STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Mollie Parker Szybala struggled with Celiac disease as a teenager but she struggled to find answers.
“I went to different gastroenterologists, but no one had answers for me. They prescribed a gluten-free diet, but I still felt ill. Finally, I went to a naturopathic physician, and he was the first to help me figure out long-term choices to prevent a recurrence of the disease,” said Szybala, who grew up in the Wood River Valley.
Szybala’s struggle to find answers has proven a boon for others. She found a calling to pursue medicine in the process. And she and her husband Cory Szybala recently returned to the Wood River Valley to give the gift of health to others through their practice--Sun Valley Natural Medicine.
“I realized when I was looking for answers that the medical system doesn’t always address people with chronic disease,” she said. “At Sun Valley Natural Medicine we believe that by understanding a person’s whole story we can better determine the root cause of a particular issue or issues and develop a personalized health plan that will work for each individual’s unique lifestyle.”
Sun Valley Natural Medicine is a naturopathic clinic stationed in the Kneeland Professional Building on Saddle Road in Ketchum.
Cory focuses primarily on pediatrics, children’s behavioral issues, men’s health, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, sports performance and recovery and alternative pain relief.
Mollie specializes in gastrointestinal issues, believing that all disease starts in the gut. She also received advanced training in microbiome restoration therapies, deemed to provide a novel approach to such chronic conditions as autoimmune diseases, gastrointestinal complaints, multiple sclerosis, allergies, asthma, autism, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
She worked with the first person in the United States to make oral fecal transplants. The therapy involves the transference of a healthy stool from a donor with high microbiota diversity into someone suffering from Clostridium difficile infection, a toxin-producing bacteria that causes severe diarrhea and colon inflammation.
The fecal transplants are being fast-tracked by the FDA, Mollie said, because studies have shown they can cut autism by 50 percent.
The Szybalas will become licensed as primary care physicians in Idaho in July 2020, which will enable Mollie to administer oral fecal transplants here.
Cory and Mollie met at Indiana University where Cory majored in biochemistry and Mollie earned a dual bachelor’s degree in biology and chemistry.
Cory Szybala, a whiz at math and science, grew up in Indiana where he became fascinated by medicine as a high school student because of the opportunity to work in a hospital as part of his high school curriculum. A chance after high school to work as a nursing assistant in surgery only sealed his desire to go into medicine.
But, he says, he came to believe that something was missing as he watched cardiology patients come into surgery.
“They’d come in and we’d already have them scheduled for their next surgery,” he said. “I thought—wait!—who’s helping try to avoid surgery with preventable care, like exercise and nutrition. Primary care should involve prevention—looking at family history and previous medical history to see if there’s a trend. Instead of putting someone on blood pressure medicine right away, for instance, we need to give them six months of diet to get it down.”
Following Indiana University, both ended up in Portland where they earned naturopathic medical degrees from the National University of Natural Medicine.
Both have completed a four-year-postgraduate medical education where they were trained as integrative primary care physicians. Their curriculum included a standard medical curriculum similar to that of medical doctors, with the addition of clinical nutrition, botanical medicine, physical medicine, homeopathy and counseling.
Each client they see resembles a puzzle, whether they be dealing with hormonal issues, depression or insomnia. Many of those Mollie sees have lived with gastrointestinal issues for several years and they seem no closer to find the magic bullet.
“Often, people come to us saying, ‘I’m not feeling like myself. I’m irritable, emotional. My doctor prescribed something but I’m not feeling any better,’” Mollie recounted. “I look at their lab tests, their lifestyles and circumstances to piece the puzzle together.”
The Szybalas’ consultations go beyond determining the root of the problem to figuring out what the obstacles are to addressing it.
“I’ve never given the same treatment plan twice,” said Mollie. “One person may be juggling three jobs and three kids. So, we need to figure out how to carve out time, how to get the help that’s needed for that person to go to the gym, if that’s what’s needed. We also work with other doctors, other specialists, to make sure they’re getting the care they need. Often, we can speed up the process there.”
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Sun Valley Natural Medicine is at 128 Saddle Road, Suite 103 C in the Kneeland Professional Building. Office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays. To schedule a free 15-minute consultation, call 208-928-4022 or visit www.svnaturalmedicine.com.