Alumni Spotlight:
Tara Brooke Nelson, ND
Bastyr Alumna Untangles the Roots of Chronic Illness
Complex, chronic illnesses such as Lyme disease, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome are not easy to treat. But Tara Brooke Nelson, ND ('05), has found a way to blend science and the art of healing to bring much needed relief to long-suffering patients.
Tara Nelson, ND ('05)
While many health care practitioners are at a loss for how to treat – let alone diagnose – these defiant ailments, Dr. Nelson welcomes the challenge. She and her life partner, Marty Ross, MD, founded The Healing Arts Partnership in Seattle, a primary care practice with a unique focus on treating chronic health conditions.
Their secret? Applying an integrated approach to wellness, pulling equally from conventional and natural medicine to give infectious diseases and complex illnesses a run for their money.
Sufferers of Lyme disease, fatigue, fibromyalgia and environmental illnesses are often at a loss for where to seek treatment. Many suffer a range of mysterious and seemingly unrelated symptoms for years, only to have doctors tell them that they can find nothing wrong with them medically.
An integrated approach to chronic illness makes sense for many patients, because practitioners can pick and choose which healing methods will best address a patient's particular situation. To help get to the real issues behind a patient's symptoms, Dr. Nelson intermarries intuition with her science-based medical school didactic and clinical training, years of medical practice, and her patients' whole health history.
A Deep Commitment to Health
While Dr. Nelson has become a sought-after expert on tick-borne illnesses, her dedication to her work is not purely intellectual. After finding a tick in her armpit in 2001, she struggled with significant chronic pain, fatigue, bouts of brain fog and eventually neurological symptoms. It wasn't until two years later that she received a proper diagnosis of Lyme disease.
"I didn't get the typical bulls-eye rash, but did have flu-like symptoms," she says. In fact, many people don't remember getting bit, or develop a rash.
Dr. Nelson faced her illness bravely and didn't let it slow her down. Instead, it cemented her dedication to helping others living with chronic illness.
The Long Road to Health
This was not the first time Dr. Nelson battled ill health.
As a child in Yankton, South Dakota, she suffered from ongoing illnesses and repeated bouts of pneumonia and strep infections after an accidental ingestion of lighter fluid at age two which almost killed her. While this kept her on endless rounds of antibiotics and out of the swimming pool for several years, Dr. Nelson slowly recovered and went on to win multiple state records in the breast stroke.
Dr. Nelson earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Nebraska, where she studied marine biology and aquatic ecosystems. After college, her wanderlust led to a stint in the Peace Corps. She served in one of Africa's poorest nations, Guinea-Bissau – a place with incredibly limited running water, electricity and medical clinics. "The people in Guinea-Bissau live closer to life, live more fully," says Dr. Nelson. "They're not insulated from pain or death."
Eager to apply all that she had learned in the Peace Corps, Dr. Nelson returned to the U.S. and took an interest in naturopathy. She enrolled in Bastyr University and five years later graduated as one of the top students in her class.
