Since sixth grade, all David Larsen, MD, has wanted to be was a family practice physician. He attributes that to the influence of physicians he knew throughout his life. He remembers being a young boy sitting in the waiting room of his family physician’s office and looking around at all the different people waiting to see the doctor. The room was filled with young, old, even pregnant patients, and Larsen realized that a family practice physician took care of a little bit of everything. From his own experiences, he came to see the family physician as a part of the family unit and that was just what he longed to be in his practice of medicine.

 

“In one of the towns we lived in,” said Larsen, “our family physician and his wife played bridge several times a month with my parents.” Larsen was the son of an industrial engineer for textile manufacturers; his family moved throughout the Southeast and he grew up in Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

 

Larsen graduated from Clarksville High School in Middle Tennessee and then graduated from Austin Peay State University (APSU). While at APSU, his family moved to North Carolina and he met his wife, Sara, who was originally from Memphis.

 

For medical school, Larsen followed his family to the Tar Heel state and with the aid of a military scholarship, received his degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine in January 1976. His residency brought him to West Tennessee, where he has the distinction of being the third physician to graduate from the University of Tennessee Health Sciences family practice program in Jackson. After residency, Larsen spent three years at Fort Benning in Georgia, completing his scholarship requirements for medical school.

 

Larsen returned to Jackson in 1982 and opened Northside Medical Clinic. “We chose Jackson as it was as close to Memphis as Sara wanted to be, said Larsen. “And it was as far from Memphis as Sara wanted to be.”

 

Larsen remained in solo practice for four years before expanding the clinic’s medical staff. Today the clinic, which has had as many as four physicians on staff, currently has three physicians, including him, and three nurse practitioners.

 

Larsen’s practice is not immune to the growing problems caused by the increasing obese population in our country. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adult obesity in the state of Tennessee was more than 30 percent in 2008, making it among one of the six highest in the country. Larsen has not seen a significant increase in the number of obese adult patients but rather in the number of pediatric patients in his more than 25 years of practice.

 

“The biggest issues I see from obesity initially are hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol, with diabetes being at the head of that list,” said Larsen. “Over the long term, these can lead to bigger problems, such as heart disease, stroke and renal failure. It’s these medical problems that get most patients in the clinic rather than obesity itself. It is a hard issue to tackle when you only see a patient once or twice every couple of years. Typically those who have not developed issues are not willing to make any lifestyle changes. Once they have problems from being overweight or obese, then we can get them to make the changes in their habits and eating that can make a difference. I do not see there being much done to change the problem of obesity, just a greater awareness of it.”

 

He is finding more patients who are turning to surgery as a means to cure their obesity. “Twenty-five years ago it would be a rare thing for us to have a patient who was looking for a surgical solution to being obese, said Larsen. “Today, we get one to two patients in the clinic a week who are coming in as a part of the evaluation process for the lap band procedure or gastric by-pass surgery. Once they are in the evaluation process, we see them monthly for four to six months to track their weight loss and for diagnostic procedures required by insurance before the procedure.”

 

Although Larsen does not condone or endorse either procedure for his patients, he does have several patients that have used them to manage their weight. “Many of them have been successful in keeping the weight off,” said Larsen. “I think it is an important part of the process for the patient to deal with the emotional and psychological issues of obesity as a part of their treatment. Those that do, I have seen to be the most successful.”

 

Besides being a busy family practice physician throughout his career, Larsen and his wife have also been kept busy with family. The Larsen clan to date includes four children (two boys and two girls) and five grandchildren. Oldest son, Jeff, who is a landscaper in Asheville, North Carolina, is married with two children. Second son, Greg, is married and in the process of completing a urology residency in San Antonio, Texas. Daughter Marie and her husband have two children and she is a housewife in Jackson. The youngest daughter, Kim, lives in Clarksville and teaches. She and her husband have one child.