives me more time to get understand and analyze your concerns and formulate a plan. Our current problem in medicine is that doctors don’t have enough time with patients to understand their issues, examine them and formulate a course of action. Doctors barely have time to listen to a complaint and write a prescription. Physician extenders are put under the same time constraints with even less skill.

2. Listening. My entire attention is focused on you. I sit across from you at eye level, ask you many questions and listen. I listen with the purpose to understand you. I take notes the old fashioned way, not with my head buried in a computer. Although technology is amazing and has modernized medicine exponentially, as doctors we still need to listen and concentrate our attention on our patients.

3. I believe you. I have no reason not to. You live with yourself 24/7. You know all about you, and as your consultant, the more information I have, the more I can help. I have not met a single patient whose symptoms were all in their head as some of their other providers may have suggested.

4. Open-mindedness. I am extremely open-minded. I have studied medicine as practiced by different cultures and peoples from around the world. I accept that there are concepts in Eastern medicine that we don’t have in Western medicine nor can we explain them. However, just because we cannot explain something like “Qi” or even understand it due to our Western worldview doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Of course I work within your belief system and your level of comfort. I try to be very mindful of your religious, cultural and social convictions and respect your boundaries on autonomy and care.

5. Diagnostics. Diagnostics start with a physical exam! Unfortunately this is something that is becoming underutilized in healthcare today. Western medicine also provides us with formidable technologically advanced laboratory and radiology testing. Due to my functional medicine training over the last 20 years I am able to offer some incredible, pioneering state-of-the-art laboratory testing that most doctors and providers don’t use. This is because some of the most innovative tests are not covered or only partially covered by insurance and therefore conventional medicine is deprived of some awesome testing. As an example, this may include functional stool testing where you collect stool from 3 separate bowel movements that are sent to a ‘specialty lab’ to be analyzed under the microscope, cultured, assessed for your microbiome, pancreatic function, inflammation, etc. I do genetic testing, nutrient and amino acid analysis, heavy metal testing, mold and chemical toxin levels, cutting edge cardiac risk assessment in addition to the standard labs I can get from our local laboratories. These of course include (but are not limited to) advanced hormone testing for thyroid, adrenal, and sex hormones, chemistries, inflammatory markers, CBCs, vitamin and mineral levels, to name a few. I am also affiliated with some excellent radiologists in town who are very skilled and go the extra mile.

6. Holistic & Integrative. Holistic means that I evaluate you as a whole, addressing your entire body, while also attending to the emotional, mental, spiritual and energetic factors underlying your physical being. It means concentrating on body, mind and spirit, and integrating alternative, traditional and conventional medical modalities from around the world in a way that is most effective, least invasive and aligned with your beliefs.

7. Experience. I have over 25 years experience in a variety of medical and accompanying social issues, diagnostics, and treatments from a conventional, alternative and energy medicine perspective and how to integrate them all holistically. I have been practicing in Denver since 1998 when I was originally hired as a holistic physician to treat patients whom others had failed to help and provide bio-identical hormone therapy to patients seeking alternatives to conventional medicines.

A. Holistic Medicine. I was born and raised in Europe and became indoctrinated in traditional folk medicine already as a child. Holistic medicine is routinely incorporated in German healthcare in the form of botanicals, homeopathy, energy medicine, and detoxification and purification cleanses derived from the ancient Romans. I grew up in this environment and so it only seemed natural that I would incorporate these into my own practice of medicine. During my internal medicine residency at Maricopa Medical Center, I spent a month-long rotation in Germany with an Internist who taught me how he assimilated alternative medicine into his mainstream practice. In addition, he did some things in 1994 that we are only starting to do here now.

B. As an educated and trained Osteopathic doctor, I am very much a believer in structural medicine and the benefits of manipulation and body work. This may be through Osteopathy, Chiropractic, Massage, Yoga, Rolfing, Feldendrais, Alexander, MAT, Pilates and any one of the other countless techniques available. I had the privilege of learning cranial manipulation from Dr. Viola Frymann, a pioneer in osteopathic medicine, who taught me things I didn’t think were possible.

C. Internal Medicine. After a one-year transitional internship at Botsford General Hospital in Farmington Hills, MI, I moved to Phoenix, AZ to pursue a residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the Maricopa Medical Center, then the largest county hospital in Arizona. My focus was critical care medicine and I concentrated my training with ICU and CCU rotations in addition to Geriatrics. I am forever indebted to all my attendings and teachers who imparted their knowledge, wisdom and experiences unto me. As a chief resident, I was responsible for giving presentations to my fellow residents, acting as a junior attending and handling administrative duties while learning how a hospital operates. I became Board Certified in Internal Medicine in 1997 and have re-certified in 2007 and 2018. Studies show that doctors who maintain their board certification are better physicians which is why maintenance of board certification is highly valued.

D. Body, Mind & Spirit & Energy Medicine. I was first introduced to this concept during my Internal Medicine Residency by Gladys McGarey, MD, one of the founders of the American Holistic Medical Association. Dr. McGarey was an iconic healer born in the early 1920’s in India to American physician missionary parents. To be raised in India during this time by two doctors was highly unusual and gave her a perspective way ahead of her time. While living in Phoenix, I attended her monthly holistic medicine meetings and was extremely grateful to shadow her in her clinic and be mentored by her. I joined the American Holistic Medical Association, became Board Certified in Holistic Medicine in its inaugural exam in 2002. Dr. McGarey’s unique perspective shaped mine. She opened up my eyes to the world of Energy Medicine, which I have continued to pursue an education and training in, learning from all kinds of leaders in their fields, such as Caroline Myss, PhD, Barbara Ann Brennan, PhD, Donna Eden, Sonia Choquette, PhD, Mona Lisa Schulz, MD, Brian Weiss, MD, Eric Pearl, DC and  ISSSEEM, the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies & Energy Medicine.

