Integrative Healing for Kids Combines the Best of All Worlds
Dr. Arlene Dijamco, the owner of All Worlds Pediatrics, in Roswell, is an integrative pediatrician who uses holistic modalities. She often gets referrals from traditional doctors and is able to communicate on an equal footing with other physicians. Some of her patients are just looking to be more holistic in their whole lifestyle, while others are just frustrated with their lack of success by other means. She did her undergraduate work at Harvard, obtained a medical degree at Emory University, and then completed a pediatric residency at Albert Einstein University and Andrew Weil’s integrative medicine fellowship at the University of Arizona.
Besides being an M.D. and board-certified pediatrician, Dijamco has received additional training that allows her to combine the best of traditional medicine with complementary and alternative medicine. She states, “Doing so really opens up my therapeutic toolbox for treating different issues, accessing knowledge about homeopathy, botanicals and supplements, using in-depth information about nutrition and just looking at the different layers that make a person who they are; the physical, mental/emotion or even spiritual layer. It just provides so many benefits for a child and family. I call it integrative medicine, because it is integrating all this knowledge. It’s about the depth and the breadth of knowledge.”
A major complaint of many patients today is that they get too little personal attention and don’t feel like they are being heard and having all their issues addressed. Dijamco’s procedure is different. “The first visit is 60 to 90 minutes, so I have a lot of time to spend with a person to get to know them, versus 20 minutes or less found conventionally,” she says. “My patients really have access to me by phone or email. The relationship I have with each family is based on mutual trust and respect—it’s the way things used to be a long time ago.”
Dijamco grew up in Sandy Springs and comes from a family of physicians, as well as ancestors in the Philippines that were farmers, bringing a sense of the value of a natural approach to living and healing. She says, “I grew up happily knowing I would become a physician.” The doctors in her family all came from a conventional background, so it was the holistic field she chose that was different.
Dijamco explains, “I have always have had a yearning to seek the truth and not always take things at face value. My grandmother was a great influence in the way that she was able to relate to everybody. She really listened to everyone’s stories, and that influenced the kind of physician I became, because it’s really in drawing out someone’s stories that you find out the little details to help figure out the key to their health and where you need to intervene.”
One area of her medical training that she thought lacking was in nutrition. Dijamco notes, “Nutrition is one of the building blocks of being well. I recall just one or two lectures on the subject in all of my conventional medical training. That’s one area where a holistic physician has more knowledge and can provide a lot more information.” In school, noted holistic physician Dr. Andrew Weil inspired her decision to pursue integrative medicine and she also started practicing yoga and meditation, which got rid of her acid reflux brought on by stress. That experience showed her how the body could heal itself.
A frequent ailment of children is ear infection. Dijamco believes, “Ultimately, it is your own body that clears infection. Antibiotics will decrease the burden of the bacteria, but your body still has to clear the inflammation and be able to drain it. One huge area that I see not addressed is making sure that the lymphatic system, which clears the inflammation, is working at its best. If anything is obstructing its flow, then you won’t be able to clear an infection appropriately.” She addresses that with hands-on treatment, explaining, “I am trained in osteopathic medicine; cranial osteopathy, in particular. We call it the ‘living anatomy’, because your body is not static; it moves, so we are able to address how everything flows.”
Dijamco explains why she chose pediatrics as her specialty; “I love children because they’re so open—they have an openness that resonates with me. Their stresses and strains are not so deeply rooted, so there’s even more potential to avoid a lot of illness and change their whole life if you can intervene early. Kids are like sponges; you can teach them how to breathe, open up their lungs and they will do it, because they have no pretense. Adults need motivation—for a kid, it’s all fun. I get hugs from all my little patients. It’s great.”
Location: 900 Old Roswell Lakes Pkwy., Ste. 220. For more information, call 678-629-3988 or visit AllWorldsPediatrics.com.
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