Dr. Lydia Online

My ministry is helping others.  From being an available mother, wife & part-time physician, to the community volunteer positions I hold, my life revolves around helping folks. How about you? I'm about to lay out the why's and how's of volunteerism in my own life and why it's good for your all-around health. I will also discuss healthy boundaries (particularly for women like myself) because a life bound to others is slavery, not service! Beginnings I'd like to say my days of volunteering started early. They did not. I was not that kid that put in hours of community service in high school to rack up goody-goody points for my college application. I thought those people were, well, disingenuous. Instead, my exposure to helping others started at home with my grandparents that lived across the street. I loved helping my grandparents and they loved me helping!  From carrying groceries to the house, to raking leaves, heaving heavy plants in and out of the bas...

There's been a lot of buzz about the ketogenic diet in the past few years. To be honest, I was a bit skeptical about its claims and how it could possibly be sustainable. Admittedly, I have been well-doctrinized by "evidence-based medicine" from my infancy as a doctor and it's hard to be open to deviations to something as stalwart as the USDA Food Pyramid: Tweaks like Mediterranean Diet, Pritikin Diet, Blue Zone Diet, even the Daniel Plan and vegetarianism all hover around the old adage...but to flip the thing completely upside down? Ha! My husband, Dr. Greg, has been reading up on all kinds of age-medicine related topics and he's been throwing around keto for months now. His pressuring me really hit the fan around the holidays and I pretty much told him to take a hike. Keto is life-changing eating! What woman on earth has time to plan for that during the holidays?? And so, the holidays came. We went home to see my family for Christmas and I had already ...

As a follow up to my last post "Direct Primary Care," I want to continue to discuss this emerging practice style. Why? Because it seems like a good fit for my values as a physician and yours as a potential patient. What DPC is: DPC is a modern twist on old school doctoring. Back in the day, before hospitals started gobbling them up, physicians graduated from medical school and hung out a shingle at their very own office. They charged patients what made sense and made a living. Easy. DPC is the solution for doctors who want to take back their professional lives and do the kind of medical work they were trained to do. It's so simple, I want to cry! Basically, DPC is a membership model. Some call it concierge medicine for everyone. The doctor looks at her expenses in opening her own office, decides how many patients she wants to take care of and cap out at, then determines how much to charge patients in a monthly retainer or membership fee. There are discounts f...

I've been on this hamster wheel just a year and a half and it's already killing me. Let me explain: For the first 10 years of my medical practicing days, I worked extremely part-time holding clinic hours one day per week. I did this so that I could raise my children at home. Being a stay-at-home mom was a priority for me and my husband and we made it work. I have ZERO regrets that I got to see all of my kid's milestones reached and focused on my children's welfare instead of building a medical practice. I'd recommend every woman that can, STAY AT HOME WITH YOUR KIDS! But I digress. Working as a 1/5 physician equivalent actually worked out well for me, because I felt like with a small panel of patients, I spent a lot of time with them and took great care of the ones who became my regulars. I know them by name and love them dearly. I LOVED going to work in those days because I got to take a break from the kids and talk to adults! Win-win! However, those same...

Give yourself a break! Women, I'm talking to you: Why do we push ourselves beyond the breaking point during the Christmas season? Take a minute and let that sink in... Why? Didn't Jesus come to us lowly, born in a manger...to SAVE us? Eh? So I ask you again, Ladies: Why do we push ourselves beyond the breaking point during the Christmas season?  I have already seen casualties of the Holiday Rush in my office. Broken women, weeping, acutely ill with "The Crud" and about to throw out Baby Jesus with the bathwater of all of the stress of the holidays! This breaks my heart. Being the eternal problem-solver, I've created a bit of a weekly Prescription for you to beat back the Holiday Rush. You'll find it in the right column over here at the top. I'm calling it "Titrated Doses of Meaningful Change." It is immediate self-care, and through the year it will be a blueprint for helping you to make meaningful changes that will yield great ...

Early winter means early colds and flu, ya'll.  It's time to get your shelves stocked with doctor-approved supplements and learn some strategies that can protect you from viral illness, shorten the time you have one, or at least give you comfort when you succumb to "the crud." Yesterday, I asked our P.A. in the busiest urgent care in town, "What are you seeing this week?" His answer: "viral crud." That's right! Snotty noses, cough, low grade fever, body aches and nausea are all creeping around your local school and Wal-Mart even as we speak. No time to waste, people! Let's get down to what you can do to brace yourself for this year's inevitable viral smack-down! Supplements: 1. Elderberry Elderberry is an elixir to ward off the common cold. It is especially good in kids because it TASTES GREAT! Elderberry has powerful anti-oxidants that can halt viral replication.  It has been used as a preventative as well as treatment fo...