When Navy-trained doctor Hugh Jonson asked her to join an alternative medicine clinic, Registered Nurse Barbara Fragala said she didn’t hesitate.

As active members of the same church, Fragala said she knew they would make a good team.

“We work well together,” said Fragala, a classically trained nurse who has worked mainly in intensive care.

“He cracks me up.”

“We’re doing this as an act of love,” Jonson said. “We will either make it fun or we won’t make it at all.”

Along with Arely Jimenez, a doctor of natural medicine and a licensed marriage and family counselor, the three aim to treat the entire body and mind at Whidbey Naturals Alternative Medicine on State Highway 20.

“We practice a combination of Eastern and Western medicine,” Jonson said. “We use nature first.”

Jonson and Fragala said that the practice of this holistic, chemical-free medicine can treat everything from pain to diabetes to allergies. In addition, the treatments can fortify the body for Western procedures like surgery.

Both Fragala and Jonson came out of retirement to open the clinic that they hope will fill the void created by the closure of other natural medicine practices.

When asked how acupuncture works, Jonson joked he didn’t have “the foggiest idea.”

What he does know is that “it increases the flow of lymph, which carries all the healing power of the body,” Jonson said.

But he’s seen its benefit throughout his career, starting with the birth of his son.

A former combat pilot and prisoner of war with 43 years of service, Jonson was stationed in Asia when his wife went into labor.

They were in Singapore for the  delivery, and there, they had their first experience with acupuncture.

After consulting some books, Jonson, a young doctor, administered the procedure intended to help control the pain. Which it did. It also stopped his wife’s labor completely.

While the experience resulted in 49 hours of labor for his wife, it also changed his life as a doctor forever.

“I learned that without chemicals, we could control the pain,” Jonson said.

Since that time, Jonson has studied at a holistic university in San Francisco and has applied his knowledge to treating his patients.

Jonson has also worked as a veteran’s therapist since 1983, he said.

“I’m alive today because of other veterans,” Jonson said. “There’s no way I can pass up the needs of our wounded warriors today. I have an intimate knowledge of the stresses and issues they face. I’m a safe guy for them to talk to. I was there.”

Along with consulting on a patient’s diet and using homeopathic medicine, the clinic also can recommend physical and physiotherapy, hydrotherapy and ultrasound deep tissue massage.

“I don’t fix your body — your body fixes itself,” Jonson said. “It’s about balancing your entire life.”

For more information or to make an appointment, call the clinic at 360-240-8489.