Bikram Yoga OKC Promotes Yoga for Everyone by Sheila Julson Helping to run a family-owned business can instill in one a sense of entrepreneurship. So it was for Lisa Arthur, owner of Bikram Yoga OKC, whose parents owned and operated a dairy farm in Pauls Valley. While Arthur had no interest in pursuing farming as a career, she would later combine the work ethic gained during childhood with a passion…
Local Chiropractor Finds Niche Treating Children, Pregnant Women by Sheila Julson While her father served in the U.S. Air Force, Ashley Wilcoxson, doctor of chiropractic, was a “military brat,” living in many different states while growing up. The family eventually settled in Oklahoma, and Wilcoxson attended Edmond North High School. She always knew she wanted to be a doctor but realized that many philosophies of conventional medicine didn’t flow with…
Probiotics Infused into Gut-Healthy Versions of Classic Treats by Sheila Julson Jared Toay has fond childhood memories of enjoying cool confections from the neighborhood market and ice cream truck. As an adult, Toay still loves frozen pops, and he’s crafted healthy probiotic versions in exotic flavors, along with probiotic sodas, which he sells through his business, Jared’s ProPops. Toay was born in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. His family lived in different…
Local Pharmacy Empowers Individuals to Make Healthy Choices by Sheila Julson As an educator and registered pharmacy technician, Shonara Awad emphasizes the power of knowledge. Upon moving to Oklahoma, with the support of her family, she created Life Pharmacy, a people-centered business, in Edmond, with a mission to educate and inform customers about their medication regimens and alternative options. Awad always held a strong interest in…
Esthetician Promotes Inner and Outer Beauty by Sheila Julson “I believe that beauty is not skin deep,” says esthetician Holly Schroeder, of OK Health Solutions, in Oklahoma City. With a goal of promoting wellness from the inside out, Schroeder believes education is key to helping clients understand how lifestyle choices, stress, environmental pollution and toxins in processed foods can affect one of our most important organs—the skin,…
by Sheila Julson During the course of his gynecological practice, Dr. Noel Williams noticed how the husbands of his female patients began asking him for his expertise about sensitive male health issues. Seeing a need for personalized and in-depth healthcare services for men, Williams started welcoming male patients into his practice, today known as Optimal Health Associates, an integrative medical clinic serving both sexes. Williams, from Deerfield, Illinois, remembers wanting…
by Sheila Julson While women were making career strides in the late 1970s, medical schools were still dominated by males, recalls Ruth Laird, certified physician assistant at Key Health Institute, in Edmond. Despite having a lifelong interest in science, human anatomy and physiology, she didn’t pursue medical school after she excelled at Trinity University, in San Antonio, graduating as a Phi Beta Kappa with a bachelor’s degree in biology. Instead,…
by Mary Najar “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”—Albert Einstein This statement may or may not be true, but it gets a person thinking. Bees and butterflies pollinate millions of flowers, which in turn produce fruit, vegetables and general vegetation, making…
by Sheila Julson Veterinarian Kimberly Weiss, owner of Healing Hands Veterinary Wellness Center, in Oklahoma City, was destined for a career working with animals. Raised on the Hawaiian island of Oahu by conservationist parents, animals were always part of the family. Her first pets were skunks, rescued by her father after he found them in a storm drain. “Those days, there weren’t any laws against keeping skunks, so he had…
by Stephanie Jordan We hear a lot lately about the frighteningly rapid decline in numbers of our pollinators. Ninety percent of monarch butterflies have disappeared in less than 20 years. Commercial beekeepers lose, on average, 30 percent of their hives due mostly to the stressors of travel and pesticide exposure that our current industrial agriculture model facilitates. It’s as though we are hurtling helplessly toward a massive accident in slow…