Report of Meeting of April 14 2008

(For Distribution April 21)

· Ron Serapilio opened the meeting, George Bailey delivered the invocation and America the Beautiful was sung.

· Spouses Lilia Serapilio, Jodi Turpen and Craig Kominoski attended.

· President Ron reported that he, Mark Gasparovic, Chris Nyhan and Peter Sawyer attended the successful local Interclub meeting on April 8.

· He also noted that the District will hold a “Rotary Share” event, May 17 at the Western Turnpike Golf Course Club House. Check District website for details.

· Many donated their Happy Dollars in remembrance of Tony Dorazio, a wonderful man, and a Rotarians’ Rotarian.

· Walter Grattidge reminded us of the April 22 Rotary Conversation with Jim Connolly, Ellis Hospital CEO, on restructuring hospital care in Schenectady. (Ellis Hospital Dinning Rooms, 7:30-9:00 AM)

· Bill McClary: The Charlton Seniors are hosting a motor coach to Boston on May 7. $75/person includes bus transportation, admission to the Aquarium and an all day pass on the city Trolley. Call Carol 882-6494 for information.

· Steve Caine: The annual club sponsored golf tournament will be held at the Galway Golf Course on May 31 (rain date June 7). We will need portable ice chests. A sign up sheet for volunteers will be circulated shortly.

· Val Mosier is organizing drivers for the GSE visit (May 17-20) and needs added driver volunteers.

· Laura Linder advised that onions will be here the second week in May. She also circulated a signup sheet for the 34^th 4H Walkathon – to be held April 26.

· Bob Yomans led us in a rendition of “The Good ‘Ol Summertime,” and Doug Turpen delivered a real “groaner” of a Happy Dollar joke.

Dr. Geci’s interesting presentation covered how he got interested in Allopathic Medicine, a description of why traditional homeopathic medicine often falls short of meeting patients’ needs, the approach he uses in the treatment of patients with chronic diseases, plants historically found useful in the treatment of diseases and some practices he uses in organic gardening.

This author found it useful to “Google” terms Dr. Geci used like allopathic and homeopathic medicine. “Wikipedia” gives extensive descriptions of both. Homeopathic medicine is described as an approach that extensively focuses on countering the symptoms, while allopathic is said to be an “etiologic” approach dealing with the study and treatment of causation. Ouch!!!

Dr. Geci said he earned his MD in Georgia and Philadelphia. Once complete with his education, his first work experiences dealt mainly with trauma and emergency room care. As time passed, he felt that type of work was rather “algorithmic” in nature because when faced with a set of injuries or circumstances most doctors automatically took a canned preplanned course of action to counter the rapidly analyzed difficulty/symptom. If that course of action didn’t work, there was always an alternative ready to go. He felt, all-to-often, it merely meant prescribing a medicine. Several things occurred which motivated him to pursue his current medical approach. His son chided him about being a “conventional” doctor, and as he is a self-proclaimed iconoclast, he got interested in cycling and the benefits of exercise and he got interested in nutrition. He also attended seminars and read articles on functional/cultural medicine and found them to be quite professional.

Dr. Geci described the typical homeopathic medical approach as just treating the symptom and not the whole person – the patient.He feels that to correctly treat a patient with a disease the doctor must first obtain a composite picture of what has happened to the patient over time. What toxins has he or she been exposed to? What life stresses? What is the patient’s mental state? What is the patient’s diet, exercise regime, and so on? He said, "All too often a typical doctor spends five to ten minutes with the patient, prescribes an antibiotic or some other type medicine and tells the patient to report back if that doesn’t work." He also noted this approach often results with patients taking innumerable pills of different types, whose combination in itself can be detrimental. He added that few doctors address nutrition and life style issues, nor help empower the patient to be part of the curative process.

Dr. Geci described his extended personal approach in developing a relationship with patients and analyzing the patient’s problems. He says he “uses a whole health and healing process.” He fundamentally believes “the patient is his or her best healer.” Through his empowering approach he said he has helped patients get off medicines for various chronic diseases involving the heart and circulatory system, depression and diabetes. (We did not discuss cancer.) He said, “His role, through various means, is to modulate the immune system.” He said, “A lot of your health is determined by what goes on in your gut.” His aim, he said, is to “re-establish the proper balance in you body and life.” Dr. Geci spent a good deal of time describing plants that have a track record for countering medical problems. He also discussed toxins in the food we eat, organic gardening and some of the “companion gardening” techniques he uses. Many of our group had questions after the formal presentation concluded. Reported by Steven Caine