by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Feb 26, 2013 | Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Community, Guatemala, Health, NGOs, Photography, Travel, Travel Stories, Volunteering Abroad
By the time the trucks pulled up to the clinic in Santa Catarina, a Mayan village outside of Panajachel on Lago Atitlán, the line of people waiting stretched all the way down the block. Aged anywhere from 4 months to 93 years, some of the patients had traveled miles to get there and some had been waiting for hours. The sight brought to mind North American youths waiting outside of Best Buy for the new iPhone to come out. It´s so astounding what our priorities have become. Many of the patients who quietly waited on the cobblestone street for the clinic to open had never seen a doctor in their lives, grinning and bearing their way through years of chronic illness and pain.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Dec 3, 2012 | Colombia, Nature, Outdoors, Philosophy, Photography, Travel, Travel Stories
The trail in Tairona National Park, from the entrance of the park to the campsite we stayed at, took 4 hours to hike. Burdened with heavy backpacks and cotton shirts sticking to our backs with humid sweat, we traipsed through the jungle. Straw hats scratching hairlines, shoulder straps pressing into flesh and legs shuddering with the extra weight we climbed, feeling the rain tickling our skin, diluting our sweat in the hot, sticky air. There was nowhere to go but onward.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Nov 30, 2012 | Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine, Community, Guatemala, South America, Travel, Travel Stories, Volunteering, Volunteering Abroad
So, in February of 2013 I will be packing up my medical equipment and heading to Panajachel, Guatemala to embark on my first ever medical brigade with Naturopaths Without Borders (NWB) and Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health (NMGH)!
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Sep 3, 2012 | Balance, Colombia, Cooking, Culture, Diet, Digestion, Elimination Diet, Food, Food Sensitivities, Gluten Free, Health, Lifestyle, Nutrition, Photography, Restaurants, South America, Travel, Travel Stories
It´s been a while since I´ve talked about food on this blog, which is a shame, since this blog is about naturopathic medicine and, as Hippocrates said, “let food be thy medicine.” Any naturopathic doctor will tell you that a great diet is the key to health, happiness and longevity. I´ve just gotten back from my fourth trip to Colombia and have decided to reflect on my most recent experience with Colombian cuisine.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Aug 23, 2012 | Balance, Colombia, Community, Culture, Emotions, Family, Music, Nature, Photography, Poetry, Politics, South America, Summer, Travel, Travel Stories
The first thing I notice about Bogotá, when descending the rickety stairs of the airplane, is the smell: a strange mixture of damp clay, lush green vegetation and diesel smoke. The altitude provides a lightheaded feeling of well-being and forceful palpitations of your abdominal aorta begin somewhere between your sternum and navel.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | May 24, 2012 | Art, Book, Book Review, Naturopathic Philosophy, Summer, Sunshine, Travel Stories
While suffering through the damp, dark remaining months of 2nd year of naturopathic medical school, camped out in middle-of-nowhere North York, I began to have intense emotional cravings for summer. (more…)
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Apr 25, 2012 | Art, Balance, Beauty, Colombia, Colour, Culture, Photography, Travel, Travel Stories
Some photographic memories from Bogotá, Medellín and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. 2009.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Mar 14, 2012 | Art, Beauty, Colombia, Culture, Finding yourself, Gratitude, Healing Stories, Love, Photography, South America, Travel, Travel Stories
One of the realities of human suffering is the sensation of time passing us by. It is one of the pains of being alive and aware of it. Oftentimes we live on autopilot, bored with our present circumstances and rushing through life to the next good thing we have scheduled. When times are good we can experience the anxious feeling of attachment, knowing that, like all good things, it can’t possibly last forever.
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Mar 8, 2012 | Art, Balance, Colombia, Culture, Empathy, Family, Healing Stories, Listening, Love, Naturopathic Philosophy, NGOs, Photography, Psychology, South America, Travel, Travel Stories, Volunteering, Volunteering Abroad
As mentioned before, naturopaths are not necessarily defined by our toolbox of modalities. What, then, does define us as a profession? As we witness a rise in the demand for complementary and alternative medicine, and with it, the rise in something called the “Holistic Medical Doctor”, what sets naturopathic doctors apart?
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by Dr. Talia Marcheggiani, ND | Mar 2, 2012 | Asian Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine, Balance, Colombia, Cooking, Diet, Digestion, Food, Healing Stories, Nutrition, Recipes, South America, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Travel, Travel Stories
Colombian food mainly consists of: white rice, a large portion of bland, unseasoned, tough meat, potatoes and a “salad” (which means one leaf of iceburg lettuce and a pale, sad tomato slice).
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