My Story
Dr. Sam Pappas, MD
Our company
Beginnings
I am a son of Greek immigrants born and raised in New Jersey. I grew up with one foot in the Greek heritage and one foot in the American culture, whereupon such an interface of both worlds has left a unique imprint on my being and ethos.
I am a twin and the eldest (by 15 minutes ) of three boys and was blessed to be raised in a loving and nourishing family where I was afforded the opportunity and freedom to unobtrusively pursue my passions of athletics and learning.
My academic pursuits took me from New Jersey, to Pennsylvania, and finally to Cleveland, Ohio where I was fortunate to train at an excellent academic Internal Medicine program and more importantly meet my wonderful wife.
Returning to New Jersey
We returned to New Jersey to be with family, but I realized the cumulative years of stressful medical training including poor sleep patterns, lack of sunlight, reduced activity ,and erratic diet had taken me far away from my healthy Greek-American foundation.
I was left in an insufficient state to optimally handle an unravelling situation with parents, as my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and my father was unsuccessfully battling ongoing heart disease that had begun at the early age of 42 years old.
From Traditional Medicine
My years of traditional medical training and academic knowledge proved unable to provide me with an adequate compass to add value to my parents declining health beyond taking a pill to match the ill. This crisis however not only spurred me on a search for meaning and deepening faith and spirituality but triggered a pursuit for a more comprehensive understanding of real health and wellness, what Hippocrates called positive health.
Greek Roots
I vigorously pursued the study of the Greek origins of health, not only in its ancient forms but also of the amazing data emerging on the health and longevity of the resilient post World War 2 and pre-industrial age peasant farmers of Greece, in particular Crete and more recently the Blue Zone of Ikaria.
This resonated with what I was witnessing first hand in regularly visiting the rural villages of my forefathers in Greece. As an ancient religious philosopher once said, “we should believe the truth we have experienced, then try to understand and explain what we have believed.” Although my parents lost their battles with their illnesses I have been truly blessed in all aspects of my life and my unique journey has helped me to mold a personal framework to not only optimize my state but to better help those I have been privileged to serve. I was very fortunate at the beginning of my career to work with some dynamic clinicians, none more so than Dr. Adam Perlman; one of the early leaders in the field of academic integrative medicine (currently the Executive Director of Duke Integrative Medicine). He was not only very influential to my thinking but afforded me an opportunity to write a paper with him in 2002 on the importance of doctor-patient communication in this exciting new field : Complementary and alternative medicine: The importance of doctor-patient communication
