Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Madiha Saeed.
Dr. Saeed, please share your story with us.
Before becoming a board-certified integrative holistic family physician and health coach, I was like most Americans — unhealthy and overweight. I had many of the same bad habits that have led half of all Americans down the road toward chronic disease.
When I joined a holistic practice, I quickly realized that medical school and residency hadn’t taught me what I really needed to know how to keep people healthy and happy. I was taught not one class on nutrition and very little on stress management, and, surprisingly, my colleagues in pediatrics, internal medicine, and psychiatry were in the same boat. We’d spend only fifteen minutes on each patient, and were taught to address one condition at each visit — nothing more, nothing less. We were penalized if we spent too much time with a patient and frowned upon if we didn’t see an average of twenty-five patients every workday.
In those fifteen-minute visits, we discussed symptoms and treatment options, which more often than not consisted of a prescription for medication. This didn’t feel right to me. How could I truly help someone heal if I focused on only one aspect of the person’s life and just treated them with pharmaceuticals? Wasn’t there another way? Why was this person sick, anyway? These questions burned in my mind, day in and day out. I knew I needed to find answers, but I was also suffering from my own chronic conditions: thyroid disease, acne, seborrheic dermatitis, weight and hormonal problems, digestive issues, fatigue and joint/muscle aches. I felt as if every year another problem was around the corner. As both doctor and patient, I was tired of a methodology that covered up symptoms and never got to the root cause of problems. I knew I had the potential to fly but was tired of being weighed down by my chronic illnesses. I needed to find another way!
On my quest for true healing, I came to understand that inflammation is an underlying cause of most chronic health conditions. Healing this inflammation is the key to renewed health, yet it is often overlooked. I discovered that the solution lies in the fields of holistic and functional medicine, which gets to the fundamental reasons of why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling. It uses all the effective tools available — complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine, combined with conventional treatments and unconditional love — to help get your body back into balance. Years of study in holistic and functional medicine, and applying everything I learned about myself as well as my patients, has transformed my life as a doctor and coach to people with chronic conditions. I now know how to help my patients overcome inflammation and radically improve their health. Everything I prescribe, I have painstakingly researched and lived myself. With the help of these simple lifestyle changes have allowed me to alleviate my symptoms from within, get rid of medications for good, and take back the reins of my health.
Two patients are particularly inspirational. The first is a twenty-one-year-old woman who had suffered from severe eczema for as long as she could remember. Her skin burned from head to toe, and she would sit in a bath eight hours a day to try to get some relief. The pain became so unbearable that she tried to commit suicide three times. She saw physician after physician before coming to me, distraught, as the last resort. After just one week of applying the strategies, I will teach you in this book, the burning that had plagued her for years was gone. Tears flowed down her face as she asked, “Why hadn’t I heard about this treatment earlier?” She had suffered hopelessly for years when the answer lay in the one thing that she could control: her lifestyle.
My second inspirational patient is a thirty-one-year-old woman who had been diagnosed with several autoimmune diseases, including myasthenia gravis, Hashimoto’s disease, lichen planus, psoriasis, eczema, and suspected Sjogren’s syndrome, along with other chronic conditions. She came to me on seven medications and because of uncontrolled symptoms was being advised to start an eighth. She reflected, “After just six months on the healing diet, I was completely off medication, I had lost weight, and my depression and anxiety had completely disappeared. I felt more like myself than I had in a very long time.” She continues to do well, exercising and generally living her life without those health problems, achieving her lifelong dream of becoming a scuba instructor — a dream others had told her to abandon! Her recovery wasn’t rocket science, and it didn’t cost her a fortune; it was just a matter of making simple, inexpensive changes that improved the quality of her life. Even more amazing is that once you target the root cause, you can heal not just one chronic condition, but all of them simultaneously! These stories are among thousands of examples that add fuel to my fire to help spread the word of true healing and real living. Patients like you are recovering from autoimmune diseases, skin problems, mood disorders, and digestive issues, along with a very wide range of nonspecific symptoms, without medication, simply by implementing evidence-based, cost-effective lifestyle changes. They inspire me to continue my work, even when I sometimes feel overwhelmed by my own busy and demanding life. I had to get this secret of healing out to the world!
Has it been a smooth road?
Absolutely, lots of struggles:
1. The conventional medical system of band-aiding symptoms.
2. Taking care of four boys 10 and under, and elderly in-laws.
3. The cultural stigma of what a “woman/mother should be doing”.
4. The challenges of traditional publishing.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I am an integrative holistic family physician, and I have a unique and fun holistic approach for all ages despite demographics.
My mission is to teach patients simple and cost-effective holistic lifestyle changes while at the same time delivering lots of smiles and laughter. These simple changes can help them and their family not only prevent disease but also heal disease by targeting and treating the root cause — inflammation.
Most functional medicine doctors are very expensive and conduct very expensive testing. I educate families about simple lifestyle approaches that can put their bodies back into balance and start with simple insurance covered testing, to heal and prevent all chronic conditions.
But most importantly, my family and I live this lifestyle. My boys have been on TV, educating the world about the power of a healing lifestyle, something no other child is doing to my knowledge.
Pricing:
- My appointments are $200 for the first appointment (up to an hour long) and follow up appointments are $100 ( up to 30 min)
Contact Info:
- Address: 2603 South Washington Street, Suite 160, Naperville, IL 60565
- Website: holisticmommd.com
- Phone: (630) 708-6525
- Email: holisticmommd@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holisticmommd/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HolisticMomMD/
- Twitter: @HolisticMomMD
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
