The Abridged version:
- Dennis Godby, a naturopathic doctor in Sacramento, walks 11 miles round-trip from his home to his office in Midtown to train for his cross-country journeys.
- The 760-mile stint he begins in late August will be the final leg of his journey across the United States on foot.
- Godby walks to raise awareness for healthcare equity and access, including the accessibility of naturopathic medicine, which many states do not license providers to practice.
You have to get up pretty early in the morning to go to work with Dennis Godby. He starts his daily walk from his West Sacramento home to his Midtown office at 5:30 a.m. It takes about an hour.
You may have seen him. He’s the guy with silver hair, a backpack and a big smile.
Godby loves to walk. He loves to talk to people, and he loves to help them take care of their health.
In late August, he will combine all three.
Godby, a naturopathic doctor in Sacramento, will walk from Bozeman, Montana, to Seattle, a stretch of 760 miles. It is the fifth and last episode of his multiyear, cross-country journey called Walk USA for Health Equity.
“(Health equity) is when everyone has the fair or just opportunity to be optimally healthy,” he said.
Godby has spent a month every summer since 2022 on portions of the journey. As he travels, his mission is twofold: talking to people about the availability of nutritious food and their access to medical care.
“The vision has really changed a lot,” Godby said. “I didn’t want to feel like I was blaming the victim, like the reason why they don’t have good healthcare is because they’re just not eating healthy enough, or they’re not exercising, when there are food deserts.”
The other part of his mission is the legalization of naturopathic medicine in all 50 states. At present, only 23 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, license naturopathic doctors.
“My primary work,” Godby said, “in addition to being a doctor here in Sacramento, is to work on the 50-state licensing, because I feel like that, if we hit 25, 26, it’ll just enhance American medicine.”
Understanding naturopathy
Naturopathic medicine is a complement to more common medical practices. Naturopathic doctors graduate from medical school, which sets them apart from some practitioners who call themselves “naturopaths.” The focus is on discovering underlying causes of illness. Treatments are often based in food and natural substances rather than pharmaceuticals.
According to the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, “Naturopathic medicine is a distinct practice of medicine that emphasizes prevention and the self-healing process to treat each person holistically and improve outcomes while lowering health care costs.”
The scope of practice varies by law between the 26 jurisdictions. In California, for example, naturopathic doctors can perform physical exams and diagnose illnesses. They can order lab tests as well as diagnostic and imaging studies, but they cannot perform or interpret those tests. They can treat with diet, herbs, nutrients and homeopathic remedies and hormones, but they cannot prescribe pharmaceuticals.
Legalizing prescription privileges is a goal of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association.
“We wouldn’t be prescribing it very often because we believe in natural medicine, but sometimes it keeps people out of hospitals,” Godby said.
Shaheen Salim, a patient of Godby’s, says she is better off without pharmaceuticals. After her diagnosis with an immune disorder, she was disappointed in the treatment prescribed by the specialist in her health system.
Godby’s treatment resonates with Salim. She likes to do her own research on her health and address the source of her condition.
“It really dials down to more, like, a root cause of what you’re going through,” she said, “which I think is extremely important, instead of just treating symptoms and trying to mask it with other drugs.”
She also appreciates longer appointments to discuss treatments and outcomes.
“Being seen and heard makes all the difference in the world,” she said.
Her partner, James McCollem, has seen improvement during Salim’s six months of care. He has observed improvement in her condition and her quality of life.
“I definitely notice a difference,” McCollem said. “It’s been nothing but positive.”
In search of recognition
The practice of naturopathic medicine is not recognized by the American Medical Association. Naturopathic doctors are licensed to practice by the state of California, but they are not eligible for membership in the AMA, which cites length of education and depth of residency as its primary reasons for excluding naturopathy.
Yet, in Godby’s experience, some conventional doctors quietly support the work of naturopaths and other functional medicine doctors.
In New Mexico, 2019 legislation to legalize naturopathic medicine was supported by New Mexico Medical Society and New Mexico Medical Board. Gregg Schmedes, a physician and member of the New Mexico Legislature, spoke in favor of the bill just before the vote.
Schmedes said the bill passed the three tests he uses to evaluate healthcare legislation.
