NUHS alum Cindy Howard, DC, DABCI, DACBN, recently discussed a framework on how to get through life’s biggest challenges during the podcast, Women and Small Business with Allison Marketti.
Dr. Howard who wrote, Positively Altered: Finding Happiness at the Bottom of a Chemo Bag, shared her own journey toward positivity after her self-diagnosis of Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2013.
For Dr. Howard, the cancer diagnosis was a wake-up call that forced her to take a hard look at her life and the choices she was making.
“In retrospect, I knew all the right things to do, it doesn’t mean I did them or I didn’t learn the right things until later,” she said. “So, I think it’s really important that we don’t beat ourselves up. We have to learn to forgive ourselves.”
Dr. Howard also discusses her journey to become an internist during her time at National University of Health Sciences. As a former athlete and dancer, she originally planned to become a sports chiropractor, but her education at NUHS helped her realize she could do much more. In an OB/GYN course, she met a former faculty member who would later become a close mentor.
“I learned that in chiropractic medicine…in a lot of states we’re deemed primary care physicians and I thought, this is so cool, I can actually do this part of health [obstetrics and gynecology] as a physician not just treat sports injuries,” she said. “So, graduating from NUHS, we get a very broad primary care education. The university does an amazing job.”
Afterward, she earned a Diplomate in internal medicine and a Diplomate in nutrition. Even though her very first patient came in with back pain, Dr. Howard did more than simply adjust. She treated her internally by running lab tests, identifying inflammatory markers and looking at the patient’s nutrition. Twenty-five years later she has continued to treat patients in a similar manner. Today, Dr. Howard is a national speaker and operates Innovative Health & Wellness Center in Orland Park, which provides chiropractic medicine and acupuncture.
During the podcast, Dr. Howard shared just how much mindset matters when it comes to physical health. She also offers nutritional information on what both adults and children should eat, as well as avoid.
Dr. Howard emphasized that no matter what someone is going through, everything is manageable. “You only are stuck if you want to be stuck,” she said. “It’s a choice.”
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