About Our Staff - Maine Natural Medicine

Mental Health

At Maine Natural Medicine we are happy to provide supportive medical services to our patient populations dealing with a variety of “mental health” issues from anxiety to schizophrenia. Frequently, understanding and treating any compromised biochemical systems, as well as nutritional deficiencies, can provide great foundational support. Dr. Sachsman is delighted to work as part of a team approach to optimize patients’ overall health and emotional well-being.

Special Needs / Autism

Dr. Sachsman brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to serving the health care needs of children and adults with special needs. She worked exclusively with individuals with special needs for over 25 years as a speech language pathologist prior to becoming a naturopathic doctor. Dr. Sachsman believes it is essential to understand the role of the underlying medical conditions (dysregulation of the immune system, food and environmental allergies, compromised gut health, neuroinflammation, toxicity and genetic variations) that are frequently co-existing factors for these patients.
Dr. Sachsman is in the process of completing the MAPS (Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs) training. She is thrilled to be able to be introducing these highly specific intervention strategies into her practice, as a means of supporting her patients with special needs and their families.

Pediatrics

At Maine Natural Medicine we provide well child health and development checkups, as well as diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic health concerns. We provide a child centered approach, honoring your child’s unique personality and comfort level. Services are available to newborns through adolescents.

Adults

At Maine Natural Medicine we provide assessments and treatment of a wide variety of health related concerns from acne to zinc deficiency. We provide health care services for both acute and chronic health concerns for our patient populations of young adults through geriatrics.

Vital Longevity

At Maine Natural Medicine we strive to support and maintain our patient’s overall health, energy, sleep, wellness and mental/emotional well being as part of the aging process. Creating a healthy lifestyle, diet and optimal nutrition is the foundation of a lifetime of vital longevity.

Detoxification

At Maine Natural Medicine, we recognize the importance of our body’s ability to detoxify as a means of maintaining optimal health. Unfortunately, we are exposed to hazardous toxins daily. We are happy to provide our patients with important information regarding the best means of avoiding and/or reducing toxic exposures. Numerous chronic and complex health issues are frequently the result of an elevated toxic burden. We will support optimizing your body’s detoxification processes utilizing lifestyle and dietary modification, appropriate supplementation as needed, and the use of sauna and ozone therapies. Regardless of your health goal, from prevention to recovery, from acute to chronic illness, supporting detoxification is essential to your health, wellness, and vitality.

Nutritional Counseling

At Maine Natural Medicine we believe that a healthy, whole foods diet is foundational to optimal health. We work closely with our patients to make dietary modifications at a pace that is comfortable and sustainable. Dietary planning is a typical part of most health care visits. At Maine Natural Medicine the principle of maintaining an anti-inflammatory diet, blood type diet or candida diet are examples of plans that are frequently developed and supported to facilitate optimal health. Specific meal plans may be generated on an as needed basis. In addition to studying nutrition in medical school, Dr. Sachsman is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Blood Type/Genotype Diet

While completing her naturopathic medical training, Dr. Sachsman had the privilege of working with Dr. Peter D’Adamo for 2 years. Dr. D’Adamo is a second generation naturopath of global notoriety. The foundation of his groundbreaking approaches to medicine is based in eating for your blood type. Thousand of individuals from around the globe benefit from this powerful approach to building and maintaining health and wellness. Dr. Sachsman supports her patients to embrace eating for their blood type/genotype as a means of supporting overall health, decreasing inflammation, and/or addressing chronic illness.

Genetic 23 & Me, MethylGenetic Nutrition Analysis, OPUS 23, Genomic Analysis

While in Naturopathic Medical School Dr. Sachsman had the privilege of working with Dr. Jared Skowron. Dr. Skowron is the well known author of the Fundamentals of Naturopathic Pediatrics. He specializes in working with children with special needs and Autism Spectrum Disorder. Early in her training, Dr. Sachsman took a special interest in learning to understand some of the unique genetic patterns that contributed to the medical, behavioral, and educational challenges of these children and individuals.

She completed the first training done in the United States by Dr. Peter D’Adamo, learning how to utilize the brilliance of the revolutionary software, OPUS 23. The use of this software allows for a detailed study of an individual’s inherited genetics and provides detailed guidelines for using the power of epigenetics (influences of the environment, diet, nutrition, lifestyle) to influence the genetic inheritances. Additionally, the use of MethylGenetic Nutrition Analysis provides for yet another vantage point to support optimizing epigenetic influences to restore and maintain health.

These appointments are scheduled after a first patient visit. Reports are provided, reviewed with patients and utilized in subsequent appointments as needed to help guide dietary, nutrition and lifestyle choices.

Ozone Therapies

At Maine Natural Medicine we use ozone therapy as a safe and effective means of addressing a variety of health concerns. Ozone therapies offer many health benefits including increased detoxification, reduced inflammation and increased protection to cells against harmful agents. Ozone is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral and therefore very effective in wound healing. Additionally, it can provide a potent additional therapy in addressing numerous chronic health concerns. We offer ozone therapies as one aspect of our integrated naturopathic approach to health and wellness. Please talk with Dr. Sachsman about the addition of ozone therapies to your treatment protocol.

Ask about our ozone packages, designed to optimize your health and value savings.

Botanical Medicine

At Maine Natural Medicine plant based medicine is a large part of our treatment approach to a variety of health concerns. We carry a large number of herbal tinctures and frequently craft unique blends to address individual patient’s needs. We are pleased to offer potent herbal protocols for addressing Lyme and numerous other bacterial & viral infections, should that be the best option for the individual patient.

