Dr. Lauren Sparks, DNP, CNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC, MA, RN
Dr. Lauren Sparks is a doctorally prepared nurse practitioner who has completed postdoctoral physician certification administered by Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker in the “Shoemaker Protocol.” Why did she deeply desire to complete training under Dr. Shoemaker? Because she credits Dr. Shoemaker’s brilliant research with saving her life. After a diagnosis of erythromelalgia, all the kings horses and all the kings men at Mayo Clinic couldn’t put Dr. Sparks back together again, yet Dr. Shoemaker’s protocol offered her an entry back into vitality and complete healing. While the Mayo Clinic could only strive for symptomatic relief, Dr Shoemaker’s protocol got at the root cause of Dr. Sparks’s suffering. Although traditional medicine has little to offer those suffering with erythromelalgia, treatment of Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) would correlate with a complete remission of Dr. Sparks’s erythromelalgia. Dr. Sparks finds most people challenged with CIRS also benefit from emotional support. Due to her training as a therapist prior to becoming a medical provider, she runs low-cost Community Support Circles for those challenged with CIRS, erythromelalgia, or the “double whammy” of both diseases. Dr. Sparks has also received post-doctoral training in functional medicine and functional psychiatry. In addition, she enthusiastically studied functional nutrition during her doctoral program and continues to apply in her own life the tenant that food is indeed medicine. She enjoys weaving integrative practices into her work as she found many ways of working to be supportive of her own healing.
Dr. Sparks is the founder of Untamed Iona, a private medical practice specializing in the treatment of Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) and erythromelalgia (EM). She has suffered and healed from both CIRS and EM. Dr. Sparks own disease process taught her that no person will ever be more motivated to help you heal from a disease than someone who had it themselves. Dr. Sparks is also the founder of The Einstein Mission, a nonprofit organization dedicated to thinking outside the box to fund uncommon research and treatment for under acknowledged diseases. The Einstein Mission’s current research focus is on erythromelalgia and CIRS.