Science-based   whole-person   healthcare

Dr. Alex Vasquez

Holistic applications of therapeutic nutrition, botanical medicine, functional medicine, and naturopathic medicine for a wide range of health concerns

As a clinician, researcher, and post-graduate lecturer, Dr Alex Vasquez is one of America's premier experts in clinical nutrition and preventive healthcare.  Dr. Vasquez works with a wide range of patients - some of whom want to prevent disease and attain optimal performance, others who have severe or chronic illnesses.

         The author of two textbooks for doctors - Integrative Orthopedics and Integrative Rheumatology, Dr Vasquez has authored approximately 50 healthcare/scientific articles in peer-reviewed medical journals such as The Lancet, British Medical Journal, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Nutritional Perspectives, and Journal of the American Medical Association.  Dr. Alex Vasquez is the most widely published chiropractic and naturopathic doctor in the United States. 

         Dr. Vasquez lectures nationally and internationally to other doctors on the topic of nutrition in general and disease prevention and the treatment of "autoimmune diseases" in particular.  A former Adjunct Professor for the Naturopathic Medicine Program at Bastyr University, Dr Vasquez has worked with patients in Portland, Seattle, Houston, and now Fort Worth, and he has lectured to doctors in the United States (Institute for Functional Medicine), Canada (International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine), England (Royal Society of Medicine), and Holland (Biotics Research Corporation).

Update in progress

• Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine 

  • Graduate of Bastyr University

  • Licensed Naturopathic Physician with Additional Prescriptive Authority, Washington (2000-present)

  • Licensed Naturopathic Physician, Oregon (2004-present)

  • Previous private practice of chiropractic and naturopathic medicine in Seattle, Washington

• Doctor of Chiropractic 

  • Graduate of Western States Chiropractic College

  • Licensed Doctor of Chiropractic in Washington (1996-2002) 

  • Licensed Doctor of Chiropractic in Texas (2002-present)

• Forum Consultant and Adjunct Faculty for the Institute for Functional Medicine in Gig Harbor, Washington.

• Former Adjunct Professor for the Naturopathic Medicine program of Bastyr University

  • Orthopedics

  • Rheumatology

  • Radiographic Interpretation 1 

• Author: 

  • Integrative Orthopedics: Concepts, Algorithms, and Therapeutics  

  • Numerous articles and letters published in magazines and professional peer-reviewed medical journals, including.

    • The Lancet

    • Annals of Pharmacotherapy

    • British Medical Journal

    • JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association

    • Arthritis & Rheumatism - Official Journal of the American College of Rheumatology

    • Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients

    • Nutritional Perspectives

    • MEN Magazine

    • Impressions - A publication of The Women's Fund for Health Education and Research 

• Extensive post-graduate and continuing education: Over 400 hours of post-graduate level "continuing education" credits.  Since doctors are required to obtain at least 20 hours of continuing education per year to renew their licenses, this means that I have ten years worth of continuing education in addition to my own personal learning and reading from texts, books, and new medical research.

• Significant lecturing/teaching experience

Natural Treatments and Holistic Medicine: description and advantages

Unfortunately, many people have only been offered drugs and surgery for their health problems, and they have never been informed of the healthcare options available to them.  This is not only unfortunate, but it is also illegal because doctors are legally required to inform patients of their options before administering any treatment, especially if it involves potentially harmful drugs or surgery.  Stated differently, medical doctors are required to obtain "informed consent" before treating any patient, and patients can only consent after they have been fully informed of all of their treatment options.  Many patients are never even told that they have options to drugs or surgery.

 

Natural treatments include basics such as exercise and prescription diets, but also include therapeutic nutrition and botanical medicines, as well as some natural substances and hormones which may be used in safe doses in certain patients.  Many natural treatments are proven to be effective - often even more effective than chemical drugs, especially for the treatment of chronic conditions such as depression, hypertension, and specific types of cancer.  Much of this research has met the gold standard in research of being "double-blind placebo-controlled" and all of these studies have been published in peer-reviewed medical journals.  In other words, natural medicine, when applied by trained professionals, is "very scientific."

 

The main advantage to natural holistic healthcare is that it provides the only means to address your health needs by effectively correcting the underlying cause of your health problem,  rather than continuing to suppress merely the symptoms. 

