Why choose Link Clinic as your family’s primary care provider?

Every family needs a primary care provider

Every family needs access to a caring and knowledgeable primary care provider, which is increasingly difficult to find in our healthcare system these days. But health is also much more than what typically gets addressed in a doctor’s office—it’s the foods you eat, the quality of your relationships, and the ways you work, rest, and play. A family clinic shouldn’t just be somewhere to get prescriptions when you’re sick (we do that too), but a place that recognizes and supports the combination of factors that define health for your family.

Our naturopathic practice helps motivate preventative and behavioral health

According to the 2012 National Health Interviews Survey, 67% of individuals who visited naturopathic doctors (ND) were motivated to make one or more behavioral changes for their health, including smoking cessation, reducing alcohol consumption, increasing physical activity, and eating organic foods [1,2]. Clinical nutrition and lifestyle modification are significant components of naturopathic medical education. We spend time with patients to discuss evidence-based and pragmatic self-care therapies in addition to standard medical care. The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association’s (ACC/AHA) guideline on the prevention of cardiovascular disease and the 2020 United States Preventive Services Task Force recommend physician-directed promotion of healthy diet and physical activity, as well as non-pharmacological options to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease [3,4]. That’s exactly what you’ll find here—we always address health and disease from a Whole Person perspective.

Our Whole Person perspective recognizes the connection between mental and physical health

The experiences of prolonged stress, isolation, financial insecurities, and grief affected most of us throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Even prior to the pandemic, a nationwide health study in 2018 resulted in an urgent call for improved quality of mental health and the prevention of mental health disorders like depression and anxiety, which are now among the leading causes of disability and decreased quality of life [5]. Naturopathic medicine recognizes the interconnectedness of our body systems and our minds, so mental and physical complaints are routinely addressed together. Our doctors routinely consider and discuss dietary, behavioral, physical, psycho-emotional contributors to health all at once [6,7]. For example, this multi-system approach is crucial in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, which is now known to be a disorder of the connection between the gut and the central nervous system. For patients with mental health challenges, we often initiate some counseling and discussion of mind-body therapies (e.g., mindfulness-based stress reduction, meditation) and make referrals to behavioral health or psychology.

Positive psychological health lowers risk and increases overall health

Even the American Heart Association acknowledges that psychological health is still largely overlooked in the conventional model of care and is major contributor to lifelong health [8]. Positive psychological health is associated with a lower risk for cardiovascular disease and greater healthy behaviors such as nutritious eating and more frequent exercise, which also reduce your risk for cancer and other serious diseases. As practitioners trained in both medical and mind-body therapies, our NDs are uniquely equipped to deliver primary care that simultaneously addresses mental and physical health—and we do it for patients throughout the lifespan, from babies to the elderly.

If you have been wanting to get more value and support from your family’s primary care provider, give us a call at (253) 267-1317 or register online via our portal and one of our staff will call you to schedule your first appointment.