MenuFRANCIS BRINKER, N.D.
For decades Dr. Brinker's love and study of Herbal, Naturopathic, and Eclectic medicine has led to contributing writings to Eclectic Medical Publications. Growing up on a farm in Kansas near Waconda Springs Naturopathic sanitarium, he earned a degree in biology at the University of Kansas. His knowledge of herbs grew through exchanges with fellow students including Ed Alstat and Wade Boyle in the human biology degree program at Kansas Newman College and the doctoral program at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Oregon, where he initiated a herbarium and graduated in 1981. His academic study culminated in a postdoctoral fellowship in botanical medicine at NCNM and publication of his research on Botanical Toxicology (1983) while teaching Naturopathic botanical medicine in the clinic and classroom from 1981 to 1985.
While working at home in Arizona to help raise his 4 children, he developed an herbal repertory, To Health With Herbs. It was incorporated in the Eclectic Dispensatory of Botanical Therapeutics, vol.1 (1989) compiled by Ed Alstat. Along with other original and prior works, Native Healing Gifts, a book on plants of the Southwest, was included in EDBT vol. 2 (1995). His book on botanicals in Naturopathy (Formulas for Healthful Living, 1995) was a product of teaching at the newly founded Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine from 1993 to 1999. Herb Contraindications and Drug Interactions (1997), the first book of its kind, led to teaching in Dr. Andrew Weil’s Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona from 1998 to 2009. His favorite effort on botanicals, Complex Herbs – Complete Medicines, (2004) focuses on naturopathic perspectives, Eclectic contributions, and indigenous herbs. The 2010 fourth edition, Herbal Contraindications and Drug Interactions plus Herbal Adjuncts with Medicines, has provided a new emphasis on both benefits and risks involved when combining botanicals with pharmaceuticals. All of the latest editions of his books are available through Eclectic Medical Publications.
Born in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1945 Wade Boyle earned his first bachelor's degree in English from the College of Wooster and a Master of Divinity from Hartford Seminary Foundation. He later added a bachelor's degree in human biology from Kansas Newman College and completed his doctorate in naturopathic medicine at NCNM in Portland, OR, in 1983. Developing his interests in physiotherapy, hydrotherapy, and botanical medicine, Dr. Boyle utilized these clinically in his practice in Cranberry, PA, and published on these subjects through his Buckeye Naturopathic Press in East Palestine, OH. A devoted husband and father of 3 boys, Wade passed away in 1993. Dr. Boyle contributed articles on the history of natural therapeutics in The Naturopathic Physician and co-authored a popular text on its clinical applications, Lectures in Naturopathic Hydrotherapy (1988), together with Andre Saine, N.D. Dr. Boyle’s work as an editor should not go unnoticed, since he compiled and edited the valuable contribution on Eclectic diagnostic techniques provided by Eli Jones, M.D., in the book entitled Reading the Eye, Pulse and Tongue for the Indicated Remedy (1989). Around this same time Wade also examined the American botanical medicine traditions in both their regular and irregular expressions. The result was three works published as part of the large Eclectic Dispensatory of Botanical Therapeutics vol. 1 compiled by Ed Alstat, N.D. (1989). They are now being made available again through Eclectic Medical Publications as excerpts from the larger volume, The Writings of the Late Dr. Wade Boyle. These texts include Herb Doctors – Pioneers in Nineteenth-Century American Botanical Medicine, a series of short biographies that examine the major contributors to botanical practice in the medical reform movements of that era. A major component of the reform of American medicine was the establishment of the Eclectic profession and the influence of its flagship institute, documented in the colorful story told as A History of the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati. In addition, the acceptance of botanical remedies in conventional medical practice is reflected in his document Botanical Substances in the United States Pharmacopoeias (1820-1980). This book and its charts illustrate the relative prevalence of specific botanicals in each USP decade by decade and their general predominance prior to 1900. Dr. Boyle is also well known for documenting with co-author Friedhelm Kirschfeld the naturopathic profession’s own European and American traditions in the book Nature Doctors – Pioneers in Naturopathic Medicine (1994). [This is his only text not available through EMP.] As both an astute practitioner and scholar, Dr. Boyle brings a cogent perspective that lends greater credibility to his observations. In telling the stories of American botanical traditions, his keen eye for pertinent and engaging facts helps embellish the context from which current predicaments and achievements evolved. After Wade Boyle’s untimely death in 1993, Eclectic Medical Publications has been privileged to continue providing his valuable contributions to the hydrotherapy, Eclectic, and botanical literature.WADE BOYLE, N.D.
