Welcome to theYogaDr.com – a website integrating Yoga and medicine.
My name is Kathleen Summers and I’m a board-certified internist specializing in natural Yoga-based care.
Professional Background
| M.D., Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, 1998 | |
| Ph.D., Neuropharmacology, Southern Illinois University, 1995 | |
| Board Certified – Internal Medicine | |
| Adjunct Clinical Instructor of Medicine at SIU School of Medicine | |
| Member: | American College of Physicians |
| American Society of Nutrition | |
| International Association of Yoga Therapists | |
A Metamorphosis
Back in 2005 I was working full time in rural emergency rooms on the front lines of modern medicine. Too often I saw the culmination of poor self-care resulting in medical emergencies. I knew that proper attention to nutrition, exercise, healthy sleeping patterns, and stress relief along with the nurturing of emotional and spiritual health could have prevented much of what I saw. It was disheartening.
I also knew that the lifestyle of an emergency physician – high stress, long nightshifts, and an irregular schedule that made consistent proper eating and exercise difficult – was impacting my own health in a negative way.
Preventative medicine was the key to many of the ailments I treated in the emergency department. I realized I was on the wrong side of the problem – at the end, when the most good could be done at the beginning. I wasn’t helping myself, and there was a better way to help my patients.
I quit my job in the ER and volunteered for a medical mission overseas. I traveled to a tiny village in rural India to work in their free medical camp. When the camp closed, I moved on to a Tibetan medical clinic. From there I visited Kerala and explored Ayurvedic medicine. In McCloud Ganj, I was fortunate to receive the Bodhisattva initiation from the Dalai Lama.
Eventually my travels led me to Rishikesh in the north, and there I discovered traditional Yoga. What a blessing! Without knowing what I was looking for, I found it. It was exactly what I needed to renew my health and feel great – a valuable system, a way of life really, that would help my patients, too.
Over the years I’ve dedicated much time and energy to exploring Yoga in southern Asia– its ancient texts, its traditional word-of-mouth teachings from respected leaders, and its in-depth practices. Now, I integrate the healing concepts of Yoga with modern evidence-based medicine, sharing the wonderful tools within Yoga that have been scientifically validated to optimize health and even to prevent disease.
Why theYogaDr?
This site is dedicated to helping others to lead happy, healthy lives. It’s a place for Yoga practitioners, both new and advanced, to come together and share their experiences, ask questions, and learn the latest news on how living a Yoga lifestyle affects their wellbeing.
I started it in 2010 as my seva, my service to the Yoga community. The response has been remarkable. Several thousand inquiring minds now visit the site each month, and it continues to grow rapidly. I’ve learned that there is a real thirst for information that takes a balanced approach to the “drugs and surgery” of modern evidence-based medical care and the timeless teachings of Yoga and natural medicine.
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It’s a Team Effort
At the outset of creating theYogaDr.com, I had no idea how much time and effort it takes to build and maintain a website. I couldn’t have done it without my wonderful supportive husband, Eran Sheriff. He’s the tech savvy one who has contributed numerous seva hours to this endeavor.
Eran has been studying and practicing Yoga for more than 30 years. He’s been a valuable teacher and an amazing partner. He has a doctorate in physics, and we’ve spent many hours since our meeting at a Yoga community in southern Thailand discussing the metaphysical implications of classic yogic teachings – along with a lot of other things!
When not on the road exploring Yoga or giving presentations, workshops, and classes about Yoga and medicine, we divide our time between our homes and our wonderful families in rural central Illinois and the cosmopolitan city of Tel Aviv.
Privacy Policy
At theYogaDr.com, we consider your privacy to be very important. Any personal information you share with us will be kept confidential. That means anything that can be used to identify you, including your name, home address, phone number, email address, and other information that is generally not available to the public, will not be shared with any third party.
While your browser gives us your IP address and cookie information, this data is only accessed internally for statistical purposes, such as content performance analysis, and is not shared with others. You can turn off your cookies information at any time by modifying your browser’s internet settings.
We don’t rent, sell, give or share any of your personal information. Your personal information is never made available without your explicit consent.
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy without notice. Even if we do, none of your personal information will be shared without your explicit consent.
Funding theYogaDr.com
All funding for theYogaDr.com comes from the personal resources of the author. We do not accept any contribution from third parties.
Advertising Policy
At this time, theYogaDr.com is not accepting advertisements. We reserve the right to advertise judiciously in the future.
Disclaimer
This web site is provided for informational purposes only. Viewing this site and the transmission of information on it does not constitute a physician-patient relationship. The content of this site is not intended to be a substitute for diagnosis and treatment by your personal doctor or other qualified healthcare practitioner. Always seek their advice regarding your medical questions and concerns. Never delay seeking personal medical advice from your physician, or disregard it, because of something you have read on this site.
By entering this site, you acknowledge and agree that you have read and understand the disclaimer. Using, accessing, or browsing the site constitutes acceptance of this disclaimer. If you do not agree to be bound to any or all of these conditions, please exit the site.
Reservation of Intellectual Property Rights
The Site (theYogaDr.com) is protected by United States copyright laws. The Author (Kathleen Summers MD PhD) hereby reserves any and all intellectual property rights in the Site (excluding those for quoted sources and for some of the images shown in the site). No part of the material published in the Site may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the Author.
Quotes taken from published material and some of the images (photos, drawings, graphs, etc) shown in the site are the intellectual property of their authors and are used with either implied or explicit permission, as required by the US copyright laws.
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