 

For example, we all know that high blood pressure (hypertension) is a serious risk factor for heart attack and stroke.  The allopathic approach to treating high blood pressure relies almost exclusively on the use of anti-hypertensive medications (drugs to lower blood pressure).  However, while these drugs are effective for lowering blood pressure, they do not address the cause of the elevation in blood pressure--rather, these drugs merely interfere with some aspect of the body's normal functioning so that blood pressure is lowered.  In contrast, a holistic natural medicine approach would seek to identify the cause of hypertension in that particular patient and to treat it effectively with natural means.  Once the cause of the problem is treated, the problem goes away without the need for medications, and improved overall health can be attained. 

 

I've helped many people to discontinue their antihypertensive drugs simply by helping them become healthier by addressing the cause of the problem, rather than simply treating the symptoms.  Of course, every once in a while I work with a patient who needs to be on drugs, at least temporarily, until we can effectively treat the cause of the problem. 

 

Does illness such as cancer "just happen"?  Or do these diseases result from an interplay of conditions within the human body which can be effectively modified and corrected?

 

1. Disease results from dysfunction.

2. Using a foreign chemical (a pharmaceutical drug) to fix a problem is like repairing a Porsche with parts from a Ford.  Except in a very few instances, you cannot fix the cause of a problem by introducing an artificial chemical into the body, because the cause of the problem was not a lack of an artificial drug.  (Yes, some conditions require the use of drugs, but only as a last resort.)

3. The safest, most effective, and least expensive way to correct dysfunction is to use the substances which are normally found in the body--minerals, proteins, amino acids, botanical medicines, fats, hormones, etc.

4. The "condition" is almost never the "problem."  Hypertension does not cause itself; cancer does not cause itself; depression does not cause itself; fatigue does not cause itself.  So if the treatment is directed only at the symptoms, then the underlying problem is never addressed.  If the underlying problem is not addressed, the condition will remain, even though it may be masked by the use of drugs.

5. Natural medicine treats the cause of the problem.

 

Health Conditions Treated

One of the most common questions asked about my practice of natural medicine is, "What conditions do you treat?"

 

From my perspective, I really do not treat "conditions" - I treat people.  Generally speaking, the people who I treat and who benefit from my care have a wide range of health conditions and health-related goals.  Here are a few examples:

 

What do you "specialize in?"

I specialize in getting people healthy.  I specialize in improving the health of the patients who see me.  I do not limit myself to a small number of "conditions" - I work with anyone who wants to get healthier and wants to stay healthy.

 

There are certain conditions that I particularly enjoy treating - such as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and other causes of fatigue and tiredness, digestive and intestinal problems, cardiovascular disorders, and neurologic problems such as ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) and autism - because I feel that I have a comprehensive understanding of certain conditions and because I get favorable results in treating these conditions.  But I do not limit myself to these things, even though I find the treatment of such conditions to be "clinically rewarding."  I get good and great results with many different conditions.  And, sure, sometimes I meet a patient or condition that seems to not improve or favorably respond to the treatment plan that I design.  In these situations, I work at understanding the condition and refining the treatment plan until we reach our goal of improvement.  In extremely difficult cases, I consult with my professional colleagues or co-manage with an other physician.  

 

Generally speaking, there are always things I can do to help anyone to become healthier--it is simply a matter of degree and extent, i.e., whether or not we will reach significant improvement, or achieve our goal of cure.  

 

We begin from where we are and go as far as we can toward helping you achieve the highest level of health possible.

 

Office appointments:  (713) 840-9355

The first office appointment will most likely be the longest of your visits since it is during our first meeting that we have to cover such a large amount of information, including:

• Information about your current health status and your "chief complaints"

• Past health history

• Family health history

• Medication and supplement use

• Diet history and lifestyle

• Physical examination

• Laboratory tests (if necessary)

• Formulation of your initial treatment plan

Although I am sure that you recognize that this is a large amount of information, if we work efficiently we can generally cover all of this information in approximately one hour, although sometimes we finish early and on occasion we may need up to an hour and a half, depending on the complexity of your situation.  Services are billed by time, which reflects the degree of complexity, examination/assessment, explanation, and treatment. Be sure to fill out the forms for new patients, and bring your medications, supplements and any past medical records that you have so that we can work as effectively and as efficiently as possible.

Phone consultations and e-mail correspondence: (713) 840-9355

For patients who are out of town, we can schedule a phone consultation to review your health information and to formulate a treatment plan.  I have many patients who are in other cities or states, and some patients live as far away as Mexico or the Pacific Northwest.  Although nothing can substitute for the increased amount of information that can be exchanged by physical examination and other in-office procedures, many people have been treated effectively by phone consultation with review of medical records.  Please complete the forms for new patients and mail this information along with your previous medical and lab reports to the office.  Phone consultations and detailed e-mail correspondence is billed identically to in-office visits.  Please call the office for additional information and to schedule your phone consultation. 

