Philosophy
My primary purpose is to get sick
people well, and the way I feel this is best done is within the
framework of Integrative Family Medicine. I believe medicine is much
more than just dispensing pills and I take care of each patient as I
would want my own family members to be treated. Many issues face us in
our goal of leading a productive healthy life. We are living longer
due to the improvement in public health, nutrition, and modern
medicine. Yet in many ways we have become less healthy. Obesity,
cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, autism, are consuming the
population. Much of what we suffer from is self inflicted and based in
a lack of discipline. We have been tricked into valuing the momentary
pleasure instead of long lasting health. Our health is an amalgam of
the air we breathe, food we eat, thoughts we think, which I have heard
put another way, “Health is what we do for our body minus what we do
to our body.” Some people come to the doctor looking for the magic
pill or to be fixed blaming doctors when they don’t get better, going
through a long list of treatments they have done, yet are still
smoking, not exercising, eating junk food, and overweight. This
reminds me of the joke when a Zen Buddhist opened up a hot-dog stand
and his first customer paid with $20 dollars. After waiting, the
customer demanded, “Where’s my change?”
“Sir,” replied the Buddhist, “change must come from within.” Unless we
make certain changes in our life disease will find us again. Of course
using homeopathy, acupuncture, and manipulation it is possible to
produce what most would call miraculous results, but it is still
imperative that we are doing something for our health on our own. Most
of us know that our bodies were designed to heal, if we get a cut most
likely we aren’t going to bleed to death and in a lot of cases it will
heal without even evidence of what happened. Most of our sickness is
simply a defense the body has put up to protect itself as the “check
engine light”, and most often in conventional medicine the symptoms
are treated, which would be like sticking a piece of tape over the
light. The problem is still there you just don’t notice it for now
until it is too late and you have to replace the engine. Over the
years, I have observed inflammatory bowel diseases go into remission,
HA1Cs brought down from 13 to 6, women with PCOS begin regular pain
free cycles, and 20 year chronic intractable pain all relieved with
alternative therapies which previously had failed conventional
treatments. Thus far, it has been my experience that conventional
treatments are well suited in the acute setting but are often lacking
when it comes to chronic conditions. Bottom line, I want to find what
works and does the least amount of harm, whether it is a conventional
or alternative method.
About Dr Ehle
Dr Ehle was born and raised in Texas. Early on,
his exposure to medicine varied from EMT and surgery tech training
to seminars on nutrition, homeopathy, manipulation and acupuncture
with his father (a chiropractor). He received a Bachelor’s degree in
Nutritional Science from Texas A&M and then attended Texas College
of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of North Texas. During
medical school, Dr Ehle worked as an OMM (osteopathic manipulative
medicine) teaching assistant and served as president of the
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Club. He also spent a
month with the University of Arizona's Integrative Medicine program
run by Andrew Weil and then later in residency completed their
Integrative Medicine 200 hour online curriculum. Dr. Ehle received
his family medicine training at Maine Dartmouth Family Medicine
Residency, one of 8 residencies whose program has an integrative
medicine component. As a third year resident, he was honored
to be elected chief resident. Dr. Ehle is board certified in not
only Family Medicine but also in Medical Acupuncture and Integrative
Medicine, an accomplishment only a few physicians across the country
have achieved. Dr. Ehle’s passion for learning and teaching
resulted in an award for STFM Resident Teacher of the year. In
addition to his private practice, he works
part-time as an assistant professor at Texas Tech University HSC School of
Medicine, supervising and teaching family medicine residents the
importance of integrative family medicine. In his spare time he enjoys spending time with
family, soccer, church, photography, running and biking.
About KC Devine
Katherine “KC” Devine
has over 20 years of experience as a Registered Nurse in a variety of
settings. She was born and mostly raised in Albuquerque.
She completed high school in Hawaii and earned her Bachelors of
Nursing from the University of Hawaii. As an Army Nurse, she
specialized in Pediatrics and spent most of her Army career in the
Neonatal Intensive Care. She has lived in South Carolina,
Richmond and Washington, DC. After moving back to New Mexico,
she decided it was time to expand her scope, so she returned to school
to earn her Master’s of Nursing and post graduate certificate as an
FNP from St Francis University. She moved to Amarillo in 2013 and
practiced as a Nurse Practitioner in a pediatric clinic until she
joined Well Life Family Medicine in November 2015.
She is married and has one six year old boy and two adult step-sons.
Her husband is a Federal Agent with the Department of Energy. She
enjoys reading, yoga and volleyball when she can find the time.
She is passionate about wellness and loves helping people reach their
goals. She believes that the key to healthy living is eating well,
daily exercise, and abstaining from harmful habits such as smoking.
She loves partnering with her patients to help them succeed.
About Sherri Drinnon
Sherri Drinnon was born and raised in the
Texas Panhandle. She has 25 years of experience in the
healthcare field. She graduated from Vega High School and then
achieved her BSN in Nursing from West Texas A&M University in 1992.
After graduation, she worked in pediatrics, primary care and labor
and delivery before returning to WTAMU to complete her Family Nurse
Practitioner in 2000. During her career she has taught at West
Texas A&M and worked as a nurse practitioner in the areas of primary
care, pediatrics, women’s health and public health.
Sherri is married and has 3 children.
She enjoys spending time with family, gardening, snow skiing,
golfing and being involved in church and school activities.
About Kyla Brickman
Kyla is a graduate of the Institute of Integrative Nutrition and studied under many doctors and leaders in the field of Nutrition and Functional Medicine and received her certification as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. She has been thoroughly educated in nutritional health and wellness, food as medicine, the importance of primary food and self-care, as well as over 100 different dietary theories. She is very passionate about learning, researching, and continuing her education so that she can help educate, equip, and enlighten others in their own nutritional health and wellbeing!
