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Dr. Daniel Heller is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor and a 1995 graduate of the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. Before opening his current practice in Northern California, Dr. Heller was a general family practitioner in Stamford, Connecticut, from 1997 to 2008. He has helped thousands of patients from all over the United States improve their health and naturally overcome disease.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielhellernd/
Dr. Heller studied natural medicine on his own long before entering a four-year medical school. For over a decade, he was dedicated to study and experiential learning in fields integral to the practice of natural medicine: herbal medicine, holistic diet and nutrition, classical homeopathy, and personal growth studies in the Carl Rogers tradition. The fields of integrative medicine, functional medicine, and holistic health are rapidly growing in popularity, so every day more and more people are hearing about them for the first time. Dr. Heller has been involved in this field for over 30 years, and his experience and vast knowledge allows him to be an expert guide through the sometimes bewildering array of medical options available to patients nowadays.
Dr. Heller’s training in helping people goes back as far as high school, when he was chosen to be part of a small, select group of students to receive an innovative two year peer-counselor training. This training ultimately helped prepared him to listen carefully, and non-judgmentally, to his patients, and to develop an empathetic ear for people's struggles. These qualities have always been the hallmark of his clinical practice.
Many of Dr. Heller's patients remark that he is the first doctor ever to listen to them so thoroughly, and to be so sincerely interested in helping them. Dr. Heller believes the patient-doctor relationship is a sacred trust, and that it is an honor to assist people on their healing journey.
Before beginning medical school, Dr. Heller undertook an intensive study of the philosophy of natural healing. This convinced him that the true and ultimate purpose of natural medicine is to not just to substitute herbs or vitamins for drugs, but to treat the cause of disease, and to stimulate the body to heal itself (known in naturopathic philosophy by the Latin Tolle Causum and Vis Medicatrix Naturae). These principles were reinforced during four years of naturopathic medical and clinical training, and Dr. Heller sought out faculty and training that allowed him to deepen this understanding.
After 15 years of clinical practice applying this philosophy (which also includes the principles of Do No Harm or Primum Non Nocere; Prevention as Medicine; Treat The Whole Person; and Doctor as Teacher, or Docere), Dr. Heller is more convinced than ever that a doctor's best tool is not the latest technique or drug, but an understanding of how people heal, and what people need—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—to really heal. The same is true for any natural therapy, be it a supplement or a technique: it must be applied in a way that supports a person's self-healing ability. Even the latest medical technology best serves you when it is applied in support of the body's self-healing ability. The simplest, least technical health intervention can support deep healing when it is used to support that dynamic self-healing potential.
In clinical practice, Dr. Heller focuses on keeping it simple, using core natural therapies to aid in treating the cause, and stimulating the body's self-healing ability for conditions including:
Dr. Heller comes from a family with a healing tradition. Besides the spiritual service rendered by his clergyman father, he has siblings who are chiropractors and several family members in the counseling professions. Health and healing is in Dr. Heller's blood.
While he remains a natural medicine classicist, Dr. Heller is also a firm believer in scientific and medical research, and is heartened by the growing appreciation of the need for transparency and deep analysis of all medical research, including increased scrutiny of pharmaceutical trials.
Dr. Heller has pursued courses of advanced study in acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, and Chinese medical philosophy studies at the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York City; clinical nutrition studies with Alan Gaby, MD, and Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D.; Buteyko Breathing Method at the Buteyko Clinic in Moscow, Russia (in 2002, when earned his certification, he was the only doctor in the United States to receive training there); and Amino Acid Neurotransmitter Repletion Therapy with Marty Hinz, MD, the originator of this approach. Dr. Heller was the first naturopathic doctor to attend the World Congress on Insulin Resistance, which is devoted to the pre-diabetic condition which affects hundreds of millions of people in the US and all over the world. His ongoing continuing medical education is focused on women’s health, including the UC Davis Annual Women’s Health Conference in Napa, California; and the health of families and the impact of trauma on health, including the Symposium on Medical Impact of Child Abuse and Neglect at Stanford University and the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study co-sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control.
Dr. Heller was a research fellow at the Optimal Health Foundation in San Diego, California, crafting original research-briefings on topics as diverse as Mediterranean and low carbohydrate diets; metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance; caloric restriction; acid and alkaline metabolism; and food allergy testing. His undergraduate career included environmental science studies with ecology pioneers at the University of California, Santa Cruz; and graduating Summa Cum Laude from University of California, San Diego in Literature and Writing.
Dr. Heller, his wife, and their Portuguese Water Dog divide their time between Northern California, and an old farmhouse in the Hudson Valley.
Dr. Heller devotes part of his free time to organic vegetable gardening, cultivating Cymbidium orchids, and other nature-centric pursuits, and continues to practice what he preaches as an advocate of natural medicine. His role as founder, formulator, and clinical director of PMS Comfort is an outgrowth of his personal and professional goal to help women live happier, more fulfilling, and more productive lives.
If you would like to learn more about Dr. Heller's practice, and inquire as to whether a private consultation is right for you, please contact Dr. Heller.