Safety and effectiveness of natural treatments: comparison with pharmaceutical-chemical drugs and medical treatment

Holistic treatments such as acupuncture and herbs are safer than allopathic-chemical medicine

A recent research article published in the November/December 2000 issue of the prestigious journal Archives of Family Medicine (pages 1071-8) evaluated the safety of "acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine" ("non-medical" treatment) with allopathic-chemical medicine.  The authors noted that "The mean adverse event rate of nonmedical practitioners was less than half the mean adverse event rate of medical practitioners."  Stated differently, acupuncture and the use of herbs was found to be more than two-times safer than allopathic-chemical medicine.

"How did we get to a place in medicine where it's considered radical to ask people to stop smoking, meditate, walk, and eat a healthy diet, and conventional to cut people open and blow balloons up in their arteries and put radioactive stems in there?"  Dean Ornish, MD Fort Worth Chronicle, July 4, 2002

For a discussion of the hazards of hormone replacement therapy in women, please see the section on Women's Health.  You can also read about the hazards of pharmaceutical-chemical drugs in general or specific information about the hazards of cox-2 inhibitors (such as "Vioxx" and "Celebrex").  Additionally, I have provided some basic guidelines for ensuring the safe use of therapeutic nutrition and botanical medicines.

The power of natural medicine and holistic healthcare

How is it that natural medicine can be so powerful yet so safe?

The wisdom and power of natural medicine is that, unlike chemical-pharmaceutical drugs that interfere with the way the body works, natural medicines make your body work better and more efficiently.  With natural medicines such as physical medicine and specific nutritional and botanical treatments, we help your body to work more efficiently by supporting the body's many complex functions.

 

On the other hand, chemical-pharmaceutical drugs generally work by interfering with the way your body normally functions.  This interference with the way your body is supposed to work is why drug "side effects" are such a huge cause of death in America and the death toll from these drugs gets bigger every year.  According to a recent article published in The Lancet (February 28, 1998 pages 643-644), the incidence of deaths related to the use of medications has increased dramatically in the past few years.  In 1983 medication-related deaths totaled 2,876 while the number of medication-related deaths had increased to 7,391 by 1993 - a 2.57-fold increase the number of medication-related deaths had increased to 7,391 by 1993 - a 2.57-fold increase in ten years.

 

Natural treatments gently "fine tune" and support and your body's functions so that the natural and normal processes of your body can work better, more efficiently, and more effectively.  Rather than masking the problem and causing further interference with the way your body works as do chemical-pharmaceutical drugs, natural medicines work with your mind and body to help your whole body work better.  Common and expected results are that cholesterol levels become normal, high blood pressure gets reduced, blood sugar is used more efficiently, and joints and muscles work without pain or inflammation.

 

Our office provides a full rage of standard medical laboratory tests.  These basic tests are used to diagnose and monitor a wide range of conditions and functions, including:

• Liver function

• Kidney function

• Thyroid hormones

• "Complete blood count" to assess for infections or anemia

• Electrolytes: calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, chloride

• Tests for infections: mono, hepatitis, HIV, Lyme disease

• Blood sugar (tests for diabetes)

• Basic cardiovascular risk factors, such as total cholesterol, LDL (bad) and HDL (good) cholesterol  Comprehensive assessment for heart disease is also available.

Of course, many other tests are available, and we can select the ones that are most important for you in consideration of your condition and your personal goals.

"Every individual organism that has a distinctive genetic background has distinctive nutritional needs which must be met for optimal well-being."  

Professor Emeritus Roger J. Williams of University of Texas at Austin, 1956

Specialty tests and functional assessments provide us with a much more detailed assessment of the way your body is working.  Whereas basic laboratory tests look for "disease", functional tests look for more subtle "dysfunction."  These tests can be very important for people who "are not sick, yet do not feel well" such as people with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and autism and other neurologic conditions like depression and chronic skin problems.  All of these tests are backed by years of clinical experience, in addition to published research in respected medical journals.  Examples of these functional tests include:

• Gastrointestinal function: detailed assessment of digestion and absorption of nutrients

• hair analysis for assessment of minerals and toxic metals

• testing for intestinal parasites and harmful yeast and bacteria

• intestinal permeability testing for "leaky gut syndrome" and related problems

• mitochondrial tests: "Mitochondria" are the parts of your cells that make energy.  For some people with fatigue, we gain valuable information by assessing the function and efficiency of their mitochondria to determine whether or not they are able to "make energy."

