Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicola Ducharme.
Hi Nicola, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Australia living a pretty healthy lifestyle. I played competitive tennis for school, and got into fitness when I was in my teens. I started working at a gym part-time while I attended university (college), and my interest grew from fitness to nutrition, and then further to natural medicine/ naturopathy.
After uni I did what many young Aussie’s do – I sold my car, packed my backpack and went off exploring the world. I spent 3 months traveling around the US and visited San Francisco, LA, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, New Orleans, all through Florida including Orlando and Key West, Washington DC, New York and Boston. It was an amazing experience. While in New York I got in touch with 2nd cousins and got to stay with them and see NYC through their life, not just as a tourist. I fell in love with New York City.
I went on from the States to spend the summer in London where my Dad lives, a month in the South of France, then back to Sydney.
I tried to settle down, I was in my mid-20’s by then, but I’d left my heart in New York City! I desperately wanted to get back there, but how?
I ended up finding an internship program that sends young Brits and Aussies to NYC, providing a work placement, an apartment, a visa, health insurance, all the things that are so hard to get otherwise!!
I had started studying naturopathy in Australia prior to that, and was a bit worried that I was then checking out of my career path, given that most of the jobs in the internship program were admin jobs in large companies like Boeing and American Express. But i decided it was just a year and there would be plenty of time for adulting later.
As “luck” would have it, I got the only medical posting in the organization – as assistant to a Professor of Neurology in the Sergievsky Center, a research institute at Columbia University. It was very inspiring to be around so many bright minds and people dedicated to making a difference, as well as pushing themselves in their own careers.
Later in the year, a family friend suggested I go to Bastyr University and get my Doctorate of Naturopathic Medicine. Bastyr is in Seattle, and it’s a four-year program. It felt way too big and overwhelming to even consider.
But somehow, it became a reality and off I went to Seattle for four years! The program was grueling, but Seattle was fun and the four years went by quickly. I learned salsa dancing and danced several nights a week to blow off stress!
In 2003 I moved to San Diego and started practicing Naturopathic Medicine. Naturopathic Doctors (NDs) were not even licensed in California at that point, that came in 2004.
I was fortunate to be invited to join a clinic where the medical director became a great mentor to me, and taught me the biomedical approach to autism. I loved working with families and seeing the dramatic changes in these kids as we adjusted their diet, worked on detoxification and healing their gut. It was quite amazing!
Then some of the moms of these kids started coming to see me, stating that they had chronic headaches, joint pain, fatigue, brain fog and a myriad of other symptoms that they first chalked up to being a new mom and/or the mom of a special needs child. I evaluated them for things like adrenal fatigue, heavy metal toxicity, hormone imbalance, food sensitivities and Lyme disease. Shockingly, more tested positive for Lyme than I ever expected. This caused me to learn more about it, and the rest, as they say, is history.
For the past 18 years I’ve specialized in the treatment of chronic Lyme and tick-borne infections. Now I also work with mold toxicity and mast cell activation syndrome, because weirdly those three things often go together.
I’ve written several books on Lyme, and created an online program for patients and practitioners to learn more about Lyme. I also created a program called “Mastering Mindset” because mindset is such a crucial part of healing and IMO gets overlooked.
The years have flown by. I got married and had my daughter in 2013 and she is the joy of my life. I have loved being self-employed and being able to create my own schedule, because then I can fit it around her school schedule and activities to spend as much time with her as I can. We both love and ride horses, which is amazing to be able to do together.
Working with chronic complex patients can be tough going, but it’s also very rewarding. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being in business is never a smooth road, there are always going to be challenges! That’s just part of being in business.
I think one of the hardest for me has been finding great employees and team members. This was especially challenging during and after COVID, I feel like that time shifted the priorities and mindset of many people, and not necessarily in a good way!
Marketing and social media are also challenging for me. Thankfully my practice grew mostly from word-of-mouth referrals, but these days one is expected to have some presence online.
Doctor-wise, working with extremely sick patients can be challenging, especially since chronic Lyme disease is so under-represented and misunderstood in the general medical community. But it’s also very rewarding to be able to offer care and understanding to people that have not found it elsewhere.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
My practice is called RestorMedicine, and we are based in Mission Hills, a suburb of San Diego. Some of our patients are local, and we also work with many people throughout the US and internationally via telemedicine.
I am a Naturopathic Doctor specializing in the treatment of chronic Lyme disease, mycotoxin illness and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). I have been working in this field for almost 20 years now. I love specializing because I can really hone my skills and become an expert in my field.
We also offer therapies such as IV nutrients, ozone therapy, detoxification therapies and SOT therapy which is a cutting-edge therapy for chronic infections such as Lyme and Epstein-barr virus.
What I am most proud of is providing care for a population of people that have been ostracized in many avenues of medicine while seeking help for their chronic condition. Chronic Lyme is typically not recognized in the allopathic medical world, and so many patients have been rejected and not found help.
We provide caring, listening and acceptance to those patients.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Naturopathic medicine continues to grow and popularity and acceptance. I believe people are wanting more natural options for their health care, not just the quick 7-minute visit and a quick prescription that they might get from their primary care doctor.
The insurance model in the US is also failing to provide adequate care in so many cases. People are paying exorbitant premiums, only to then have to also pay high deductibles and have coverage rejected for much of what they need.
Naturopathic doctors in California are not able to bill insurance, which is a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it does limit access to care by NDs as not everyone can pay out of pocket for care; but on the other, it leaves us more free to practice the way we want to without being under the scrutiny of insurance companies.
I do believe that naturopathic medicine will continue to grow over the next 5-10 years.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.restormedicine.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drnicoladucharme/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/drnicoladucharme
- Twitter: www.facebook.com/restormedicine
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@drnicoladucharme
- Other: www.drnicoladucharme.com
Image Credits
Terri Rippee, Rippee Photography.
