Meet Sara Hart: Mom, Naturopathic doctor, Chinese medicine practitioner and organic farmer.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sara Hart and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sara, what is the most important factor behind your success?
Stillwater Clinic & Apothecary is a resource for the community to receive natural medicine tools, sustainable living resources and professional, individualized medical care. The success of Stillwater and natural medicine is inherent in the experience that people have with caring for their health and environment. Making small changes in our everyday lives with sustainable choices, using products that require less chemical manufacturing and supporting organic agriculture all help us move toward a healthier future. Today’s medical culture creates a separation between the resources that generate health and the tools that manage disease. It is easy to lose a sense of self-empowerment with healthcare today. It is also incredibly common for people to not know how to support or improve their health over time. Fortunately the systems of healthcare that demonstrate improving health from generation to generation are available for us to learn from with the natural medicine approach. As human beings in western civilization, we are facing the most overwhelmingly challenging dilemma with how to change the tide of the impact of our culture on the environment. There are more people suffering from chronic diseases today than ever. Yet the answers are right before us, able to grow from rich soil at our feet when we connect with ancient and intuitive wisdom.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Stillwater is a combination of our Apothecary and Clinic. Our natural medicine apothecary is a retail shop open to the general public offering health and sustainable living resources. We carry nutritional supplements, bulk herbs, regionally crafted medicinal products, gifts for inspiration and a book collection to provide education for topics on nutrition, children’s health, homeopathy, Chinese medicine, mindfulness and much more. Our clinic is a combination of myself, Dr. Sara Hart working as a Naturopathic and Chinese medicine doctor as well as James Hart who works as an addiction and mental health counselor. We have additional providers that share the office with us as well providing professional medical care. Integrative and natural medicine aims to empower individuals in their health. This is a considerable difference from the style of protocol based healthcare that is common in mainstream medical systems. Our emphasis is on helping support individuals to understand the balance of the unique challenges and opportunities for their health. We work to provide the simplest tools first to support them in achieving health goals. In the US, there is a great division between healthcare that centers around pharmaceutical treatment and healthcare that centers around lifestyle choices, plant medicine, mindfulness and nutrition. This unfortunately can lead people to feel like they have to choose one or the other. However this is not the case. We have excellent scientific studies helping us understand the mechanisms of plant medicine as well as drug therapies and continuous inquiry to better understand specific mechanisms of action for how plant medicine and drug therapies work in the body. These tools can work hand in hand to provide the best outcomes for health today. Educating the general public and patients themselves about the value of integrative medicine is a challenge but something we continue to find deep satisfaction in doing. It is our greatest joy to witness individuals transform their health and take ownership over their lives so despite the challenges, we show up to do this each day!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Colorado’s natural beauty is the most incredible teacher for health and wellness. Anytime I get the chance, I head up the road from Lyons to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. For visitors, it is important to take it easy with increasing altitude, especially folks coming from far away where the elevation of the front range may already be a challenge. For anyone visiting the alpine landscape, staying well hydrated is the key to having a great day. We recommend using our “Altitude Adjuster” herbal tea blend combining ginkgo biloba, hibiscus and spearmint for a delicious circulatory tonic. Pack a picnic and plenty of warm layers and head west for an awe-inspiring adventure in the natural world. Observing the incredible view, the water ways, flora and fauna of the mountains help remind us of the importance of living gently on this earth. The many areas scarred from wildfires across the landscape open our eyes to the role we have as stewards of this planet and ally’s to nature’s balance. From the wisdom of Chinese medicine, one of the most valuable things that human beings can do with their time is to honor the beauty of the natural world. Finding a quiet spot to sit in nature and experience the peaceful environment can help us achieve balance in our lives and hopefully in our world. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Health challenges are something that people all face at some point in their lives. For myself, it was my fathers early death from cancer in his 30’s that shed light into the complex healthcare world we live with today. I got an early start working in the western medical world by becoming a certified nurse aid when I was 15. I worked in nursing homes, hospitals, group homes and with county health departments tending to individuals health, following the instructions of other medical providers. Through 10 years of this work, I saw more unmanageable disease and distress than I could cope with and felt that the solutions provided with more and more handfuls of pills were not actually solving anything at all. It is with great thanks to the Native American communities in the southwestern region of the US that I gained an entirely different viewpoint on health and disease. It started with observing a few of my home health clients that chose herbal medicine from their family lineages instead of pharmaceutical drugs for their health needs. I was astounded to meet elders who had not only maintained their vitality into old age but who also were contributing as purposeful community members. It grew to the study of ethnobotany while I attended Fort Lewis college alongside the sociology and ecology exploration of what had happened to the once vital landscapes of the American southwest. My ambition to become a medical doctor was deeply satisfied when I discovered Naturopathic medicine school. It is a small profession that educates doctors on par with allopathic medical educational systems to produce primary care doctors, but with comprehensive understanding of the non-pharmaceutical based approaches to health in addition to standard medicine. This combined with the incredibly rich history of Chinese medicine gave me the foundation I use to support individuals health today. I am so grateful to the doctors and researchers of the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon for providing the most comprehensive medical education I have found anywhere in the world.

Website: https://www.stillwaterclinicandapothecary.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stillwaterclinic/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-hart-nd-lac-21b0028/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StillwaterHAC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stillwaterhealingarts
Other: Please visit us in person or online for resources for your optimal health. We are located at 418 High Street in Lyons, Colorado.

Image Credits
Sara Hart’s photos