• comprehensive cardiovascular assessment: to determine your risk for heart attack and stroke

• assessments for osteoporosis: We can test to see if you are losing bone now so that you can avoid osteoporosis in the future.

• Detoxification: We can assess your body's ability to detoxify environmental chemicals and internal chemicals such as hormones

• Fatty acid analysis: This test allows us to understand how your body absorbs, utilizes, and converts the biologically important fatty acids.  This is an important test with implications for chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, inflammatory-autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, depression, and alcoholism.

• Amino acid analysis:  Although dietary protein is the source of amino acids for the body, eating a diet adequate in protein does not ensure that your body will have the amino acids that it needs for you to feel and function optimally.  In his review of the research entitled "Nutritional Needs and Biochemical Diversity," Donald Davis PhD notes that individual amino acid needs can vary up to 900% even among "apparently healthy" young people.

No matter what your health concern is - whether it is treatment for a specific disease, prevention of future health problems, or attaining optimal health so that you can feel and function better - you have the option of choosing from a wide range of scientifically valid assessments which are performed by accredited specialty laboratories.  Laboratory tests provide a wealth of detailed and specific information about your current health status and the way that your body works, so that we can tailor a treatment plan specifically for your unique needs and goals.  

more information about functional assessments

 

"For individual patients, more precise diagnosis and risk assessment based on [genetic] profiles are already achievable for certain conditions, leading to more accurate determination of prognosis and more individually tailored treatment."  

British Medical Journal, September 2001

Genetic testing is the next wave of advancement in helping patients predict, avoid, and treat health problems.  Not only are these tests extremely valuable for adults with already existing health problems, but they are also very valuable for children and young adults - We now have the ability to detect which patients are at increased risk for certain diseases years and decades before we expect to see the first clinical manifestations of the diseases; this "advanced warning" gives us the time we need to ensure that we are doing all we can to help prevent the disease from becoming manifest.

Genetic testing allows you to learn about how your genes are influencing your health destiny.  With this additional information, you are empowered with additional insights and options regarding your treatments and the lifestyle interventions that can help you tailor your environment to your unique genetic makeup.

Specific genetic tests are available to assess your body's ability to deal effectively with several functions, body processes, and health problems.  These tests are grouped together to focus specifically on your individual concerns:

• Cardiovascular risk: Learn if your genes are putting you at high risk - or low risk - for heart disease and stroke.

• Immune system problems: The immune system can both cause and prevent illness - now you can learn your predispositions and plan your life accordingly.

• Osteoporosis:  Difficult-to-treat osteoporosis may involve genetic abnormalities that we can identify and then address with specific treatments.

• Detoxification: As our environment becomes more and more polluted, we absolutely must give more attention to our bodies' ability to deal with these harmful chemicals.  Poor detoxification ability increases the risk for cancer and neurologic diseases such as Parkinson's disease.

Testing for genetic markers is performed with the strictest attention to confidentiality.  This information is not released to anyone without your specific permission in writing.

more information about genetic testing

Health professionals often have to work together as a team in order to help a patient achieve his or her health goals, especially if he/she has a serious condition such as cancer.  I welcome the opportunity to work with your other physicians if you would like for me to do so.  I have worked with medical doctors for many years: in Seattle, I worked in a medical office with a urologic specialist, and here in Fort Worth I have worked in the office of a family practice medical doctor.  In addition to my personal in-office experience working side-by-side with medical doctors, I have also published research in a respected "medical" research journal, Arthritis & Rheumatism - Official Journal of the American College of Rheumatology. 

 

On the other hand, if you want keep our work strictly confidential, I am certainly willing to help you in this regard as well.

 

If your current doctor is not willing to help you attain your health goals in the safest and most natural and effective way possible, you have the right to find a doctor who treats you with personalized attention and with respect for your personal goals and desires, and I will be glad to work with you and to help you assemble a team of highly competent healthcare professionals to ensure that you receive the best care possible. 

For patients who are taking medications, I take appropriate precautions to ensure that we avoid interactions with their medications.  We can also use natural treatments to reduce the side effects of medications.  Many of my patients eventually find that they no longer need pharmaceutical/chemical drugs once they have adopted a natural treatment program that addresses the cause of their health problem.  By effectively treating and eliminating the cause of the problem, expensive and potentially harmful chemical medications often become unnecessary.

