Alumni Profile

When Dr. Carlo Calabrese graduated from National College of Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM) in 1983, he entered a profession that did not have academic research. "There were only about a thousand licensed naturopathic physicians," he says. "As I got more involved in the profession, I realized the need for a wider basis for epistemology in naturopathy. My career has been largely spent building infrastructure for research in natural medicine."

Dr. Calabrese, currently a senior investigator at the Helfgott Research Institute and research professor at NCNM, both in Portland, Oregon, remembers his early days in the naturopathic discipline. "Twenty-five years ago, the education didn't meet any specific standard and contacts between the naturopathic and conventional medical schools in Portland and Seattle were on a personal basis only," he says. "Now many institutional research collaborations are underway, mutual educational exchanges are in place, and naturopathic physicians are research fellows or faculty at the Oregon Health and Science University and the University of Washington." He adds that time has only reinforced the lesson of "collaborate or die" in medical research.

Prior to his work in research, Dr. Calabrese worked on accreditation and setting educational standards for naturopaths. "We had to do the basics in an open standard for education. The other big need for the knowledge base was documentation to support the practice with evidence and data," he says. "Legislators considering licensure and insurance plans considering including naturopathic physicians in their networks were asking for it." Dr. Calabrese's training in the Extended MPH Degree Program at the University of Washington (UW) provided him with the research tools and practical experience in medical administration to excel in this area. "I was most interested in program evaluation, biostatistics, and epidemiology. How do you go about delivering health services in an efficient and ethical way and how do you evaluate what the results are?"

Although known for his work that contributed to the development of research facilities and the ethical oversight of research at both Bastyr University, located in Seattle, Washington, and NCNM, Dr. Calabrese is also known for his research into the role of CAM in AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). His early studies involving the herb Andrographis pinucalata found that while it boosts immune system function it had no impact on viral load. This pioneering work laid the foundation for ongoing studies of herbal remedies.

Currently, Dr. Calabrese is working on a grant application with the UW's School of Public Health and Community Medicine to establish a center for comparative trials. Researchers at the center will compare CAM interventions to usual interventions to see if CAM can have an effect on refractory clinical problems. The proposal, headed by Bill Lafferty, a professor in the Department of Health Services, will consider questions like whether the use of drugs can be reduced in middle-aged people experiencing insomnia or in pregnant women suffering from depression.
"Naturopathic medicine includes the kind of tools for health that are accessible to nearly all of us -- it's over the counter, not prohibitively expensive, and includes nutrition, diet, and stress management. The whole realm of the psychospiritual also counts. People's behaviors and motivations are big determinants -- we talk about nature and nurture, but we don't acknowledge will as often. To some degree, we choose our behaviors and our choices factor into the health of the individual."