In Memoriam
Curt Maxwell, N.D., D.C., M.D. (M.A.)
1948 – January 15, 2020
by Perry A. Chapdelaine, Jr., M.D., M.S.P.H.
The National Fund for Alternative Medicine (NFAM) is saddened to report that its longtime Board Director and Science Advisor, Curt Maxwell, N.D., D.C., M.D. (M.A.), passed away unexpectedly on January 15, 2020. A close friend of Perry A. Chapdelaine, Sr. (NFAM’s original founder and Executive Director from 1982 until his death in 2015), Curt was my friend, colleague, and inspiration. Dr. Maxwell’s infectious enthusiasm, energy, medical skills, and willingness to learn all he could about numerous Integrative Medicine fields of practice—and then to generously share his incredible knowledge with anyone who wanted to learn—were appreciated by all who knew him. He will be ever-present in our memories. Dr. Maxwell is survived by his wife, Leah, his son, Allen, and a daughter.
A synopsis of Dr. Curt Maxwell’s career follows:
Dr. Curt Maxwell, originally from New Zealand, trained extensively in the U. S. and Canada in the early 1980s. He started his medical career as a Palmer-method Chiropractic Physician (1973). After learning the Neural Therapy methods of Dr. Shull of Washington state in 1980, he began combining chiropractic structural principles with Dr. Hueneke’s German Neural Therapy (“lightning phenomenon”), Travell’s Trigger Point Injections, the Intraneural Injection methods of South African Dr. Paul Pybus and Dr. Gus Prosch of Birmingham, Alabama (both co-founders of NFAM), the Neural Therapy of Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD of Washington State, as well as the injection technique developed by Dr. Philbert of Louisiana. He later learned Prolotherapy methods from Dr. Pomeroy of Phoenix, Arizona, Dr. Carlson of Knoxville, Tennessee, and Dr. Ellis Browning of Yuma, Arizona (who in the 1950s studied under Dr. Hackett of Illinois, Proliferative Therapy (Prolotherapy) founder.
Although his earliest interests focused on the treatment of neurological and muscular pain and dysfunction, later on he expanded his practice to include overall “health restoration,” culminating in degrees/diplomas in Medicine, Naturopathy, Nutrition, Natural Medicine, Acupuncture and Chiropractic. He was a Board Certified Naturopathic Physician, Diplomat of the College of Pain Management, and Board Certified in Integrative Medicine. From the 1990s through 2005, Dr. Maxwell contributed thoughtful and informative letters and articles to The Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients.
Dr. Maxwell started his clinical practice in Mexico in 1993. In 1995 he opened a comprehensive Integrative Medicine clinic in Los Algodones, Baja California (about 7 miles from Yuma Arizona) where, under the management of his wife Leah (Belaga) Maxwell (who is also an NFAM Board Member), he used Neural Therapy and Prolotherapy with patients from as far away as Canada for conditions requiring pain alleviation and elimination, and Integrative Medicine for patients with cancer or auto-immune disease.