Journey of Health in Arizona
About the Arizona practice:
Journey of Health has been based in California for more than 12 years and has expanded to Arizona. We help patients find access to alternative care. There is a huge shortage of primary care physicians in Arizona. Reports such as this news article show that 50% of Arizonian are unable to find physicians to work with and yet Arizona is rapidly growing and is the 4th largest growing state. This means that many individuals are delaying appropriate care or screening because they cannot find someone comfortable to work with or someone to meet their needs. It is not just that options for healthcare are limited when you go to your insurance based doctor, but you may also feel like you are not heard or even compartmentalized so your symptoms do not integrate even though you are one body.
What makes us different:
At Journey of Health, our passion is to revitalize care plans using old medicine to treat our modern illnesses. It is important for you to have safe and natural options, but it is crucial to learn how to use them so you can thrive! Preventing disease and feeling empowered are added bonuses that our patients find too.
The demand for alternative medicine and complimentary options is increasing but educated and qualified professionals are limited. If you are looking for safe and effective options, we may be a good fit for you.
In our office, we talk about using natural options whenever possible. One in three Americans are seeking for alternative medicine options. There is a growing sense that some old-fashioned black bag options like the old apothecary of herbs and homeopathy and nutrition have some answers! Now when we mix that with some modern-day science to understand the mechanisms of why and when they are safe and most effective, patients win.
We are naturopathic medicine tailored to your needs. Not everyone’s symptoms look the same. Your health goals and concerns will be explored so we can find answers in your journey toward wellness and better balance. We are a primary care office since the body’s imbalance manifests in many ways, and we specialize in matching natural options to the individual.
Contact us today to schedule your appointment or to learn more!
About the Doctor:
Dr. Shannyn Fowl, NMD is licensed in both Arizona and California. She works best with patients who are serious about finding answers to their health problems and finding long term balance. Dr. Shannyn takes a holistic approach in her own personal life and often tries treatments personally. If applicable, before asking a patient to follow through on a change. Balancing her life with hobbies, interests along with the work of good nutrition, exercise and appropriate supplementation has empowered her to find answers on her own health journey. Her thrill in life is to see patients on their own journey to health.
Medical experience:
Dr. Shannyn started her health experience quite young as an herbalist reader and applied it to animal husbandry. She partially trained as a midwife before becoming a nurse aide working in setting from emergency to restorative to hospice. This really allowed her to have hands on experience with diverse pathology and understanding of patients that should would take into her medical career. Her experience in medicine is over 25 years.
Teaching:
She taught continuing education for nurses for ten years at the community college for classes such as Introduction to Naturopathic Medicine, The Natural First Aide Kit and Homeopathy and Hydrotherapy for the Family. Some of these classes are being converted to online classes accessible to families. See my upcoming classes to keep updated on these offerings.
Dr. Shannyn also taught pediatrics at a naturopathic medical school for a couple of years while the faculty was in transition.
Research:
Dr. Shannyn is also an ongoing principal investigator for a research company overseeing the compliance of research collections.
What is a Naturopathic Physician?
Naturopathic physicians attend federally accredited 4-year postgraduate level medical schools and are trained in the same medical sciences and treatment options as other physicians such as pharmaceuticals, imaging, lab, gynecology, psychology, immunology, etc. The added benefit of additional natural and old fashioned treatments are also part of the curriculum such as nutrition, physiotherapy, IV therapy and so much more.
You can find more about the training of naturopathic physicians here.
Modalities Where You May Find Help
Clinical Nutrition
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food- Hippocrates
Dr. Shannyn firmly believes that one of your greatest tools to finding optimal health is by understanding that food is a most powerful medicine. Discovering food intolerances and understanding the challenges of today’s food sources can help shape the right diet for your individual needs. Choosing the right foods and finding what you need to avoid is a key part of treatment. Every modern disease can be helped by an optimal diet, including diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, heart disease, autoimmune disease, arthritis, anxiety, and obesity. Food is medicine. The right choice of foods can help address hormone problems and digestive complaints as well as give you more energy, less brain fog, and better sleep.
Anti-Aging and Prevention of Disease
Aging well is all about preventing the damage of long-term inflammation. This is an important part of regular care. Understanding where the risks for an individual are and nourishing the system before it becomes a disease process. This also means screening and learning about the new updated ways to screen and what makes the most sense for the individual. For example, knowing your heart risk by measuring the thicknesses of the layers of the heart when you have family heart history can be a huge way of assessing whether the prevention plan is working. Why guess when you can know? Research is exploding in new labs and screening options.
Environmental Medicine and Emunctorology
This includes strategies to avoid and eliminate toxins in everyday life and diet. It also means knowledge of the symptoms that common toxins can cause. Avoidance is key, and learning to choose the safest foods, personal care, and home cleaning products is the first step.
Emunctorology is the art of opening up elimination pathways in the body or detoxing in the absence of a better term. Bringing the body back to Balance. The attempt to shift back to normal Physiology. We know so much about normal physiology, but pathology is constantly changing. The need for emunctorizing, eliminating, detoxing, etc, is a great need in our population.
Forever Chemicals are a great example of this. PFAs and PFOAs are being found everywhere, from the rain in Brazil to leaching out of waste management systems into the soil. Known to cause cancers of all sorts, the immune system cannot seem to keep up. These chemicals do not break down, so the need to eliminate them and prevent confusion in the immune system is higher in patients with autoimmune diseases as well.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1106863211/the-dangers-of-forever-chemicals
Homeopathy:
Dr. Shannyn is trained in classical homeopathy, which takes into account the whole of a person, physically, mentally, and emotionally to guide in the selection of the correct remedy to stimulate the person’s vital force to heal itself. She uses homeopathy throughout her practice for acute conditions, first aid, surgery recovery, and complicated cases. It is very gentle, safe, and often very effective. Dr. Shannyn also teaches families how to use homeopathy in their family life.
Can you afford naturopathic care?
It is about the outcome and the lasting outcomes of staying on track with your health goals. Not only do healthy lifestyles predict a decrease in chronic disease, but when there is a hiccup, they greatly mitigate the potential side effects and improve recovery. Prevention is very much a part of Naturopathic Medicine. So that is a question you will need to ask yourself, can you afford the risk of going it alone and the potential outcomes of disease?
Becoming an Arizona Patient:
Step 1: The first step in becoming a patient in Arizona is filling out patient paperwork, reading over the new patient paperwork, and asking any questions that may not have been answered.
Email us for patient paperwork
Step 2: After you get the paperwork in, your patient portal will be created where you can schedule an appointment.
Step 3: Bring your goals and questions to your appointment and create a plan for wellness.
Clinical Publications
“Treating Pneumonia: When Antibiotic Fail” Oct 2018
Naturopathic Doctor News and Review,
Cardiopulmonary Medicine Issue
“Getting to Know the Relatives: The Importance of MTHFR Screening” Aug 2015
Naturopathic Doctor News and Review, Vol 11: Issue 8.
“Childhood Depression and Chocolat 200C” ~Oct 2012
Naturopathic Doctor News and Review
