PopLife: To Your Good Health

by Charles McGuigan 09.2023

Dr. A. J. Soucy operated a successful OBGYN practice for many years in upstate New York, but sensed something was missing from the allopathic approach she was trained in. One of the benefits of working in the OBGYN field is that the doctor gets to know her patients very well over the course of a lifetime.  

“One of the great things about OBGYN is the continuity,”A.J. tells me. “So once women are done with their child-bearing years, you get to see them every year for their annual exam, and you get these long- term relationships going, and that’s when you really get to know people.”

Over the years, A.J. noticed certain health risks that many women experience as they age. “Something that always bothered me when I was practicing in New York was that my patients would come back for their annual exams generally a little bigger and a little sicker every year,” says A.J. “It is a generalization, but it is definitely the rule not the exception. It’s very, very common. They gain some weight, they tell me about their pre-diabetes, and their blood pressure the doctor (primary care physician) is watching.”

And things can get worse with the passage of time.   “A couple years later they’re even heavier and dealing with chronic illnesses,” A.J. says.  “And they’re getting more and more depressed. I felt helpless to help people. Here’s the kicker: not only was I not helping these people, but I was getting bigger and bigger myself.”

A few years back, A.J. decided to close her practice in upstate New York, and begin something completely different. “I faced a crossroads in my career where I wanted to make this change,” she says. “I began to look at other fields and I came across the concept of functional medicine where they purport to have an answer for common chronic illnesses.” 

The more she learned, the more excited she became, yet she still had reservations. “I started taking classes, but I was skeptical of the whole thing because these people were talking about curing chronic illnesses, not just managing them,” A.J. recalls.  “And they’re very, very focused on nutrition and lifestyle which was different than anything I have ever been taught, or what I was used to. Plus, I was shocked that I didn’t know anything about this whole deal.” 

The deeper she delved into this new discipline the more she began to understand it was all based on sound science. “And so my skepticism went away,” says A.J. 

When she applied these newly acquired methods to her patients, she was pleasantly surprised. “I saw patients getting well, over and over, which is a reverse of what I used to see practicing traditional medicine,” A.J. says. “So now I’m not skeptical and I understand the root causes of some illnesses, and what we do about them.”

Days after Covid shut the world down, A.J. and her husband moved to Richmond, and she slowly began to open up her practice on Staples Mill Road. She was learning new skills and began working with partners.  “I have health coaches and I put people through a curriculum where they’re learning,” she says. “Traditional docs also coach lifestyle as part of the standard of care for early hypertension and diabetes, but as a traditional doc you don’t expect your patients to actually make those changes. In the alternative world we really, really focus on it, and flesh it out and show you how to do it.”

Along with lifestyle changes, PopLife also addresses hormone balancing. “After the peak of physical life, we start getting deficiencies and imbalances which can also be the basis of chronic illness, and we need those hormones whether we have symptoms or not,” says A. J. 

Her patients tend to already have an understanding of what they need to do to become healthier. “When anybody is motivated to fix things, they’re a lot more compliant,” Dr. A.J. Soucy says. “So usually people who seek out a doctor like me for help are ready to accept lifestyle changes and take supplements and listen more carefully.”

PopLife Balancing and Wellness LLC

5606 Staples Mill Road

Henrico, VA 23228

(804)525-5039

poplifebalancingandwellness.com