{"id":1317528,"date":"2020-01-04T23:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-05T06:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/after-40-years-a-long-time-new-castle-doctor-steps-down\/"},"modified":"2020-01-06T08:00:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T15:00:58","slug":"after-40-years-a-long-time-new-castle-doctor-steps-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/after-40-years-a-long-time-new-castle-doctor-steps-down\/","title":{"rendered":"After 40 years, a long-time New Castle doctor steps down"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Dr. Dennis Eicher in downtown Glenwood Springs.<\/strong>
Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

There may not have been a fiery passion behind Dennis Eicher\u2019s decision to study medicine more than four decades ago.<\/p>\n

His brother was a doctor; many of his cousins were doctors or dentists; and a lot of his friends in college were in pre-medicine.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seemed like a good thing to do,\u201d Eicher said.<\/p>\n

But whatever Eicher found in medicine was enough to keep him in the field for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n

Eicher will retire from his family practice in New Castle on Jan. 10, which also happens to be his 70th birthday.<\/p>\n

Getting to Glenwood<\/p>\n

Eicher grew up in Ohio, and moved to Colorado after college. He got a deferred acceptance to medical school and had to delay a year \u2013 but that allowed him to work for Coors Brewing, and take a motorcycle trip to Alaska and back in the late \u201970s.<\/p>\n

After he finished his residency in Denver, Eicher and his then-wife were looking for a place to settle. They visited Iowa and the Pacific Northwest, but Glenwood Springs wasn\u2019t a strong possibility.<\/p>\n

When they got back to Colorado, they decided to spend some time in Glenwood Springs while they made their decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hit the pool, and it was like, actually this is pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

After working in family practice for 11 years in Glenwood, Eicher got a job at Valley View Hospital in Eagle, where he worked for three years.<\/p>\n

Then, he opened up a practice in New Castle above the diner in the City Market Plaza, and has been there ever since.<\/p>\n

Some of his patients have known him for 35 years or more, which makes it difficult to day goodbye.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them followed me all over the place,\u201d Eicher said. \u201cThey\u2019re my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eicher knows leaving will be tough, but he\u2019s up for that challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cMedicine has kept my brain going, so now I need something else to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

What it takes<\/p>\n

The greatest attribute for a family physician is people skills, according to Eicher.<\/p>\n

Trying to convince patients to take a drug, or change a habit, can be a difficult task, but for Eicher, any change in habit, any attempt to drop a few pounds or exercise more, is a win.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it\u2019s bargaining. You\u2019re trying to get somebody to do something they may or may not want to do,\u201d Eicher said.<\/p>\n

Bargaining may not be the first word that comes to mind when someone thinks about health. From a doctor\u2019s perspective, Eicher says convincing people to do something beneficial that they don\u2019t want to do is the best way to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of compromise in it. You can say \u2018it\u2019s my way or the highway,\u2019 but you\u2019re not helping anybody by doing that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Take smoking. Of course, no tobacco use is healthy, but convincing people to cut back, exercise more, and lose a few pounds if overweight, are steps in the right direction \u2013 even if they don\u2019t want to quit.<\/p>\n

Colorado is statistically one of the fittest states in the country, but Eicher still sees obesity as the No. 1 health problem.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just this Valley, it\u2019s not just this country. The whole world is getting fatter,\u201d Eicher said.<\/p>\n

The principal reason? Calories are cheap.<\/p>\n

For about $5, someone can get a 1,500 calorie meal. Do that twice a day, and a body\u2019s strict calorie needs may be met, but people still eat dinners.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t lose weight if you\u2019re eating out all the time,\u201d Eicher said.<\/p>\n

The good news in Eicher\u2019s advice is that he doesn\u2019t limit the kinds of foods someone eats, as long as it\u2019s in moderation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, there are no forbidden foods. It\u2019s all about frequency, quantity and moderation,\u201d Eicher said.<\/p>\n

Moving on<\/p>\n

At Eicher\u2019s practice, which is now part of the Glenwood Medical Association, Dr. Jennifer Copeland will take over for now.<\/p>\n

After he retires, Eicher says he\u2019s looking to spend a lot more time on the slopes.<\/p>\n

He also still rides dirt bikes on the Flat Tops and elsewhere, and has BMW road bikes for other trips.<\/p>\n

This year, he has plans to do a 100,000 foot-ride \u2013 where a group of bikers take on as many mountain passes as necessary until they hit 100,000 feet total elevation gain. He also wants to do another motorcycle tour of Europe.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Dennis Eicher in downtown Glenwood Springs.Chelsea Self \/ Post Independent There may not have been a fiery passion behind Dennis Eicher\u2019s decision to study medicine more than four decades ago. His brother was a doctor; many of his cousins were doctors or dentists; and a lot of his friends in college were in pre-medicine. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1317528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 22:58:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317528"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317545,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317528\/revisions\/1317545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}