"Health insurance" policies and programs are designed to pay for catastrophic illness and injury.  Health insurance is not intended to help you become healthier, except when you already have a disease.  Some doctors refer to such policies as "disease insurance" since they only go into effect once a person already has a health problem.

For example, if you get cancer, health insurance will cover the expense of chemotherapy and surgery and radiation treatments, but it generally will not cover 1) a comprehensive program to help you prevent cancer from developing in the first place, 2) natural treatments which have been proven to reduce the toxicity and side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation, nor 3) natural treatments for cancer - many of which have been proven to make chemotherapy more effective and many of which have been proven to be more effective than chemotherapy.  If you want the best of the health options that are available to you, you will have to liberate yourself from the limitations of your health insurance policy.

 

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More in middle class lack health coverage: Largest new group of uninsured earns in $75,000 range
By JOHN M. BRODER of The New York Times, Nov. 24, 2002

The lack of health insurance, once thought to be a problem chiefly of the poor and the unemployed, is spreading up the income ladder and deep into the ranks of those with full-time jobs. According to recently released Census Bureau figures, 1.4 million Americans lost their health insurance last year. 

The largest group of the newly uninsured -- some 800,000 families -- are those with incomes in excess of $75,000. They either lost their jobs, or were priced out of the health care market by rapidly rising insurance premiums. http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/health/1675742

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Health insurance generally supports treatment with chemical drugs, even though many natural treatments are more effective.  Additionally, the benefits of holistic healthcare can never be achieved with drug treatments prescribed after only a 10-minute visit with the doctor.  How could a doctor possibly understand you and your health after only a 10-minute visit and a drug prescription?

 

Many things in life are not covered by health insurance, yet people still spend money on them.  Cable television is not covered by health insurance, and at a cost of $500-700 per year, cable TV can drain monies that could have been directed toward helping you get healthier.  At about $3 per day, smoking a pack of cigarettes per day costs over $1,100 per year.  Massage costs $60-80 for one hour.  Facials cost $40-120 and the results last only for a few days or weeks.  My point is that we all have it within our means to afford becoming healthier: cost is rarely the issue.  The issue is making health a priority, doing what we have to do to take care of ourselves.

 

Most insurance companies cover treatments by a Doctor of Chiropractic.  You can receive a detailed receipt to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement.  

 

I have treated patients a wide range of infections, including:

• Blastocystis hominis

• Giardia lamblia

• Entamoeba histolytica 

• Candida albicans

• Other intestinal parasites....

• HIV and AIDS

• "strep throat"

• Urinary tract infections, including sexually-transmitted diseases

• Hepatitis

• "Flu" and "common cold" and other viral infections 

 

We all recognize that a healthy immune system is the best defense against getting sick.  But how does one develop, maintain, and stimulate the immune system to perform optimally?  What specific treatments can be used to provide maximal immune function, and which treatments can be targeted toward the virus, bacteria, or other "germ" to ensure that our clinical approach is the most effective?  Can botanical medicines be combined with pharmaceutical drugs to increase effectiveness?  The correct answers to each of these questions must be determined for each patient, and the implementation of a comprehensive treatment plan provides the best results.

Women's health issues

I have successfully helped many women who suffered from problems related to premenstrual syndrome (PMS: water retention, depression, irritability), painful menses, infertility, menopause (for example, hot flushes, vaginal dryness, decreased libido), and osteoporosis.  I have also helped many women find alternatives to HRT (hormone replacement therapy) and to help them understand the risks associated with this type of treatment, such as increased risk for heart attack, stroke, urinary incontinence, and gall bladder disease.

 

Adverse effects of hormone replacement therapy or "HRT" in women: a brief review of the research.

• Increased risk for heart attack and stroke (according to recent major studies)

  •  Many patients and conventional physicians still believe that using HRT will decrease a woman's risk of heart attack and stroke, but this information is WRONG. The famous "HERS" study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that women who started HRT with estrogen from horses and synthetic progesterone ("conjugated equine estrogen plus medroxyprogesterone acetate") had no protection from cardiovascular disease, yet they actually had in increased risk of heart attack, gall bladder disease, and blood clots. The authors concluded, "...we do not recommend starting this treatment for the purpose of secondary prevention of [heart disease]."  JAMA 1998 Aug 19; pages 605-13

  • Women who have already had a heart attack face an increased risk of a second heart attack if they begin taking HRT.  Journal of the American College of Cardiology 2001 Jul: pages 1-7

• Increased risk for gall bladder disease and the need for surgery: 

  • A more recent study published in Annals of Internal Medicine also showed that women taking "conjugated equine estrogens" and synthetic progesterone had an increased risk of gall bladder disease and the need for surgery. Annals of Internal Medicine 2001 Oct 2: pages 493-501

• Worsening of urinary incontinence: HRT worsens urinary incontinence. 

