Dr.
Laura Futterman is a graduate of the world-famous
National College
of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR, the oldest and most
prestigious Naturopathic Medical School in the nation. After
graduation, Dr. Futterman was selected from among many
candidates for a one-year teaching residency at National
College. She helped supervise student doctors at 8 different
clinics – all of them integrating natural and conventional
medicine - including a low-cost community clinic for homeless
youth; an alcohol and drug addiction and rehabilitation clinic;
as well as a conventional naturopathic medical clinic that
served families, women and children, and the full range of
general and family practice and natural internal medicine.
During this time, she worked with literally thousands of
patients, bringing them the best of both naturopathic and
conventional medicine. Dr. Futterman continues to be interested
in the full spectrum of natural medicine, and reads extensively
on health and healing.
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Dr. Futterman received her B. Sc.from the University of Illinois
at Chicago, where she majored in Biological Sciences and
Pre-Med. While a full-time student, she was medical receptionist
and Chiropractic Assistant at the Center for Integrative
Medicine, which is affiliated with Northwestern University. It
was here that her passion and interest in Naturopathic medicine
flourished.
Dr. Futterman’s interest in natural medicine came about as a
result of her own struggles with health and pain, and the
seeming inability of conventional medicine to help her. Dr.
Futterman suffered from chronic knee pain, resulting from an
injury, from the time she was a young girl. After ten years of
prescription pain medication, physical therapy, and surgery on
both knees, she was still in chronic pain. It was at this point
that she decided to pursue a different path, visiting both a
Naturopathic Doctor and a Chiropractor. By following a program
of natural medicine that included diet changes as well as a wide
range of other natural therapies, she finally began to
experience relief for the first time since she was a child.
Currently, she has been pain-free for 8 years and has returned
to a full exercise regime.
These experiences opened her eyes to what Natural Medicine can
do, and that there are ways to treat disease, and to get relief
from suffering, that are ignored by the world of conventional
medicine. Since that time, she has had wonderful success helping
her family and her two pet cats, as well as her patients, using
Naturopathic Medicine.
Dr. Futterman is an eclectic naturopathic physician, meaning she
uses a variety of natural methods, custom prescribed to fit the
needs of each patient. These healing modalities include dietary
and nutritional counseling; herbal medicines both ancient and
modern; homeopathic remedies; flower essences, which are used to
bring about emotional healing to help the body heal itself; and
physical medicine, an oft-ignored component of naturopathy that
recognizes that deep tissue massage, trigger point therapy and
spinal adjustments can help not only structural and pain-related
complaints, but can help the body heal and recover from all
manner of diseases and illnesses.
Dr. Futterman has found that a wide range of chronic diseases
respond to Naturopathic Medicine, including Diabetes, Allergies
and Asthma, Chronic Pain, Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS),
Depression, Insomnia, Chronic Fatigue, Gastro-Esophageal Reflux
Disease (GERD), digestive complaints such as Irritable Bowel
Syndrome, “gas and bloating”, Constipation, High Blood Pressure
and Thyroid Disorders - to name a Just a few! Her philosophy is
to always try to find the underlying cause of your illness; to
educate and counsel patients so that you will be able to take an
active and informed role in your own care; and to tailor her
treatments to your unique needs and situation.
Dr. Futterman is a native of Chicago, and returns there
frequently to visit friends and family. She enjoys spending time
with her husband; with friends and family; with her two cats;
and loves the outdoors.
Dr. Daniel Heller is a 1995 graduate of the National College of
Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. After naturopathic medical
school, he practiced for a year in Santa Cruz County, California, before
moving to Fairfield County.
Dr. Heller has practiced in Lower Fairfield County since 1997, in Stamford, Norwalk, and Stratford. Since 1999, he has practiced in Stamford.
Dr. Heller studied acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine, and Chinese medical philosophy at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York City; in 2002, Dr. Heller traveled to Moscow and became the first physician in the U.S. to train in the Buteyko Method at the famous
Buteyko Clinic; in 2005, Dr. Heller was the only naturopathic
physician in the country, and one of only three physicians from
Connecticut, to attend the prestigious 3rd World Congress on
Insulin Resistance, in San Francisco. You can click here to
learn about insulin
resistance.
Dr. Heller has been practicing Amino Acid - Neurotransmitter Optimization therapy according to the principles elaborated by Martin Hinz, MD of Minnesota for the past year and a half. Dr. Heller is one of the only physicians in the Tri-State area to work extensively with Dr. Hinz's protocol, and to complete clinical education with the Neuroresearch Group. Dr Heller regularly attends seminars and continuing education related to naturopathic medicine and nutritional medicine.
Dr. Heller is dedicated to combining the principle of natural health - that is, that health is your body and mind's normal physiological state - with scientific innovation. At the same time, Dr. Heller eschews fads and superstitions in natural medicine, and strives to separate the wheat from the chaff, delivering the very best to his patients, but saving on unnecessary expenses and on unnecessarily restrictive health regimes. At the same time, he is uncompromising about the necessity to adhere to naturopathic principles in order to achieve optimum health.
Dr. Heller lives in Manhattan with his wife and their two Portuguese
Water Dogs.
Dr. Heller maintains the 80 gallon African Cichlid Aquarium in the office (it is stocked with Male Peacock Cichlids from Lake Malawi .) He has a 125 gallon aquarium in his home, stocked with Male Peacock and Haplochrome Cichlids, also from Lake Malawi .
Dr. Heller's other interests include non-fiction reading (Recent Favorites Include Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond, and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson); Film and Theater; Hiking, Camping, and the Outdoors; and Travel (Dr. Heller and his wife have recently traveled to Costa Rica and Portugal .