42 May 30 • 2019
jn
W
hat a difference a year
makes. So says Dr.
Deborah Charfoos of
Bloomfield Hills.
The OB/GYN and partner in
Michigan Women’
s Health clinics in
Farmington Hills and Clawson suf-
fered from arthritis, was pre-diabetic
and generally felt lousy.
“I had to give up delivering babies a
year and a half ago because of arthri-
tis,” Charfoos said.
Today, she’
s off her diabetes medi-
cine; her joints don’
t ache; her ulcer-
ative colitis is cleared up and so, too,
has her skin.
“I started to cut out all sugar and
carbs from my diet … even fruit to
bring down my sugar,” she explained,
“I did extensive research, learning
more about chemicals and pesticides
in the personal care products we use
and the food we eat and how that
gives us such bad inflammation,”
among other ailments.
Charfoos said many of her patients
began to notice a change about a year
ago. “They would comment, ‘
You look
good … your skin is clearer … you’
re
losing weight, what are you doing?’
”
What she was doing was, in fact,
working. So, she began to share.
However, Charfoos doesn’
t preach.
Rather, “if [my patients] ask, it starts
a conversation,” she said.
Also about a year ago, Charfoos
began reaching a wider audience
with her Dr. Debbie’
s Wellness social
media platform, where she offers
advice about clean eating and elimi-
nating chemicals and additives found
in many foods, and household and
personal care products found in our
kitchens and bathrooms.
Charfoos’
mission isn’
t limited to
her office hours or her Facebook
page. You’
ll find her living well
and sharing advice about wellness
throughout Metro Detroit, most-
ly through the Detroit to Nepal
Foundation (D2N), whose mission is
to improve the health and educational
opportunities for children in some
of Detroit’
s most devastated neigh-
borhoods, as well as those living in
remote Himalayan villages in Nepal.
Specifically, D2N’
s Detroit initiative
is referred to as EVO Detroit with
EVO standing for empowerment,
vestment and ownership. It achieves
its mission through several programs
that Charfoos supports with her time
and expertise.
First, there’
s the commu-
nity radio station on which
she hosts a live, biweekly
show on Monday evenings
where she interviews and
debates doctors and other
healthcare professionals.
The station, WNCU 96.7
FM, broadcasts in north
Detroit, an area with low internet
access.
“Community radio is a powerful
tool to disseminate education for the
surrounding community, and it is an
effective platform for advocacy,” she
said.
She also lets listeners know that
women can receive free medical
care at the nearby Say Detroit family
health clinic. The clinic, located in
Highland Park, is the second D2N
program she supports, working there
once a month.
The third D2N program in which
she participates is its Buckets of
Rain Gardens, also in Highland Park
(across the street from the Say clin-
ic). Those same patients are able to
take advantage of all that the garden
offers. Charfoos said all doctors at
the clinic “write ‘
prescriptions’
for
vegetables available at the garden for
these women. When their refills are
out, they come back to the clinic for
another free checkup and another free
prescription.”
Charfoos’
family also benefits from
her devotion to wellness. She and
her husband have three sons: one is
a dentist, the second is director of
programming for a Detroit animal
shelter and the youngest is a junior
at University of Michigan’
s School of
Engineering. “They all eat better now
… they exercise more. It’
s a family
affair,” she said.
Next up for Charfoos will be pod-
casts and blogging about wellness and
her garden. Expect the harvest to get
big play in the recipes she features on
Facebook. ■
health
The Doctor Is In
Dr. Deborah Charfoos
ED NAKFOOR SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Dr. Deborah Charfoos spreads the word on clean eating.