Hi! Thanks for being here! I’m Dr. Mamie, and I was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas.

I was about 6 years old when I started having gastrointestinal symptoms, and I continued to accumulate health issues as the years went on, including chronic fatigue, hormone imbalances, eczema and other skin problems, and eventually thyroid autoimmunity.

My doctors meant well, but I never got anywhere with the conventional medicine approach.

And even though doctors would dismiss my questions about diet, I intuitively felt that my health issues could be healed using food and other natural therapies. But I didn’t know where to start!

I went to college with every intention of going to medical school because I wanted to be in healthcare, but I realized my senior year that I wanted to be a different kind of doctor than what I’d always had access to!

My desire to experience and to practice a different approach to health and healing led me to National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon, where I studied for four years to become a naturopathic doctor (ND).

Naturopathic medicine CHANGED MY LIFE! Through implementing what I was learning and by working with naturopathic doctors as a patient, I was able to take control of my health, address the underlying imbalances, and finally experience freedom from my symptoms!

I believe Arkansans deserve the OPTION of naturopathic medicine!!! It’s why I moved back here in 2015…even though it meant I wouldn’t be able to use many of the tools I’d learned in naturopathic medical school because Arkansas doesn’t recognize those credentials.

What Is a Naturopathic Doctor (ND)?

Naturopathic doctors are a unique and distinct profession. We are the ONLY type of healthcare provider that combines a full range of natural treatments with a Western biomedical perspective on the human body and disease.

My naturopathic medical training consisted of over 4900 hours that included:

• 1900+ hours in basic sciences (anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, etc.); clinical sciences (all the “ology” courses like pathology, gastroenterology, endocrinology, etc.); diagnostic techniques like physical exams, labs (including functional lab tests) and imaging; prescribing + managing pharmaceuticals (including drug-herb-nutrient interactions); and minor medical procedures like intravenous (IV) and injection therapies and minor surgery
• 140+ hours clinical nutrition
• 160+ hours naturopathic physical medicine
• 730+ hours other naturopathic therapies like lifestyle counseling, herbal medicine, homeopathy, hydrotherapy, and nature cure
• 1250+ hours of supervised clinical rotations under the guidance of licensed naturopathic doctors (ND), medical doctors (MD), osteopathic doctors (DO), and chiropractors (DC)

Arkansas Doesn’t Recognize Naturopathic Doctors

SB117 would provide licensure for medically-trained naturopathic doctors in Arkansas, which would allow NDs to use more of the skills and tools we are trained in AND make NDs more accessible through the healthcare system!

On Wednesday, March 19, 2025, SB117 PASSED the Senate Public Health Committee vote! Then, on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, SB117 PASSED the Senate floor vote!

On Thursday, April 10, SB117 was heard by the House Public Health Committee. We had 9 YES votes, but we needed 11 to pass. Not every member of the committee was present during that hearing, so we planned to motion for a revote at the next (and last) committee meeting on Tuesday, April 15.

Several factors that were beyond our control interfered with our ability to have the revote when all committee members were present, so we were not able to run SB117 on Tuesday, April 15 like we planned.

Representative Mary Bentley motioned to extract SB117 from the House Public Health Committee during the House Chamber meeting later that afternoon, so that it could be heard on the House Floor for a vote. Unfortunately, we did not receive enough YES votes to extract SB117.

This means we’ll be back next session (in two years) to try again! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

WATCH THE ACTION:

4-1-25 Senate Floor Vote

Mamie Burruss, ND, LAc Testimony from the 2-26-25 Senate Public Health Committee hearing on SB117

Sharice Beavers Testimony from the 2-26-25 Senate Public Health Committee hearing on SB117

Watch the entire 2-26-25 Senate Public Health Committee hearing on SB117