E. Functional Medicine. In 1998, I met Jeffrey Bland, PhD, a biochemist who trained with Dr. Linus Pauling. Dr. Bland is a specialist in Orthomolecular Medicine and became a brilliant educator in the field of Functional Medicine, a term he coined. Every year, this fast-talking genius would conduct a speaking tour around the US and lecture doctors about the medical advances and cutting edge research in evidence-based medicine as it pertained to Functional Medicine. In addition, he founded the Institute for Functional Medicine and created courses that educated any open-minded healthcare provider. However, early on, many of us learned directly through him and other pioneers in this field, practicing with our patients and developing skills before certification was available. I have been following Dr. Bland for 20 years now and count him as another one of my special mentors. I am happy to see the field has grown tremendously. Regrettably this interest has not been embraced by conventional medicine.

F. Integrative Medicine. As I previously mentioned, I was introduced to integrating conventional internal medicine with alternative medicine practices from the Internist I shadowed in Germany back in 1994. During my residency, while living in Phoenix, I attended seminars in Tucson by Dr. Andrew Weil. I was very impressed by his no-nonsense, straight-forward logical way of looking at things and his articulate manner of lecturing. Dr. Weil’s original interest was in botany and he studied from shamans around the world. This aligned with my upbringing with botanical and herbal medicines and I was fascinated with his experiences. Dr. Weil founded the Program of Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson and developed a two-year fellowship to educate and train doctors in the field of Integrative Medicine which I completed in 2002. Today this medicine includes a Board Certification. I became Board Certified in Integrative Medicine with its inaugural exam in November 2015. Dr. Weil has been another very important mentor in my life.

G. Continued Medical Education. A doctor never stops learning, whether through regular board certification and recertification or taking annual courses and seminars, reading studies, journals and books. Although I am constantly learning, the following areas have held particular interest:
Ayurveda with Dr. Vasant Lad and Dr. Deepak Chopra. Detoxification with Joe Pizzorno, ND, Walter Crinnion, ND, Stephen Genuis, MD, Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, etc. Orthomolecular Medicine with Alan Gaby, MD, Jonathan Wright, MD and of course Jeffrey Bland, PhD. BioSet certification with Ellen Cutler, DC.

H. Acupuncture. In 2004 I completed the Joe Helms, MD/UCLA Acupuncture course, a 300 hour intensive training program for physicians.

I. Patient Experience. I have been a doctor since 1992. I have had the extraordinary opportunity to learn and train from all kinds of experts, however, nobody has taught me as much as my patients have. I have learned to listen, read between the lines, ask questions, be humble and compassionate and learn from our experiences. My patients collectively have made me the doctor I am today.

8. Not taking insurance. Although some may look at this as a negative, it is very much a positive. By opting out of insurance and Medicare, I work for you. Healthcare providers who contract with your insurance work for the insurance company, much like your Congressmen/women who accept campaign contributions from special interest groups work for them. Insurance companies heavily regulate the medical industry, from dictating payments, issuing  physician report cards, to influencing how providers practice medicine and the time they spend with patients.

9. Consultant. I am a consultant and cannot be your PCP or primary care provider. I work with you and for you, not against you, or for your insurance company. I am not a “gatekeeper,” nor do I wish to be. It is not ‘my way or the highway’. My focus is to elucidate the root cause and optimize your health. I look for the obstacles standing in the way of your healing and the deficiencies and excesses that may impede your recovery. I am a medical detective and forensic analyst leaving no stone unturned. I work with your entire healthcare team.

10. Personal Medical Issues. After the birth of my first child in 1994, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. My own experience with an autoimmune disease has led me to become extremely well-versed in this area.

In 2007, I developed a kidney stone. It was the easiest diagnosis I’ve ever had to make and I did everything in my power to get that stone to pass. However it was too large, had lodged itself in my ureter and wouldn’t budge. The conventional medicine laser surgery that ensued the next day was a godsend. I incorporated homeopathy, botanical, energy and spiritual medicine in the post-operative period. Being faced with an acute medical emergency of not being able to urinate reaffirmed how much I appreciate being an integrative medicine doctor who utilizes all medicine has to offer from around the world.

I am grateful to be very knowledgeable and experienced in bio-identical hormone therapy for over 20 years, especially since this expertise has facilitated my own hormonal transitions.

In 2017, I was heavily exposed to mold and chemically-loaded construction materials. I developed a toxic encephalopathy which led to some scary memory loss and significantly affected my ability to study and learn for my decennial Internal Medicine board exam. I have completely recovered my brain function and healed my memory loss 110%. Fortunately holistic, functional and integrative medicine were particularly well-equipped to deal with this issue and I was able to diagnose and treat the problem swiftly and pass my boards.

11. I Practice What I Preach. I live the lifestyle I recommend. I eat the way I advise my patients, I exercise, take supplements, meditate and try to live a balanced life. This includes detoxifying my body, mind and spirit regularly and assimilating as many healthy living tips as possible.