Who are we? We are the Healing Duo

Pamela Santapaola and Giovanni Nelson (aka Pam and Gio as many refer to us) are the founders of the Healing Duo. We both attended Stony Brook University where we received a Bachelors of Science in Marine Vertebrate Biology (Pam) and Developmental Genetics (Gio). After completing our undergraduate education and with much deliberation, naturopathic medicine was the path we chose. Exposed to natural modalities from an early age mainly due to our heritage of being Italian/Greek (Pam) and Jamaican (Gio), it was a fitting choice. Currently, we are in our last year of naturopathic medical school and are beginning to transition to our lives as healthcare professionals.

We believe in the healing power of nature. That is if you broke a bone a doctor doesn’t heal the bone, but rather sets the bone. This process enables your bone to heal itself. However, if a physician were not there to set the bone, it would heal improperly. In other words, great doctors are like Disney tour guides, guiding you in the right direction.

That being said, we also believe in evidence-based medicine and know that medical discoveries like antibiotics and vaccines have contributed to our longevity as a species. We find that when natural medicine stays current with research, the sky is the limit with what we can do. Furthermore, natural medicine is beneficial to patients; however, we firmly believe there are times where it is essential to take an aspirin or other pharmacological agents.

What do we do?

Those Disney tour guides mentioned above use words, hand signals, gestures to get you to the right place. We are here to do the same! However, while we will use words, and maybe a couple of hand signals and gestures (we are Italian/Greek and Jamaican after all), our knowledge base includes a variety of modalities:

• Clinical Nutrition
• Herbal medicine
• Exercise/sports medicine
• Pediatric/prenatal care
• Physical medicine (naturopathic manipulative technique)
• Acupuncture
• Hydrotherapy

Our mission is to share our expertise about these various modalities to ensure a healthy lifestyle for our community. There are far too many blogs and Facebook memes that claim to have the secret to life through natural medicine. Most of this information is not only untrue, sometimes they are downright dangerous and give natural medicine a bad name. Ultimately we are here for you! To help you sort out the truth from the menacing misinformation that tends to lurk on the internet.

If you are a critical thinker like us, our statements above may present a paradox because we are on the web too! The major difference between us and an internet meme is that we will always try to provide the most current science/evidence to support any claim we make. We would like to emphasize that the information presented here is for educational purposes only. Please read our disclaimer for more details.

It is important to note that while we may be naturopathic doctors in training:

• We love Disney (if you couldn’t tell)
• Churros. We love and eat them
• We eat ice cream
• Finally, we firmly believe a healthy individual can enjoy everything in moderation! We are human after all.