Homeopathy

At Maine Natural Medicine we embrace the powerful principle of homeopathy: like cures like. Homeopathy is an effective, potent and very safe treatment modality. In addition to studying homeopathy for two years in naturopathic medical school, Dr. Sachsman completed additional training at the New England School of Homeopathy.

Nutraceuticals

At Maine Natural Medicine we strive to provide the highest quality of medicinal nutraceuticals to support a number of nutritional deficiencies that contribute to compromised health. Additionally, nutraceuticals are frequently used as a safer alternative to Pharmaceutical medications.

Healthy You/Healthy Home/Healthy Lifestyle

At Maine Natural Medicine we embrace the opportunity to work with our patients to optimize lifestyle choices that support enhanced health and well-being. In order to optimize patient’s health and well being, we provide support for creating and maintaining a healthy home environment by minimizing exposure to EMFs, toxic chemicals and mycotoxins. In addition, building healthy communication and relationships, stress management and physical exercise programs, all may be addressed in order to maximize your health and well being.

Mold Specialty

In 2013 Dr. Sachsman encountered her first health complications secondary to a mold exposure from a water damaged building. While living near the beach in Connecticut she knew to be concerned about potential mold in the basement of a new rental home. The mold remediation company that was consulted suggested that removing all wood and cardboard from the basement would minimize any mold growth and most likely there would be no health threat. In the Fall, when the house was closed up for the winter and the forced hot air heat was turned on, Dr. Sachsman began experiencing a number of symptoms: headaches, congestion, fatigue, insomnia and a general malaise (feeling of not being well).

Her roommate began experiencing an unprecedented amount of anxiety with accompanying depression. In each of their rooms there were vents for the hot air furnace above their heads.

It wasn’t until 5 months later that they realized it was the house making them ill. Sure enough upon more thorough investigation, the air ducts to the furnace were full of mold. It took moving out of the house, several months and the support of numerous health care practitioners for Dr. Sachsman to begin to recover her health.

Three years later, Dr. Sachsman moved back to Maine. She rented a beautiful home on the water in Trenton. Gradually she started to feel sick again. She had an increase in headaches, GI issues and an increasing of severe insomnia, as well as some brain fog. After living in the house for several months, mold was discovered in the basement. Although a remediation was attempted, the landlord failed to eliminate the source of the moisture in the basement and eventually it was necessary for her to leave the home. Due to mycotoxin contamination many of her possessions needed to be destroyed.

Finding a home in Hancock County that was free of mold became a near impossibility. Additionally, finding a medical provider who understood and could treat the symptoms of mycotoxic illness required leaving the state of Maine. It was through the passionate pursuit of recovering her own health that Dr. Sachsman entered into the world of striving to become increasingly aware of the numerous serious health complications secondary to exposure to mold in a water damaged home or workplace environment. She continues to be surprised daily by the large number of patients she sees with a variety of symptoms that are the result of a mold exposure from a water damaged building compromising their precious health. She remains passionate about helping her patients identify and treat mold related illness and recover their health.

Attempting to recover our health while living in a “sick building” is an impossibility for many of us. As humans we are constantly exposed to a variety of biotoxins. However, 24% of the population has a genetic variation that compromises the immune system’s ability to recognize and eliminate the invaders effectively. As a result these individuals require specialized treatment approaches to help the immune system respond efficiently. At Maine Natural Medicine a large number of our patients have this genetic variation. We loving refer to ourselves as the Canary Club. Understanding the patient’s individualized genetics, that can challenge the immune system and detoxification pathways, allows us to respond using epigenetics (lifestyle & nutritive supports) to restore balance and improved health.

Dr. Sachsman is currently pursuing training and certification with Dr. Richie Shoemaker.

Chronic Inflammation

At Maine Natural Medicine we recognize that most chronic illnesses (including but not limited to Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, Chemical Sensitivity, Mold Sensitivity, Chronic Lyme, and PTSD) have an underlying condition of chronic inflammation. Although inflammation can be a healthy immune system response, for many the immune system has gotten “stuck” in a process of overproduction of pro inflammatory cytokines (chemical messengers).

We frequently run labs specific to this state of immune dysregulation including but not limited to (alpha MSH, MMP9, TGFB 1, VIP, HLA, MARCoNS, VCS and more). Clinical symptoms, thorough history and current living situation will be discussed in detail, and taken into consideration with lab results to create a plan that addresses appropriate lifestyle, dietary and nutritional support in order to facilitate rebalancing the immune system and regaining health.

Please consider that most patients with complex and chronic health issues frequently benefit from this approach.

Lab Testing & Assessments

At Maine Natural Medicine we strive to build a team with our patients. Together we will decide the best means to gain the maximum amount of laboratory data to efficiently treat your health concerns. Patient’s unique financial situations and insurance providers are taken into consideration. We spend time exploring the best options with our patients and counseling them in making the best investment of their resources to gain critical laboratory results. In this manner, we can obtain relevant laboratory data to facilitate optimal treatment protocols.

We are happy to be affiliated with numerous local hospital labs. We will work with you and your insurance company to minimize expenses. Additionally, we do blood draws at Maine Natural Medicine and send labs to Genova, LabCorp, Mercy Diagnostics, and Quest Labs.

Additional tests that are frequently done at Maine Natural Medicine include but are not limited to the following: GI Effects, Nutra Eval, Micronutrient Testing, Food Allergy Testing, Dutch Hormone Testing, Neurotransmitter Testing, organic acid testing, amino acid testing, iodine load test, thorough thyroid assessments, SIBO testing, nasal swabs for chronic sinus infections, thorough lab workups for Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), and genomic analysis.