My Journey
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
- Zig Ziglar
Many have asked me where I got the title, America's Health Coach®. It’s fairly simple actually. I’ve always been fascinated with the human body. As an avid young athlete, I started self-studying various aspects of health and medicine. Later, while earning my undergraduate degree at Florida State University, I worked in hospitals in the summers just hungry to learn about health care. I had a passion to see people live healthy lives, yet I recognized that something was missing. It seemed with conventional medicine, people were merely managing their symptoms, rather than getting well. They were surviving, rather than thriving. I saw this and was frustrated. There had to be a better way. If the body could break down and get sick, then it must be able to get well again. When I realized this common sense principle, it catapulted me over the long established barriers of “This is how we’ve always done it,” or, “We’ve never tried that before,” and onto an entirely new approach to helping people get well.
Prior to entering medical school, I met several doctors who were practicing integrative medicine. I was fascinated by their approach. They had multiple specialties that worked on three main areas of the body— some with the mind, such as psychologists and behavioral therapists, some with nutrition such as Naturopathic Physicians (ND), some with conventional medicine, such as Medical Doctors (MD), and others with the structure (bones, muscles, and nervous system) called Osteopathic Medicine (DO) .
I was in awe. People were actually getting well. They previously had suffered with health challenges such as diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart disease, depression, hormones issues, obesity, arthritis, and the list went on. But now, with an integrated whole body approach, working with a team of physicians, they were getting well! This integrative medicine model was getting to the root of these health challenges rather than treating the symptoms. I realized that the keys to extraordinary health could be found in this approach to health care. As I headed off to school to become a conventional medical doctor, this experience changed my course—drastically.
Seeing this, I discovered my mission in life. The word “doctor” literally means teacher. And my goal was to help teach others how to live healthy lives and “lifestyle” their way toward extraordinary health.
Rather than starting in conventional medicine, I wanted to be trained initially with a more Alternative Health mindset. This type of medicine was best known then in naturopathic medicine and structural based (chiropractic) medicine. So in my early twenties, after graduating Florida State University with (BS) degrees in Psychology and Chemistry, rather than starting with my medical degree, I began my pursuit of learning alternative medicine by first earning a doctorate in structural based medicine (DC) learning about the musculoskeletal system of the body, the nervous system, nutrition physiology, acupuncture analysis, and how the body is interconnected.
Then I earned my doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine (ND). In these studies, I learned much more about the way the body functions. I saw how lifestyle choices that we made each day powerfully affected our well-being, how a person’s blood could be radically changed by the role of vitamin and nutritional deficiencies, and I observed the power of homeopathic remedies to bring positive results. It was an amazing education in how our human physiology works. Learning how nutrition and food could positively or negatively affect our health. I realized that “food was our best medicine.” This was a major part of my experience that led me to see the whole body picture of health.
Then in 2005, I received the devastating news that my father had been diagnosed with debilitating lung cancer. Please understand that I have been at the bedside of many individuals at their deathbeds, or while visiting loved ones and patients in hospitals. This was different. Dad was my hero. My father and mother adopted me at an early age and gave me an amazing home full of love. My Dad meant the world to me and he was only 68 years young. He had not made the best lifestyle choices throughout his years and those choices had now caught up with him in the form of cancer. It was heart wrenching to watch the person I loved as he began to lose the greatest gift he had ever been given, his health. I watched my Dad fight for eighteen months, his condition growing worse with each passing day. When he died in 2006, I was deeply torn.
I had watched as he had been fed processed foods in the hospital with no say from our family or myself. The attending physicians seemed to have no idea how the lifestyle choices my father had made, every single day, would either produce new healthy cells, or bad, abnormal ones. The sad truth is that conventional medicine does not educate the physician in the science of proper lifestyle choices and nutrition in prevention of most disease, so it wasn’t the any of the physicians’ fault. I know, we only had about one lecture on nutrition in medical school. However, I knew there was a better way to attain and maintain extraordinary health. I knew how the body worked because of my prior doctoral training in alternative health in much detail; however, there was one area in health care still for me to attain. I knew throughout years of practice what it took to get well and stay well, yet there was a piece I still needed to make a difference in others and really see people get a new prescription for their lives. The medical doctor is the gateway to everyone’s health care and there is a reason they are termed, “Primary Care Physicians.” They are the masters of the physiology of the human body. So I began the quest to complete my MD degree.
As I worked toward earning the final piece of the puzzle for attaining all necessary doctorates to be able to speak from any side of health to help people, life sure got busy! My natural lifestyle-based health system was helping so many people that I could barely keep up with the patient-load and training other doctors. A publisher approached me about writing a book called Empowering Your Health which became a National Best-Seller. About the same time my friend, Dave Ramsey, helped me start a local weekend radio call-in talk show called Empowering Your Health, now nationally syndicated show that countless thousands listen to each day across America. We then formed a foundation called Diagnosis HOPE, dedicated to instilling hope to people by education and organizing free health clinics to serve those who desperately need care.
I am a big advocate of research and organizations that are proactive in improving the lives of others. That’s why I became a member and involved with the American College of Preventative Medicine, the American Heart Association, and was asked to be the Honorary Chair of the American Diabetes Association in 2010.
All of this education, combined with years of clinical experience, allows me to serve you with confidence each day on the radio and television answering those tough questions about your health.
So What Kind Of Doctor Is Asa Andrew?
When you describe me I kindly ask these three things:
1. Please don't regard me as “just another medical doctor” (MD) when I soon complete my medical training.
People land ultimate credibility to the medical degree, and rightfully so. However, credibility really comes from the desire to help and serve others, regardless of the field. Please understand, I have the highest regard for the doctor of medicine degree as it is the gatekeeper; the master of body physiology. Medical doctors should be held in the highest regard as the as the authorities of our health. They are the frontline of primary care. I am grateful for this education, and learning the use of pharmaceutical drugs , diagnosing disease, and diagnostic testing. This education will be a great addition to my other doctorates, and I'm very humbled to be attaining it. Remember our body chemistry is 33 percent of the Health Triangle®. Medicine is important, it is our primary method of care, is life-saving, yet there are still other areas and specialties to be considered. * not licensed to practice medicine.
2. Please don't call me “just” a naturopathic physician (or a naturopath) (ND) or “that holistic doctor.” *
Lifestyle choices are vitally important and should be a major part of what is taught regarding our health. This was a great doctorate to attain and an amazing education for me. It was eye opening. However, I do not simply focus on natural remedies only. I believe that conventional medicine, surgery, and diagnostic testing are necessary and beneficial. There is still more to attaining great health than vitamins, minerals, homeopathic remedies, exercise, clean water, air, stress management, and proper functioning physiological and neurological systems. * naturopathic medicine is not recognized in many states including Tennessee and South Carolina
3. Please don't just call me "only a chiropractic physician”. *
I do believe the bones, muscles, and a healthy nervous system are important for a proper functioning body. The nerves, like power cords, control all the organs, glands, and systems. Correcting the nervous system will help the body function at a higher level. Structural-based medicine, whether chiropractic or osteopathic, is a great profession emphasizing alternative health care, structural correction, nutrition, and increasing musculoskeletal function, with highly competent physicians. It is a great field of specialty that helps many people. * not licensed in chiropractic medicine
So Who Is Dr. Asa?
Webster’s Dictionary COACH (noun) : one who instructs or trains
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