When you visit with Dr. James and Nuris Lemire, you can’t help but pick up their enthusiasm for life, their relationship, their clinic and the world. Always striving to make a difference, you can find the Lemire’s caring for patients of all ages, volunteering with the homeless or sending boxes of school supplies to countries stricken with poverty and violence.
For Dr. Lemire, the desire to make a difference started when he was just a boy as he watched a local doctor make house calls and work carefully with his brother who had cerebral palsy. This observation instilled in him the desire to become a doctor himself so that someday he too could help those who needed him the most.
Dr. Lemire received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts and then went on to attend the Tulane University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Family Practice at St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan and then settled in to Holland, Michigan where he opened his first family practice treating patients from cradle to grave.
“While I was in practice in Michigan, I was very athletic and so I began studying Sports Medicine and became a certified Olympians Team Physician serving as a volunteer for the Olympics,” said Dr. Lemire. “The politics eventually became too much to deal with and so I began serving as a team physician at the high school level and then on to collegiate. After years of shoveling snow in the cold environment, I decided to look for a warmer climate and made the move to Florida where I began to dive in to alternative options”
Dr. Lemire went on to study through the Institute of Functional Medicine and naturally began the process of blending his allopathic roots with his new found alternative approach. Along the way he met the ever talented and precious love of his life Nuris.
Nuris was born in the Dominican Republic but came to New York at the age of 10. She started out selling Mary Kay when she was younger and managed to become the youngest Senior Director winning a pink Cadillac at just 26 years old. She went on to study a wide variety of subjects that all work together, she holds six college degrees ranging from Early Childhood Education to Psychology and has completed her Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy. She holds countless certifications as a Nutrition Consultant, Lifestyle Changes Educator and Advisor, Acupuncture therapist, lymphatic drainage, Reiki and much more. Combined with Dr. Lemire, she feels she has been able to lose any box that she ever felt confined to and put all of her education to work in helping their patients find complete health and wellness.
“Jim and I were colleagues and I would refer patients to him that needed a primary care physician and he would refer patients to me that needed an occupational therapist,” said Nuris. “We became friends and at the right time realized that that we were twin souls. We have blended our practice together, we study Chinese medicine together but we do things separately as well. The best thing is that after 13 years, we still like each other.”
Together, the Lemire’s offer a full-service family practice from cradle to grave seeing as young as newborns all the way up to their oldest patient of 104 years old. As an allopathic physician, that is now certified in Functional Medicine, Dr. Lemire looks at everything differently and takes in to consideration the underlying causes and how those can be removed allowing people to return to good health as opposed to a one pill for one ill mentality.
“What I would say that we do in our office is allow the body to heal. We don’t cure anything in this office we just provide the vehicle for the body to do what God created it to do,” said Nuris. “We provide the environment through lifestyle changes, stress management, sleep, education about toxic relationships, nutritional IV’s, ultraviolet IV’s, injection of ozone in the joints and homeopathics as well. I joke that Jim is an allopath who has seen the light.”
The greatest challenge over the years, as Dr. Lemire has shifted from an allopathic viewpoint to a more alternative approach, has been seeing patients on so many prescription drugs but trying to help them get off those pills through use of vitamins, minerals, high dose fish oil as well as diet and nutrition. He spent several years as a nursing home director and found great success in reversing Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other illnesses through the use of supplements and lifestyle changes. The burden was in getting people off the drugs and helping them understand and embrace more of a need for these methods as opposed to prescriptions, chemotherapy, radiation, etc.
“Over the years we have learned alternative ways of looking at cancer and some of our best victories have been stage 4 cancer survivors who are still alive today,” said Dr. Lemire. “Now when we come across patients with cancer we are able to give them hope and send them to our colleagues who operate full cancer centers treating with alternative all natural therapies. We like to shepherd people in to those centers and then see them in follow up after they have received the best alternative help possible.”
Along the way the responses from patients and seeing people move to a healthy lifestyle is what has kept both Dr. Lemire and Nuris moving forward. Finding the underlying causes for those who are chronically ill motivates them to get up each morning and ask the question “Who can we help today?”
“Jim has a gift of giving people hope,” said Nuris. “They come to us after they’ve been bashed down, have been told they have three or four months to live, because somebody decided to play God. They come to us and Jim has the gift of just giving them hope and sometimes that hope that he gives them is the driving force that turns on their ability to get well.”
At 69, Dr. Lemire continues to love what he does and has no desire to retire even though three quarters of the people he graduated medical school with have become disillusioned with allopathic medicine and are either retired or no longer practicing. Coupled with Nuris, the two are able to bounce ideas off each other, lean in to the strengths and knowledge that each one brings to the table and combine that to give exceptional care to those who trust them with their health journey.
When asked what nuggets of wisdom they could pass along to those looking to pursue health and happiness Dr. Lemire advises everyone to pay attention to their dental health as most disease begins with dental issues that are ignored or not corrected. He also stresses the importance of taking care of the gut, making sure the pH levels are in the proper range and having a healthy microbiome.
“We have an inner physician and we need to listen to that. Instead of trying to focus and look for solutions outside by hopping from flower to flower we need to focus inside and listen,” said Nuris. “God gave us the ability to listen and that is the guiding light of everything that we do. It doesn’t matter that you don’t have a degree in medicine or in nutrition, all of that is temporary, you have the ability to pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you and then be willing to make the changes and take responsibility of your own health. We are completely guided in every breath we take, there is purpose in it so if we just stop and go within instead of always looking for the magic pill outside it makes a major difference.”
When not in the clinic caring for their patients, the two can be found on their farm enjoying their wide array of animals such as donkeys, horses and birds. They also enjoy traveling, reading and spending time with their families. Additionally, the couple serves the homeless of their area with a free clinic where they see people who live in tents or in the woods and have no means of care otherwise. They are active in providing Christmas gifts to children in need, gathering supplies for underprivileged in foreign countries and both have enjoyed serving in medical missions over the years. Both also enjoy the opportunity to teach classes and speak at ACIM events throughout the year.
“We feel very fortunate to be a part of ACIM because they allow us to teach together as a husband and wife team and that means so much to us,” said Dr. Lemire. “Not everyone allows that and we so we are very thankful to have found a home with ACIM. To learn more about the Lemire’s and their work visit their website at LemireClinic.com.