Phillips Integrated Health

About

Phillips Integrative Health is a dynamic husband and wife medical team specializing in nutritional and functional medicine.

Story

Dr. Harold Phillips and Dr. Kimberly Phillips are first generation family physicians who also are a husband and wife team. We both graduated from Meharry Medical College, which has a mission for training doctors to care for entire families. After graduating from medical school, we left Meharry Medical College and began our residency training at Baylor College of Medicine (Dr. Harold) and at the University of Texas (Dr. Kim).

Our first introduction to “alternative medicine” actually came from a patient who was a member of a church we attended in Houston, TX. I was taking her medical history and she was discussing with me how her health had dramatically improved over the past 5 to 6 years. When she pulled out her medications, she had a list of about 10-12 herbal and vitamin supplements. She asked me questions about the combination of supplements she was taking and I honestly could not answer her in any depth. It bothered me that my patient had more insights into her health in this area than myself. A few weeks later that same patient came by the office to give me a gift which she said would “Make me an even better Doctor” if I read it. She gave me a book written by a preventative medicine doctor in the early eighties named Dr. Reginald Cherry, M.D. He wrote a book called “The Doctor and the Word”. The book discussed how Dr. Cherry came to know the Lord Jesus Christ and how his experience changed his medical practice. Using a combination of nutrition, supplements, preventative medicine, and the prayer of faith, he helped patients find their “Unique Path” to improved health and wellness.

My wife and I would discuss often how we wished to emulate Dr. Cherry’s model for helping patients overcome the burden of disease. We dedicated time during residency to learning more about nutrition, vitamins, and minerals, herbal supplementation, and spirituality in medicine. However, we were not entirely prepared for the reality of practicing medicine in the “Real World”. In 1998, when we accepted our first job in Connecticut at a local health center, we were thrown into an environment where we began seeing 20 to 25 patients every day, and giving each patient between 15 and 20 minutes per visit. Usually we were able to address one to two issues per visit instead of the multiple issues that really needed to be addressed. After 2-3 years, we left the health center and we opened a private office where we managed our own patients in the hospital, took care of newborn babies, and provided a full spectrum of primary care services for our community. Our practice grew to over 5,000 patients in 4 years. After a short period of time we found ourselves in the same boat. Again working 12-15 hours a day in order to provide proper care for our patients.

To make matters worse, we found ourselves falling into the same destructive habits as many of our patients. After having three children, working greater than 120 hours a week , managing a household and family, getting to bed late, waking up early, drinking too much coffee and caffeinated tea, not making time to eat properly, and abandoning regular exercise, we found ourselves collectively over 140 pounds heavier than when we started medical school 10 years earlier. We had developed medical conditions that were simular to our patients! Our family medical history made matters worse. Certain cancers, diabetes, dementia, cardiovascular issues, and strokes ran on both sides of our families. We knew that we could not continue neglecting our bodies and operating at such a fast pace, however we felt trapped in the “Rat Race of Life”.

Things in our lives took a drastic turn in 2001, when Dr. Kimberly was diagnosed with an “Inoperable tumor” after the birth of our third child and one year into starting our medical office. The tumor was blocking her left main stem bronchus(the main tube to the left lung) and was the size of a small peach. The tumor was felt to be non cancerous, but it was preventing Dr. Kimberly from breathing properly. She could not walk a flight of stairs and she had to sleep sitting upright in order to breathe. It had gotten so bad that she could not take a hot shower because the humidity would cause the area in her left main stem bronchus to swell and close off the lung completely. For greater than one year Dr. Kimberly frequented the emergency room to help her with her breathing and saw specialist after specialist. They wanted to fly her to Nashville, Tennessee in order to see a specialist at Vanderbelt University. The specialists all concluded that surgery would be very difficult to perform. The surgery would probably leave Dr. .Kimberly without the ability to talk and there was a strong chance that the surgery would compromise her aorta and her breathing. This meant that she might not survived the surgery. For greater than one year we stayed in prayer, continued taking the recommended medications and at the same time we continued working in our office, and taking care of our family. After one year and three months, we experienced a true miracle! One day Kimberly was having difficulty breathing and the next day she woke up and said “I can breathe!” At first we could not believe that things had changed. We went back to the pulmonologist who ordered a repeat CAT scan of her chest. The repeat CT scan showed no evidence of the tumor!! Our specialists could not believe or explain the change! Even they said that “This was a miracle.” P.S. (It has now been 9 years and Kimberly has not had a recurrence!)

After this miracle in 2002-2003, Dr. Kimberly and I knew that we had been given a second chance at life. We knew that we needed to take our health more seriously, so we started looking outside of our original training for insights into ways to improve our health. Initially, we started attending conferences in Naturopathic Medicine, Nutritional Medicine, Functional Medicine, and Integrative Medicine specialties. From there we began attending 5-10 day conferences where we learned how to incorporate a “Holistic approach” to patient care in our own office.

We started applying these principles in our personal lives and directly with our patients. Guess what happened? We found that our patient’s health as well as ours was improving!

We started making visits to patients’ homes, cleaning the “junk food” out of their pantries, helping their children and their parents make practical and healthy food choices, and even praying with patients who were having health challenges. A partnership started to form with our patients where whole families were working together to improve their own health! We have helped patients safely come off of insulin, diabetes, cholesterol, and high blood pressure medications and more.

The best part , is that we have applied these same principles to ourselves! We are losing weight, have normal cholesterol, blood sugar, and normal blood pressures! We are no longer fatigued and we are more active than we have ever been. Dr. Kim now takes 3 dance classes (Modern, Tap, and Ballet) every week and I (Dr. Harold) have joined the United States Tennis Association and have started competing locally! Additionally, our children have caught onto these principles and we believe that the changes we have made will help produce good health for generations to come.

After much prayer, we decided in 2007 that we would much rather help patients become healthier as opposed to “placing Band-Aids” over their serious medical issues. We sold our medical practice and building to a physician who wanted to open an “Urgent Care Walk-In Center” and we are in the process of finishing our Masters degree at the University of Bridgeport in Human Nutrition.

We have spent a number of years now creating a new medical model which will incorporate traditional medicine, nutrition, supplements, preventative techniques, and the prayer of faith, to help you live a life without the “Burden of Disease”. Let us help you find your “Unique Pathway” to health and wellness!

We look forward to seeing you!

Sincerely,

Drs. Harold and Kimberly Phillips

Mission

We have spent a number of years now creating a new medical model which will incorporate traditional medicine, nutrition, supplements, preventative techniques, and the prayer of faith, to help you live a life without the “Burden of Disease”. Let us help you find your “Unique Pathway” to health and wellness!