I was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1952 but grew up on the "Kansas side" in Prairie Village. I pursued an early admission to the University of Kansas and instead of my senior year of high school, I entered the university. Being a young and foolish child of the 60's, I almost immediately dropped out and hit the road for sunny California. I played guitar in San Francisco and raised Nubian goats in Petaluma. I eventually went back to school and graduated from Sonoma State University in California. I then went to graduate school at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, where I earned a PhD in the Biopsychology program. My poor father, God love him, never got over his concern that my having a PhD didn't change the fact that I had never received a high school diploma! After I earned my degree I had the great privilege of performing post-doctoral research for three years in one of the most highly regarded research laboratories in the world, Dr. Bruce McEwen's Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University in New York City.I loved being a research scientist, but I had always wanted to be a doctor. I decided that it was not too late to pursue my lifelong desire. I was accepted into the College of Medicine at The University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, and at the age of 41 I started medical school. At first I was nervous being surrounded by sharp young minds nearly half my age, but I did well. I graduated with honors and was made a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. I served my residency in Psychiatry at The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, and in my final year I was Chief Resident of Psychiatry. After residency, I accepted a position as Director of Adult Psychiatry at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Oregon. For the last two years I have worked as a consult liaison Psychiatrist at the VA Medical Center in Roseburg. During my years of scientific research, I published several dozen papers that I am glad to say were well received by the scientific community. In 2007, my first book, "Metabolic Syndrome and Psychiatric Illness: Interactions, Pathophysiology, Assessment and Treatment", was published by the Academic Press, a subsidiary of Elsevier. Whereas that book was written for doctors and scientists, my newest book, "Beyond Alzheimer's: How to Avoid the Modern Epidemic of Dementia", published by M. Evans, is written for the general public.I met my wife, Melissa, a special education teacher, during my California goat raising days. We have been together for nearly 35 years. We have three children. Ethan is 12 years old. He eats and breathes computers. Our twin girls, Erin and Laurel, are turning 9 years old soon. They are madly in love with horses, karate, and computer games. Lily, our Australian Sheppard, loves romping through the oak-forested hills around our house, and, despite a long association, still maintains an unnatural interest in our koi fish.