Bettina Herbert, MD

 

Bettina Herbert calls herself a "late bloomer," having decided on medicine as a second career during her 40s.  She herself was ill for years in her 20s and 30s, while working in financial services.  During her own healing, she discovered that she had a certain skill with her hands and therefore went to medical school to deepen her understanding of this gift.  While pursuing her medical degree (MD), she also studied osteopathic medicine at Michigan State University where (at the time) the Osteopathic (DO) and Allopathic (MD) medical colleges were 10 minutes' walk apart.

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Dr. Herbert discovered a small but suitable specialty that fit her needs to function as a medical doctor while still being able to treat patients with hands-on osteopathic medicine.  She completed her residency in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (physiatry) at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia.   Once she started her position in Jefferson's Integrative Medicine Clinic,  she was awarded a Bravewell fellowship to study at the world-renowned Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, founded by pioneering physician Andrew Weil, MD. She was board certified in Integrative Medicine in 2014. 

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Dr. Herbert was the lead at the Integrative Pain Program at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine for over 6 years and saw many patients with chronic and complex conditions.  From 2006 - 2016 Dr. Herbert was on the faculty at Jefferson University Hospital in rehabilitation medicine.  She also served as faculty for the University of Arizona’s Center for Integrative Medicine where she headed the team that created their inaugural curriculum in Integrative Pain Management.  She is a regular guest instructor at several universities, has contributed to integrative medicine textbooks and is an active writer and public speaker
 

In addition, Dr. Herbert was among the 124 providers in the first certification awarded by the Institute of Functional Medicine in 2013.  Since then she has worked  extensively in the cross-disciplinary fields of integrative, functional, and environmental medicine.  She is also an active member of ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) as well as a provider of oxygen/ozone therapies.  Dr. Herbert is considered an expert witness in the health effects of exposure to water-damaged structures.

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Philosophy.  I believe everyone has intrinsic health, no matter how much s/he may be hurting or suffering.  My goal is to work with patients to help remove the barriers that are keeping them from regaining their own health. 

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You are seen as a whole person who happens to be suffering from pain or illness.  You are not, for example, a “diabetic,” rather a human being whose body is reacting to something by expressing diabetic symptoms.  Together we will look for and address the underlying reasons your body may be expressing these symptoms, whether it is nutritional deficiency, poor digestion and absorption of nutrients, infection, modifiable genetic variations, toxic exposure(s), injury still lodged in the body/brain and/or abnormal stress.

 

Working with GESUNDHEIT CAROLINA is a true partnership, with the ultimate goal of relieving pain and reducing the burden of illness by putting each person back in charge of  a sense of wellbeing, of "Gesundheit.".  Most people have had chronic issues, sometimes for decades.  Integrative  and functional approaches to treatment take time as, instead of covering up symptoms, they seek to correct biochemical imbalances, remove systemic toxins and bring the body and mind into more harmonious alignment.  Obstacles to regaining health will be minimized and your intrinsic vitality and health will be supported and strengthened.