“[It] will reduce the cost of healthcare, that will increase access to healthcare in New Mexico and will increase quality in New Mexico,” he said.
Schmedes also highlighted the cultural advantages of naturopathic medicine.
“Some individuals are reticent to engage in Western medicine,” he added. “And so, creating a structure here is going to create another door of access to healthcare for people, and it’s going to be culturally sensitive.”
Balance with Western medicine
Godby recognizes the necessity of surgery and other medical treatments, although he believes naturopathic medicine can prevent the need for some procedures.
“It just makes common sense to use the technology that we have,” he said. “It saves lives. But what we do is help to keep people from having to get surgeries, but also to live optimally, to have the best life.”
“It’s not that they’re not doing great things,” Godby said of conventional doctors. “I had open-heart surgery a couple years ago, and (it) saved my life. My mom was an RN, so I totally believe in the power of conventional medicine, but what we’re doing is prevention, and what we’re doing is natural care.”
Salim said the process is slow, but worth it.
“You have to be patient,” she said, “and actually do your own homework and have that consistency, have that accountability to be able to say, ‘I gotta do these every single day.’”
‘Putting your body on the line’
Godby has faced mostly warm reactions to his cross-country walks, although local police have offered mixed responses.
In Kentucky, Godby was threatened with arrest. Police called him a menace, and he jokingly agreed, calling himself Dennis the Menace. Police said they did not like his attitude.
Conversely, in rural Indiana, police and a couple of restaurant owners went out of their way to ensure Godby had food, water, blankets and a safe place to sleep.
Walking along major roadways poses an ongoing danger. Godby estimates he has faced hundreds of thousands of cars in his running and walking events.
“It’s the risk of putting your body on the line,” he said. “That’s what nonviolent civil disobedience is about. It’s my way of showing up in the world, showing that I really care, and people will take it more seriously.”
Godby takes it all seriously. His round-trip commute to work is an 11-mile urban hike that takes about two hours. In the weeks leading up to his trip, he added his backpack to prepare.
During Walk USA for Health Equity, he will walk about 25 miles each day in seven to nine hours. It will take him a month to get from Bozeman to Seattle.
Godby was a lifelong runner. He started in the late 1970s and continued until seven years ago when he tore his meniscus. That’s when his daily run to and from his office became a walk.
‘Like an early pioneer’
A few years after finishing undergrad work at Oregon State University, Godby was moved by news coverage of starvation in Africa and injustice in Central America.
“I kept hearing that people were dying of hunger simply because of the lack of food,” he said. “I couldn’t take it anymore.
“I learned that it wasn’t about not having enough food, it was a matter of not enough justice.”
In the early and mid-1980s, Godby traveled as a volunteer with Oxfam America and other social justice organizations. He came back to the U.S. to raise awareness of conditions in Central America with a cross-country run. In 1989, he entered a theology school, where he received his master’s degree.
Godby, who turns 70 in August, became a doctor at 48. His prior career steers him toward prioritizing peaceful collaboration between differing groups.
“I had just taught morality, social justice, nonviolence in the Catholic high schools (in the Bay Area) for seven years prior to medical school,” Godby said. “And so, for me, it was like, California would be better off when all the states are licensed, because we’ll have more credibility.”
While naturopathic doctors are dedicated to keeping a patient’s medical costs down in the long run, there are up-front expenses. In California, naturopathic treatment is not covered by many insurance companies. That poses a problem for some prospective patients, and it creates a line between providers allowed to treat and prevent illness.
James McCollem, Salim’s partner, said they hesitated but decided to pay for out-of-pocket care.
“Health is wealth, and it’ll make a world of difference,” McCollem said. “What else are we going to do? Spend it on materialistic stuff? Your health is more important than anything.”
Godby agrees. To him, walking 25 miles a day to promote health equity is a good way to spend part of his summer.
“The emotion is one of just exhilaration,” he said. “That sense of being on my own, like an early pioneer. I’m just out there having a blast.”
Godby, when planning the closing address at the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians national convention in mid-July, said his message to his colleagues was to be actively involved in their state and national professional organizations. Soon he will pack his bags for the fifth and final leg of the walk across the country he began years ago.
