New doctor working at historic Mary McCrank’s building alongside Medical Massage and Summit Chiropractic - Centralia Chronicle

[By Owen Sexton / [email protected]]

By Owen Sexton / [email protected]

Whether someone is looking to optimize their diet for weight loss or for natural remedies to help their body recover from more serious conditions, including addiction, heart disease and diabetes, there is a new doctor in the area.

Chehalis Naturopathic Medicine now includes the services and expertise of Dr. David Zeoli.

Chehalis Naturopathic Medicine is located inside the historic building that once housed the famous Mary McCrank’s restaurant. It will operate alongside Medical Massage & Acupuncture and Summit Chiropractic Center, owned by Kim and Aaron Wilson.

Naturopathic medicine is the practice of utilizing natural remedies to help the body heal itself. Licensed naturopathic practitioners — like Dr. Zeoli — have been working in Washington state for over a century now.

“I learned about it when I was going to school in Portland, Oregon. I’m originally from Boston, and we don’t have them out there so much,” Zeoli said. “On the West Coast, they’re much more popular.”

The Chronicle met with Dr. Zeoli on Thursday, Dec. 9, at his practice to learn more about naturopathic medicine and what drew him to the Lewis County area.

A biology major on the pre-med track in college, he knew he wanted to be a doctor but didn’t know which field he wanted to study.

While his professors and advisers wanted Dr. Zeoli to study a modern medicine practice or consider becoming a surgeon, he had other ideas.

“It made me think about what MDs do. They do surgery and (prescribe) drugs, but not a whole lot else. For myself, I always wanted to do something natural. I want to take herbs and vitamins,” Dr. Zeoli said. “So why would I do something for someone else that I wouldn’t do for myself?”

He visited the National College of Natural Medicine and decided that was the route he wanted to go.

Along with being a licensed naturopathic doctor, he is also an acupuncturist. His treatment methods involve a number of options, including:

• Diagnostic testing and physical exams

• Nutritional and botanical medicine

• Food intolerance and sensitivity testing, or food desensitization

• Toxic metal testing

• Homeopathy and acupuncture

• Dietary and lifestyle changes

• Counseling and stress management

• Pharmaceutical prescriptions when needed

“We listen to people first. I spend an hour just listening to what they have to say, and we try to find out what the underlying cause is (to their ailment),” Zeoli said. “Depending on what the underlying cause is, we try to make a personalized plan.”

Getting to know his patients is key, especially when helping them craft a new diet, he said.

“Not everyone is eating a therapeutic diet,” he said. “One of the most important things I do is to find out what the diet is for that particular person. Because everyone has different needs from their diet, and you want to address those for the individual person. Also, the homeopathic medicines themselves are very specific to symptoms, so you have to find out all the details. If you don’t find out the details, you won’t give the right medicine and it’s not going to work … You have to work in harmony with the body’s own healing mechanisms, and that requires a lot of precision and thought.”

That’s the general idea behind naturopathic medicine, to aid a patient’s body with its own natural healing and recovery process.

“It’s really the body that takes care of everything,” he said. “You’re supporting and stimulating the body’s own self-healing mechanisms. And that way, you can treat just about everything because it’s really the body that’s doing the work, I’m just helping the body do it better.”

Medical conditions that Zeoli offers naturopathic treatment options for include addiction, osteoporosis, osteopenia, allergies, anxiety, depression, pain syndromes, autoimmune conditions, respiratory issues, digestive disorders, diabetes, sleep disorders, fatigue, heart disease, thyroid disorders, hormonal imbalances, hypertension, joint and muscle disorders, infections, neurological conditions, post-injury recovery and weight management.

Having now practiced naturopathic medicine for 25 years, Zeoli was previously working in the Seattle area, which included some time with the famous naturopathic practitioner Dr. Jonathan Wright, but he wanted to get away from the city.

“I love the outdoors,” Zeoli said. “And there’s a lot of it here. There’s even a nice little brook and beautiful trees right out here. I really like the environment out in this area. We’re a lot closer to nature than we are in Seattle.”

Dr. Zeoli works alongside Samantha Myer, a registered dietitian, nutritionist, massage therapist and movement educator.

To schedule an appointment with either Zeoli or Myer, call 360-996-4778.

Chehalis Naturopathic Medicine is located inside the historic Mary McCrank’s building at 2923 Jackson Highway where it intersects with Logan Hill Road.

Originally constructed in 1900, the building was first a restaurant known as the Dutch Mill Tavern.

Mary McCrank was born in 1900 in Vancouver, British Columbia, but moved to Lewis County as a teenager and worked for the Automobile Club of Washington.

When the Great Depression forced the club to close in 1935, McCrank found herself out of a job. The Depression had hit the Dutch Mill Tavern hard, too, and McCrank bought it after the owner offered her a price she couldn’t refuse.

She changed the name to the Shamrock Inn to honor her Irish heritage, but the good home-cooked style meals McCrank served ended up making everyone just call the restaurant by her own name — an irony considering she didn’t know how to cook when she first bought the restaurant.

Eventually, the name was officially changed to Mary McCrank’s. McCrank died in 1984, and her ashes were spread beneath the property’s magnolia tree, which still stands today.

The property changed hands a couple of times before being purchased by the Wilsons last year. They were looking to expand their businesses, both Medical Massage & Acupuncture and Summit Chiropractic Center.

To learn more about Medical Massage and Summit Chiropractic, visit Medical Massage & Acupuncture PS, Chehalis, WA and Summit Chiropractic Center - Chehalis, WA| or follow the businesses on Facebook.

For more information on Chehalis Naturopathic Medicine, visit Chehalis Naturopathic Medicine, Chehalis, WA.