Nontraditional works for them

By Kathy Fallert; photos courtesy of Julie Snook

 

Dr. Randy Snook, a 24-year resident of Glen Oaks and his wife of 18 years, Julie Snook, are the owners of Advanced Integrative Medicine (AIM) in Lone Tree.

Randy, originally from Alamosa, Colorado, always knew he wanted to be a doctor and had a true love for science. Randy recollected, “When our class dissected fetal pigs, I sewed mine back together afterwards! It was just always in me to be a doctor.”

Randy received his bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University (CSU), originally thinking he would go into veterinary school like his older brother. He changed directions to human medicine and got his medical degree at the University of Texas Health in San Antonio. He followed up with an internship in internal medicine at Columbia University in New York, a residency of internal medicine and a fellowship in gerontology at the University of New Mexico, and finally he was trained in acupuncture.

Randy moved back to Colorado for the beauty and the mountain sports. Julie is originally from Howell, Michigan, and she moved to Colorado to ski. They met at a 24-Hour Fitness. She had two young daughters who were ages 5 and 7 at the time.

Randy said, “I asked her out quite a few times before she finally agreed to meet me for coffee, and the rest was history. It was a family destined to be together. I bonded with the girls right away, then we had a third daughter together. We are very close with our daughters, and the older two chose to take my name later, which was very special. I’m not just their stepdad; I’m their dad.”

“Meeting Julie was the perfect timing for me,” reflected Randy. “I was 40 years old, and I wasn’t looking for it, but I was ready for a family. We have always felt like God and our parents, who had already passed away, led us to be together.”

The Snooks have been married 18 years and their three daughters are Kaylyn, Brianna and Madeline. Next spring, all three girls will have graduated from Rock Canyon High School. The two older girls also graduated from CSU, like their dad. Madeline hopes to follow in their footsteps and study at CSU.

The Snooks enjoy hiking 14ers as a family. They recently summited Mount Bierstadt to celebrate Randy’s 60th birthday. They also love to golf, mountain bike and take adventurous vacations. The Snooks have shared a lot of experiences together, from snorkeling to swimming with sharks.

In their business, the Snooks take a different approach than traditional medical offices, combining western medicine with complementary eastern therapies.

Randy did a lot of research in the area of combining western and eastern medicine. He wanted to be in a practice that had interaction with patients. Julie remarked, “He truly wanted to treat the entire person and had interviewed and paid to consult with an integrative medicine office in Santa Cruz, California. He got a lot of ideas from that meeting.”

Randy said, “We work hard in our ‘mom and pop’ operation. With my fellowship in gerontology, we have a lot of older patients who deserve the most respect and get plenty of spoiling. Customer service is very important to us, but we make time for family.”