  • "CONCLUSION: Daily oral estrogen plus progestin therapy was associated with worsening urinary incontinence in older postmenopausal women with weekly incontinence. We do not recommend this therapy for the treatment of incontinence." Obstetrics and Gynecology 2001 Jan: pages 116-20

 

We can select from many safe and effective treatments for women's health issues which offer a wide range of total health benefits, and which provide many health advantages over medical HRT - a treatment based on giving women hormones from horse urine and from synthetic chemical sources.

more information about women's health issues

Men's health issues

I have worked with men's groups and organizations for many years, and in 1997 I was Health Editor for MEN Magazine.  I have in-depth information and effective treatment plans for many conditions that affect men's health, including cancer (prevention and treatment), heart disease, high blood pressure, prostate problems (enlargement, cancer, infections), erection difficulties, and excess iron.  Of course, men have health concerns that exceed the ones that I mentioned in this section, and I am happy to work with any man who desires a safe, effective, and natural treatment approach to improving his health.

Hormonal problems are common among both men and women.  Women with hormonal problems often have problems such as premenstrual syndrome or "PMS", infertility, weight gain, and uterine fibroids, while in men hormonal problems are much more "silent" and tend to manifest either as fatigue, depression, weight gain, and difficulties with sexual performance.  We have many options to ensure accurate assessment of your hormonal status, and we can use tests that analyze hormone levels in blood, saliva, or 24-hour urine collections.  Different types of tests have different advantages and disadvantages.  Commonly tested hormones include:

• testosterone

• estrogen

  • Many people - including many doctors - still think of estrogen as a single hormone, when in fact estrogen is a family of hormones, each with different functions, risks, and benefits to a man or woman's body.

• thyroid hormones

• growth hormone

• adrenal hormones: DHEA and cortisol

• melatonin

• and many others

 

Based on the results that we get from your tests, we can formulate a treatment plan to help restore your hormone levels to an optimal level.  When it comes to hormones, many people think "the more the better" and that "more hormones" will necessarily help them to have more energy, more sex drive, a better memory, etc.  However this is not always the case.  Sure, hormone levels are important, but what is more important is their balance with other hormones, and if the body is able to use them efficiently.  

Neurologic and "brain" conditions are one of my greatest areas of interest.  Whether the condition is chronic and subtle such as mild depression (dysthymia) or whether it is a result of a traumatic brain injury, my intimate understanding of the physiologic mechanisms involved in neuronal injury and repair enable me to formulate effective treatment plans to help individuals with a wide range of brain conditions to recover more rapidly and completely.

People do not suffer from depression or anxiety because their bodies have a deficiency of Prozac or Celexa; therefore, these drugs can never cure the problem and can never do more than to create dependency while leaving the cause of the problem untreated.  Depression can result from many genetic, biochemical, hormonal, and nutritional problems - and these problems should be addressed and corrected not only for the "treatment" of the depression, but more importantly for the improvement of the patient's overall health. 

 

We recognize in the medical research that there is a strong link between depression and killer diseases like cancer and heart disease.  Does using a chemical drug to mask the depression eliminate this problem?  No - it simply hides the biochemical problem so that it later becomes manifest as another problem.  By treating the underlying cause of the depression, we can help you feel and function better, while simultaneously reducing your risk for cancer, arthritis, immune problems, skin diseases, heart disease and stroke.

 

Chronic pain

We have many safe and effective treatments for disorders associated with pain and inflammation.  In fact, in 2004 and 2005 I've written a series of articles and have given seminars to doctors on how to treat pain and inflammation from a safe, effective, holistic approach.

Memory loss

Memory loss can result from a variety of disorders, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, injury, infection, hormone problems, nutritional deficiencies, hereditary conditions, heavy metal toxicity, chronic fatigue syndrome, or it may simply be a manifestation of "age-related cognitive decline" which is considered normal (in our culture and in under the allopathic model of disease).  Determining the cause and treating the cause of the problem on a patient-by-patient basis forms the foundation for my clinical approach to helping people with memory problems, and we have a huge array of natural treatments to help each patient.