Dr. Dorninger ND, LAc is a Registered Naturopathic Doctor and Licensed Acupuncturist. He graduated from Bastyr University (www.bastyr.edu), the leading accredited university for science-based natural medicine.

Prior to medical school, he received his B.A. in Kinesiology from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1997. During this time he also finished his E.M.T. (Emergency Medical Technician) training and volunteered at Porter Care Hospice in Denver. This dual exposure of medical perspectives laid down the roots for Dr. Dorninger’s integrated approach to diagnosis, treatment, and healing.

Following undergrad, Dr. Dorninger served as an EMT for the Cranford First Aid Squad in Cranford, NJ. He then completed his doctorate in naturopathic medicine and his master’s degree in acupuncture at Bastyr University in 2003, after which he returned to Boulder, Colorado to complete a 2-year residency in naturopathic primary care.
In 2005, Dr. Dorninger founded Roots and Branches Integrative Health Care, a clinic dedicated to “Mystery Illness” where he focuses on elucidating the underlying causes of unrelenting chronic illness.  Dr. Dorninger is not concerned with what you have as much as he is with why you have it. He has dedicated his professional life to a deeper understanding of differential diagnosis based in the tradition of “Remove Obstacles to Cure.”

After the 2013 floods in Boulder, Dr. Dorninger noticed that patients who were initially getting better suddenly regressed. Moreover, patients he was struggling to diagnose got worse. Fortunately, he was guided to the honest, data-driven, peer-reviewed, reproducible published work of Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker on mold and biotoxin illness. In 2014 Dr. Dorninger signed on for his Shoemaker certification training. Dr. Dorninger is a certified Shoemaker practitioner and remains true to the Shoemaker protocol. The most difficult step in restoring quality of life in the chronically ill is finding the true, reproducible, lab- and imaging-documented underlying causes.
According to Dorninger, diagnosing underlying causes and facilitating accurate treatment plans is a grind. At Roots and Branches, we embrace the grind. In addition to private practice, Dr. Dorninger teaches functional medicine for Apex Energetics, practices Jiu-Jitsu, skis, and enjoys watching his biotoxin-genetically susceptible kids thrive post chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) treatment.

Well versed in natural approaches to diabetes, fatigue, mood disorders and headaches and other pain syndromes, Dr. Dorninger works predominately with chronic disease. Chronic disease is when a person suffers a symptom or myriad of symptoms that are not resolving.

He specializes in inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as:

Eric Dorninger completed his licensing exams through the North American Board of Naturopathic Examiners (NABNE) and is a Registered Naturopathic Doctor and Colorado State licensed acupuncturist. He is also a member of the AANP and the Colorado Association of Naturopathic Doctors (COAND).

His medical training was at Bastyr University, a fully accredited 5-year medical university. The curriculum includes history taking, physical exam, laboratory medicine, diagnostic imaging, conventional and functional diagnosis, referral, and management. Therapies include minor surgery, pharmacy, counseling, botanical medicine, dietary and nutrient therapy, physical medicine, exercise prescription, homeopathy, and other modalities.

His Acupuncture training was also completed at Bastyr University and included traditional Chinese medical diagnosis, acupuncture and oriental medical techniques, Tui Na massage, and Chinese nutritional therapy.