Dr. Alena Guggenheim is a 4th generation physician. Dr.
Guggenheim’s mother began attending medical school as a single parent when Alena was 4
years old and so she subsequently spent her childhood steeped in medicine. By the
time she was a teenager she vowed never to go into medicine after watching her
mother struggle with the difficulties her patients went through as a result of
invasive medical interventions. She attended Reed College in Portland, OR and
graduated with a BA in Biology in 2001. During her senior year at Reed she
wrote a thesis about how the practice of medicine would be altered if it
incorporated evolutionary theory. While this course of study was very
intellectually stimulating, it also left her with a deep sense that both the
body and the population creates disease, not out of some flaw, but out of
adaptation. She asked herself, "Why then does medicine view disease as something that must be
battled?" This question led her to a course of study in naturopathic
medicine. In 2007 she graduated from the National College of Natural Medicine
with a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine. She participates in both clinical
and laboratory research and has been published for her work on immune
stimulation with herbs. Dr. Guggenheim completed a prestigious residency that
focused on cardiopulmonary medicine. She is in private practice in Portland, OR
where she works with her patients to understand the root cause of their disease
and gives them tools to live a vital life.
Publications
Management of Atrial Fibrillation. NDNR. 2008 March; vol 4 iss 3, pg 1
Underlying
hormonal and neurotransmitter abnormalities in systemic lupus erythematous. Published in 2007, NCNM (Portland, Or)
The
effect of Echinacea purpurea, Astragalus membranaceus and Glycyrrhiza glabra on
CD69 expression and immune cell activation in humans. Phytother Res. 2006 Jun
28; : 16807880
Location:
Center For Natural Medicine
1330 SE Cesar Chavez Blvd
Portland, OR 97214
503-232-1100 phone
503-232-7751 fax
