Fred's Story

I grew up in my father’s drug store.  I can actually remember sweeping the floors with some type of sweeping compound that was thrown on the floor before sweeping.  This should not have made sense to a 7 year old boy in 1962.  I was on the city swim team and was active in Boy Scouts achieving Eagle at 14 years old. 

I was taught how to work and as an early teen would ride my bike to housing construction sites and work as common labor clearing lots, cleaning sites, and carrying lumber and shingles.  They rarely let me swing a hammer.  At 16, I drove dump trucks at construction sites.  At 18, the summer before college, I worked on a mill loading dock first shift and in the mill the second shift.  All this was intermingled with working at Lowry Drug and my outdoor love of Quail hunting with our bird dogs.

I graduated from the University of South Carolina and became a pharmacist in 1980 moving back to Statesville to work with my father.  We developed a large medical equipment business.   We also started a home infusion company in 1984 where we prepared sterile IV fluids for home use.  This service included antibiotics, pain management, fluid replacement, biologicals, and total parental nutrition.  We also provided nursing care for these individuals.  At the same time we became more active in regular prescription compounding which is a foundational part of pharmacy.

I became involved in providing “bio-identical” or natural hormone replacement compounds.  At the time, I completely supported allopathic medicine (patented drugs) as the best medicine.  In pharmacy school natural medicine is either implied as weak or a joke.  I personally remember making jokes about homeopathy.  While studying about hormone replacement, I discovered that what I had been taught was “misrepresented.”  I discovered how studies are deceptively presented to sell products at the cost of an individual’s health.  This shook my world!  If this was wrong then what else is wrong?

As you can see my head opened up and I began studying other types of medicine.  I cautiously learned about homeopathy.  I learned more about nutrition and naturopathic medicine.  I have traveled to 3 other countries to learn other systems of medicine and attended numerous seminars.  This led me to becoming a Doctor of Naturopathy.  I have integrated my knowledge of pharmaceuticals and natural medicine to provide individual pharmacy based wellness consultations for all types of health issues.

The future of this blog is to educate you in what I have learned.

Be well!

Fred Lowry, Jr.