Leigh Richardson of the Brain Performance Center and host of In Your Head with Leigh Richardson speaks with Dr. Jan Patterson, medicine/infectious diseases and integrative medicine physician, professor, podcaster and public speaker. Jan talks about her co-authored book, Breath for the Soul: Self-Care Steps to Wellness, that describes simple yet effective measures like breathwork, movement, nutrition, and spirit, to empower people to cope with stress, anxiety, depression, and grief.

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About Dr. Jan Patterson:

I grew up on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas, where I learned to milk goats and grow vegetables. I think this contributed to my interest in natural products as therapies later in life. Early in life, I saw some consequences of inadequate medical care in people close to me. This heightened my interest in Medicine; I wanted a chance to learn about and provide good medical care.

I went to medical school in Houston, then trained in internal medicine at Vanderbilt, and in infectious diseases at Yale. My husband, also an infectious diseases physician, and I spent some time on the faculty at Yale and then we moved to the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio, where we have been for almost 30 years and where we raised our two sons.

In addition to patient care, I have participated in medical research, education, healthcare improvement, and administration. My most proud accomplishments are my two remarkable sons. Our family enjoyed many travels as my husband and I shared our research and medical education around the world.

From my 30 years of practicing and teaching in medicine, and especially from personal experience as a cancer survivor and dealing with losses, including the loss of my son by suicide,  I realized that while conventional medicine is very helpful and can do wonderful things, it is not all that is needed for dealing with the difficulties in life—such as stress, anxiety, depression and grief.

In particular, when my psyche was healing after the loss of my son, and I was physically healing from my bout with cancer, I discovered essential oils, and they were very helpful to me. I realized there must be other holistic therapies that are also effective. This led to my training in Integrative Medicine. I learned about the power of breathwork, movement, nutrition, spirit, meditation and mindfulness in improving health. Since that time, I have been working to integrate holistic therapies like these with conventional medicine.
My current projects include directing the Integrative Medicine program at our hospital, where we offer holistic therapies to inpatients. And, we wrote the book, Breath for the Soul: Self-Care Steps to Wellness, to share these empowering and simple yet effective measures with as many people as possible. In the book, I describe the evidence for practices like intentional breathing, movement, nutrition, and spirit. My co-author, inspirational author Phyllis Clark Nichols, gives inspirational stories, scripture, positive thoughts, to enrich our spiritual awareness of dealing with the difficulties in life.

Connect with Dr. Jan Patterson:

Check out Dr. Jan Patterson and Phyllis Clark Nichols' book: Breath for the Soul: Self-Care Steps to Wellness

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Leigh Richardson is also the author of Brain on Game On, available at Amazon and on  www.thebrainperformancecenter.com and www.leigherichardson.com. The Brain Performance Center is located in Dallas, Texas and can be reached at 214-329-9017.

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Connect with Leigh Richardson:

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