My middle name is Martin after our family's general medical practitioner.

Dr. Martin spent the first 20 years as a doctor researching energy medicine with Steinmetz at General Electric in Schenectady, New York, and doing the early hospital based research on the metabolism of vitamin A and other nutrients.

When he retired into general practice, he continued to use nutrition and energy medicine as his primary lines of therapy, avoiding the use of toxic pharmaceuticals whenever possible.

When my grandmother, Margaret 'Peggy' Baxter Swartwout was sprayed with DDT by a passing truck as she walked down the sidewalk, she nearly died. Dr. Martin had the skills and knowledge to save her life...

In fact, when anything medically challenging or unusual came up, Dr. Martin would be called in by the police or fire department to provide medical forensic evaluation and support.

In 1960, when cigarette companies were still boasting in commercials about how 9 out of 10 physicians recommend their brand of tobacco for relaxation, Dr. Martin was so far ahead of his time, that I remember him 'firing' a patient for not quitting smoking. He said, "I can't keep you well if you won't do your part."

Specialists in the same town didn't even know he existed, because he healed people rather than referring them for surgical excision of their failed organs...