About the Doctor
Dr. Laura Futterman is a graduate of the world-famous National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, OR, the oldest and most prestigious Naturopathic Medical School in the nation. After graduation, Dr. Futterman was selected from among many candidates for a one-year teaching residency at National College. She helped supervise student doctors at 8 different clinics – all of them integrating natural and conventional medicine – including a low-cost community clinic for homeless youth; an alcohol and drug addiction and rehabilitation clinic; as well as a conventional naturopathic medical clinic that served families, women and children, and the full range of general and family practice and natural internal medicine. During this time, she worked with literally thousands of patients, bringing them the best of both naturopathic and conventional medicine. Dr. Futterman continues to be interested in the full spectrum of natural medicine, and reads extensively on health and healing.
Dr. Futterman received her B. Sc.from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she majored in Biological Sciences and Pre-Med. While a full-time student, she was medical receptionist and Chiropractic Assistant at the Center for Integrative Medicine, which is affiliated with Northwestern University. It was here that her passion and interest in Naturopathic medicine flourished.
Dr. Futterman’s interest in natural medicine came about as a result of her own struggles with health and pain, and the seeming inability of conventional medicine to help her. Dr. Futterman suffered from chronic knee pain, resulting from an injury, from the time she was a young girl. After ten years of prescription pain medication, physical therapy, and surgery on both knees, she was still in chronic pain. It was at this point that she decided to pursue a different path, visiting both a Naturopathic Doctor and a Chiropractor. By following a program of natural medicine that included diet changes as well as a wide range of other natural therapies, she finally began to experience relief for the first time since she was a child. Currently, she has been pain-free and has returned to a full exercise regime.
These experiences opened her eyes to what Natural Medicine can do, and that there are ways to treat disease, and to get relief from suffering, that are ignored by the world of conventional medicine. Since that time, she has had wonderful success helping her family, pets and her patients using Naturopathic Medicine.
Dr. Futterman is an eclectic naturopathic physician, meaning she uses a variety of natural methods, custom prescribed to fit the needs of each patient. These healing modalities include dietary and nutritional counseling; herbal medicines both ancient and modern; homeopathic remedies; flower essences, which are used to bring about emotional healing to help the body heal itself.
Dr. Futterman has found that a wide range of chronic diseases respond to Naturopathic Medicine, including Diabetes, Allergies and Asthma, Chronic Pain, Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), Depression, Insomnia, Chronic Fatigue, Gastro-Esophageal Reflux Disease (GERD), digestive complaints such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome, “gas and bloating”, Constipation, High Blood Pressure and Thyroid Disorders – to name a Just a few! Her philosophy is to always try to find the underlying cause of your illness; to educate and counsel patients so that you will be able to take an active and informed role in your own care; and to tailor her treatments to your unique needs and situation.
Dr. Futterman is a native of Chicago, and returns there frequently to visit friends and family. She enjoys spending time with her friends and family, cats and loves the outdoors.