Since 2003, Luke has practiced functional medicine & nutrition, working both as a solo practitioner, and with physicians, integrative pharmacies, and nutraceutical manufacturers. He worked his way through graduate school as a nutritionist and writer, earning a Master’s degree in Traditional Oriental Medicine. As a graduate student, he wrote numerous articles for such publications as NaturalNews.com, Livestrong.com, as well as for in-house newsletters for various natural medicine clinics and physicians. He also worked in several Chinese medicine herbal pharmacies and extraction facilities.
During graduate school, he experienced an acute Lyme infection which standard antibiotics failed to treat, and subsequently successfully self-treated with botanicals and other natural interventions. This early, powerful experience with botanical medicine catalyzed a strong passion for botanical therapeutics. He was able to return to school, and graduated with honors in 2008 from the top college of Oriental medicine in the United States, Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine, in Santa Monica, California. That same year, he returned to Colorado and started private practice as an acupuncturist, eventually operating office locations in Greenwood Village, Englewood, Breckenridge, and Boulder.
He has successfully treated thousands of clients with many complex conditions by utilizing patient education, nutrition, botanical therapies, movement, acupuncture, and injection therapies. Using a deeply integrative “full-spectrum” health evaluation, comprehensive analysis and concomitant treatment plan, Luke’s protocols have been able to help many people attain maximum health and vitality, healing and succeeding where both conventional and alternative medicine has failed previously.
After the legalization of medical cannabis in Colorado, Luke began working with clients in effectively utilizing cannabinoid therapeutics for many disorders, specializing in dosing and formulating cannabinoids in synergistic formulations with many other botanicals.
With this experience, Luke has developed strong, and unique evidence-based protocols on the best practices in acupuncture, injection therapies, botanical medicine and cannabinoid therapeutics for pain management, as well as many difficult to treat yet common disorders.
As a clinician fascinated with herbal extraction, and having worked in several herbal and integrative pharmacies as a graduate student, Luke designed and built two small extraction and R&D facilities, first in Englewood, CO in 2009, then in Evergreen, CO, in 2014, where he produced a small line of liquid extracts for practitioners. He has pioneered numerous innovative extraction techniques, and has produced high-quality extracts of over 300 different botanicals.
His experience and expertise in botanical extraction led him to work in the burgeoning hemp industry as a consultant in extraction and Good Manufacturing Practices. He designed one of the most powerful and efficient herb presses available today, enhancing the process of solid-liquid separation in lipid-based herbal extraction. The design led to a 4-fold increase in efficiency over existing technology for liquid extraction of hemp flower for the initial prototype, in production use in Louisville, CO. In 2017 and early 2018 pioneered advances in lipid infusion resulting in industry-leading terpene profiles in direct lipid infusion products. He has consulted and been involved in the design, construction and operation of at least 4 hemp extraction facilities, and provided consulting for one of the largest design-build firms in hemp and cannabis extraction facilities.
Luke has also developed cutting-edge injection therapy protocols. In 2013, Luke studied and certified in injection therapies, and soon after was one of the first, if not the first acupuncturist nationwide to inject FDA approved regenerative medicine substances based on the traditional Chinese medicine, Zi He Che, or human placenta. Human placenta has been used as a therapeutic “herb” for thousands of years in Chinese medicine, and is known as one of the most potent regenerative substances available.
These products are created from placenta tissue and umbilical cord blood from healthy donors following scheduled Caesarean births, and represent one of the most powerful regenerative technologies available today. Luke’s protocols provide massive, scientifically well-demonstrated, safe, and very effective regenerative capacity for joints, ligaments, tendons, cartilage, and even systemic rejuvenation. The future of regenerative medicine is to be found in this powerful modality, and Luke is proud to be a part of forming this early-stage medical art in collaboration with several regenerative medicine practitioners and companies and clinics.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Luke began consulting with Peak Space Labs and Wellness4Humanity on the best ways to create lasting immunity. He’s developed a simple assessment protocol to understand patients’ risk profile to experiencing significant complications from COVID-19 as well as risk factor for the major epidemic chronic diseases of diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and other metabolic disorders.
As a result of his work in the COVID-19 testing space and tracking clients over time, Luke was one of the first clinicians to identify and treat long COVID (Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19/PASC) in any capacity. Focusing on using nutrition, herbal medicine, functional medicine, and adjunctive therapies such as breathwork, hyperthermia, and other natural techniques, Luke has been able to help dozens of clients with long COVID symptoms ranging from mild to very severe, including clients who suffered from hospitalizations, some requiring ventilators, and one whom suffered from a myocardial infaction as a result of long COVID and C19 vaccine injury.
In the realm of education, Luke has taught many courses for students and professionals in the natural medicine field. He began teaching in a professional botanical medicine training program in Denver, CO, soon after he returned to Colorado in 2008, eventually managing the school until its closure in 2016, as well as an adjunct professor in the Bioscience department at Southwest Acupuncture College in Boulder, CO, 2017-2018. He provides unique course material in many areas. He teaches cannabinoid education for professional medical education collaborations, such as Holistic Primary Care, and was the lead instructor for the Master Cannabinoid Practitioner Training and Certification Program as well as an adjunct faculty for the Kambo Frog Detox and Kambo Foundation, an indigenous healing practice certification organization dedicated to teaching the safe administration of Kambo, an Amazonian practice of detoxification and healing.
Luke is performing research and writing as a part of the Doctoral Program in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine at Pacific College of Health and Science, in San Diego, CA. This institution is the most highly accredited college of Chinese Medicine in the US, maintaining academic accreditation at the same level as UCLA, Stanford, and University of Southern Californa. He is publishing peer-reviewed research on his unique methods of healing as a part of his work at PCHS in 2024 while maintaining doctorate status in the program at PCHS.
His current focus in writing and publishing focuses on the intersection between gut health, autoimmune disorders, chronic infections, long COVID, and vaccine injuries.