Not many parents can say they've never given their child antibiotics or painkillers for an ear infection or sore throat, but first-year medical resident Dr. Aviva Lom can.
In fact, when her son, a second-year medical student at Boston University, accidentally cut a classmate while dissecting a pig in the university's biology lab, the son told her that his mother had given him herbal remedies. I thought she would advise me (her standard treatment). Her children's illness.
“I told him he needed antibiotics right away,” laughs Lom, who worked as a certified midwife and herbalist for more than 20 years before enrolling at Yale School of Medicine at age 39 last spring. graduated. .
For nearly a decade, she has served as president of the American Herbal Society, an organization that sets standards and educates professional herbalists.
A resident at Yale University, she believes there is much to be gained by bridging the alternative and conventional medical communities and hopes to do so in her career.
Rom recently spoke to the Yale University Journal & Calendar about her experiences with both natural and conventional medicine. Here's what we learned.
A girl at a science fair: Growing up in a housing project in New York City, Lom says she's been a “science geek” for as long as she can remember.
At age 15, she enrolled at Bard College in Simon's Rock, Massachusetts. At this university, talented students can enter university without graduating from high school. There, she was exposed to Eastern philosophy and transformed, she says, “from a city girl to a hippie girl.” At age 16, she began her apprenticeship with a Muslim midwife who worked primarily in the African American community of Roxbury, Massachusetts.
One of the first: After completing her internship in Atlanta, Rom became one of the first certified professional midwives in the nation at just 20 years old.
Early on, she began using herbs to treat common ailments in pregnant women and their young children.
“One of the first herbal remedies I used was for a family suffering from head lice,” recalls the Yale University resident. “At the time, the only insecticide on the market was Kwell®, so I found some old recipes with green soap and lavender that worked.”
Little by little, Rom learned about other herbs and added them to her repertoire of gentle treatments for common ailments.
“When I started studying herbal medicine in 1981, there were only a few commercially available books on the subject, along with turn-of-the-century old botany. , the clientele was a group of people interested in a kind of “repatriation,” a move away from the doctor's office and finding other ways to treat themselves and their families. ”
They were radicals then: Before the term “alternative medicine” became popular, people who practiced herbal medicine or home birth midwifery were considered radicals by many, Lom says. In fact, home birth assistance is still illegal in many states.
But in the past 10 years, Rom has written books such as “The Natural Pregnancy Book: Herbs, Nutrition, and Other Holistic Choices,” “Naturally Healthy Babies and Children,” and “Vaccinations: A Guide for the Thoughtful Parent.” He became widely known after publishing books such as: and “Alternatives to ADHD: A Natural Approach to Treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder” (co-authored with her husband, Tracey Lom). Her textbook “Plant Medicine for Women's Health'' was published by Elsevier last year.
She wrote most of her books while homeschooling her four (now almost adult) children and continuing her midwifery career, first in Georgia and then in Michigan.
Promoting safe use: Rom was invited to apply to join the Herbalist Guild of America after taking a professional training course in herbal medicine taught by Michael Tierra, who founded the professional organization in 1989.
“While I shared a passion for herbal medicine, I wanted it to be done with great standards and integrity,” Rom recalls.
When Rom joined, the organization had less than 300 members, but now has approximately 1,400 professional herbalist members worldwide. As President, she plays an active role in setting standards for the practice and education of plant medicine in the United States.
A resident at Yale University, she also founded her own distance learning certification program, Herbal Medicine for Women.
Her path to Yale: Although Rom never took the SAT, she qualified for a post-baccalaureate program with the goal of becoming a doctor.
She decided to study conventional medicine in part because she felt she could better help patients with a more formal qualification.
“While society's interest in alternative medicine is increasing, there is a lack of certification for herbal medicine,” Rom explains. “Standards are very variable. For example, when people hear about marketing scams for herbal supplements, those of us who practice using herbs fall into that category. We judge by the lowest common denominator. It will be done.”
At medical school and Yale-New Haven Hospital, her colleagues have been very open to her unconventional experiences and sometimes ask her for advice.
“One of the reasons I wanted to come to Yale was because I thought it was the place where I could best maintain my individuality,'' says the resident.
She insists that her opinions on medicine are in no way radical.
“In my view, when it comes to trauma, the Western [or conventional] “Medications are best,” she explains, “but I think that for mild illnesses and some chronic conditions, using conventional treatments can sometimes do more harm than good.” Sometimes we don't have enough faith in our bodies' natural healing powers.
Integrative Medicine: As a medical student, Rom proposed adding formal integrative medicine classes (combining traditional and alternative medical philosophies) to medical school curricula. Her proposal was accepted, and Rom helped design the course, which is now required for second-year students.
She was also invited to create Yale's first Women's Health Internal Medicine residency program for internal medicine physicians who want to specialize in women's health. In addition, faculty in the pediatric training program asked Rom to create a pediatric integrative medicine component for the program.
“I think Western medicine practitioners have a lot to learn from well-trained and honest alternative medicine practitioners,” Rom says. “At the same time, the alternative medicine community has a lot to gain from the critical thinking skills you develop in medical school.”
After completing her training, Rom plans to focus on primary care.
“My goal is to bridge the gap between women's health and primary care,” she says. “Women in their 20s and 30s often only see a gynecologist, but once they reach their 40s, they need to see their family doctor. We hope to provide continuous care.”
She says one of the best ways to stay healthy is to “avoid going to the doctor's office whenever possible. That was my belief before I came to medical school, and it still has changed a lot.” “I haven't,” he added. “I still believe in the power of natural healing with a balanced perspective and plenty of common sense.”
