Hi! It’s me, David Yrigoyen, from Natural Healing Care Center. I just wanted to reach out and thank you for your support; NHCC wouldn’t be here without amazing people like yourself. You might not know, but when I opened Natural Healing Care Center in 2012, I was riddled with chronic conditions, and I was only 30 years old at the time. Ever since an early age, I was always very active and playing sports, which led to some knee, wrist, and shoulder injuries that required surgery, some even involving metal plates that are still in me to this day. This required me to be on excessive amounts of ibuprofen for years. From the age of 9 to 29, I was taking ibuprofen or other NSAIDs for pain.
During my teenage years, I took thousands of milligrams of ibuprofen daily. By 18, I had ulcers and needed an upper GI endoscopy, which discovered the ulcers, so the doctors put me on considerable amounts of Nexium and Prevacid (proton pump inhibitors meant to decrease stomach acid) for years. By 19, I was weighing over 300 lbs and experiencing complications that a young person shouldn’t have.
Fortunately, around the age of 21, I was able to lose 100 lbs by working out regularly and learning more about nutrition and fitness. I even became a licensed personal trainer for a couple of years. For years, I felt great, even though I had to take ibuprofen and antacids daily. My weight fluctuated at times, but I stayed active. Then, around the age of 27, I fell off a stepping ladder at work and injured my back. The doctors told me it was just an internal contusion (a fancy word for bruising) and to take more ibuprofen.
For about a year, everything felt fine. I didn’t feel like I did much damage and thought I had recovered quickly. But then I started to experience stiffness and spasms in my back that I had never felt before. I saw a doctor who recommended surgery, which I was not open to at all! I refused and went about my day.
No medical doctor could offer me relief, only medications and recommended surgeries. I figured I would live with the pain since it was manageable at the time, but my job required me to sit a lot, which wasn’t helping.
One day, I was at the gym about to start my basic warm-up when I heard a pop. My back tightened up, and I felt a shock through my whole body. I dropped the weight I was holding and rushed home. I managed to get into the car, but getting out was difficult. That was the most excruciating pain I had ever felt.
I laid in bed for two days before I could move. It was my first time ever having a sciatica flare-up and a disc flare-up. The pain was unbearable. On top of that, I had to go back to work at my poker-dealing job at the casino. Sitting in that chair was terrible, and the casino doesn’t care about ergonomic chairs, haha.
This was in 2010, shortly after Prop 203 passed in AZ, and medical marijuana became legal. A friend mentioned I should obtain my medical marijuana card and that maybe cannabis could help me find relief.
He mentioned ‘tinctures’ and ‘glycerites,’ which I had never heard of until that day. A tincture is typically an extract of a plant dissolved in ethanol. A tincture using glycerine is called a glycerite. I obtained my medical marijuana card and tried the tincture he had; it was the first time I had relief from my ulcers in years.
Finally, I was able to have a solid appetite and not regurgitate bile. This was the first time I had ever seen cannabis as medicine, and I knew that I was going to get involved and help people. Shortly after, I started making my own tinctures and glycerites at home for personal use, with my medical marijuana card as safety and protection from prosecution.
Around February 2011, I quit my job at the casino and joined the medical marijuana industry. This is when I met Dr. Jasmine May (yes, the same Jasmine May from NHCC). It was my first time ever meeting a Naturopathic doctor, and from the first meeting, I knew she was different in her approach to medicine.
I was also introduced to severely injured people who were left with no other choice or hope, people who were told by medical doctors, “There is nothing else we can do.” Their last resort was to try medical marijuana.
Not only did medical marijuana help most people, but it also introduced them to Dr. May, and they were able to learn more about alternative medicines. I would follow up with the patients after their appointments, and they would tell me how Dr. May’s advice helped them, even though it was such a short visit.
I thought to myself, maybe I should see Dr. May as a patient. I had already had success with having relief from massage therapy (something no medical doctor ever recommended to me when I was searching for relief) and thought that maybe acupuncture and other herbal medicines could help. The cannabis tinctures were already an enormous success for my ulcers and nausea; I was already a believer in plant medicine. I booked my first appointment with Dr. May.
At that time, my diet and lifestyle were not the best (mainly consisting of fast food, soda, and energy drinks), so I was curious to have a ‘checkup’ from a naturopathic doctor.
My first visit with Dr. May was different from any other doctor’s visit I have had, and I had seen so many different doctors up to that point. First, she took my ‘vitals’ by feeling three spots on each wrist at the same time. That was able to tell her how my body was functioning at the time. Then she looked at my tongue and checked my lungs with a stethoscope, which seemed very familiar to me.
After other tests and questions, we moved on to treatment. Because my lifestyle and diet were not up to par, my body wasn’t functioning at a level that could take high amounts of treatment. Physical and energetic therapies can be very draining and require nutrition and rest. Dr. May suggested that I make lifestyle and diet changes and come back for a more rounded treatment. We were only able to do six points (six needles) of acupuncture at the time, when before the appointment I imagined I would be full of needles like some kind of scary movie character. We also did acupressure therapy.
Just that little amount of treatment helped relax my back and muscles, and it made me feel ‘Zen,’ something I was lacking my whole life. I wanted more, so I stopped eating fast food. I still haven’t had McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and all the others since 2012, and I’m sure their bottom lines noticed, haha. I stopped drinking Monsters and Red Bulls, stopped using recreational drugs, and started drinking more water and eating healthier. After two weeks, I was ready to see Dr. May again.
The next visit went a little differently. My vitals were getting better, so we were able to do more acupuncture needles, still not scary movie status, along with more acupressure. Dr. May suggested herbs to take for my ulcers (I was still vomiting bile daily and dry heaving). She recommended marshmallow root and a couple of other herbs. I took the herbal recommendations, and with the help of a friend, we made an herbal glycerite that had cannabis and marshmallow root.
After taking the new glycerite for a few weeks, my regurgitation subsided, and I stopped dry heaving. To this day, I have not had to use ibuprofen or any other type of pharmaceutical medication for the last 12 years (2024). Cannabis and other herbs treat my inflammation when needed and have helped heal through other past and present traumas.
I became a true believer in Alternative Medicine, and I wanted to show the world what most have been kept from. That is how Natural Healing Care Center started. Nature and bodywork have been used as medicine for thousands of years. I was upset that no medical doctor told me about these alternatives. I wanted to help as many people as possible, but I didn’t know how.
Natural Healing Care Center was born on October 15, 2012. Dr. May was our first medical marijuana certifying doctor who also did Naturopathic Medicine appointments. Daniel Yrigoyen LMT was our first massage therapist, and Dr. Angela Wojtowicz was our first Naturopathic Doctor who was also a pediatrician. Along with our administrative staff, we had our first NHCC team.
Our mission has always been to serve our community through Naturopathic and Holistic medicine, preventative healthcare, and education. We honor the body’s natural healing abilities and aid in balancing the soul, mind, and body. We believe cannabis is a gateway to alternative therapy, and we are so grateful for you and the rest of our community. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to more years of serving you and the community.
I know that science, technology, and pharmaceutical medication have helped many people, especially with traumatic injuries. But not once during my journey was I told about or offered alternative therapies. I would like to see more integration with medicine so it can be best for the longevity of the patient.
If there is a service we don’t offer, we would love to help you find the right place! We refer out to different Naturopathic Doctors and Alternative Therapists.
Thank you,
David Yrigoyen
Cannabis Consultant
Infusing with Cannabis for Natural Pain Relief
by: David Yrigoyen MMJ_David
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