Wednesday, April 24, 2024

moving to Substack.

 In an effort to consolidate my Social Media efforts and avoid undue censorship I have moved my personal and professional postings to Substack.  Come follow me on Substack here:  https://jpsaleebymd.substack.com/



I also have a platform on FLCCC.net called Whole Body Health where I regularly share short videos on a wide variety of topics (usually 2 per month);  Follow me here as well:  https://flccc.net/courses/whole-body-health-with-dr-saleeby/

Saturday, February 13, 2016

How to get High Quality Dietary Supplements.... (access only patients of some physicians can get)

In early January 2016, FRONTLINE the PBS investigative reporting program had a program on how bad the dietary supplement industry was.  Because it is an unregulated multi-billion dollar a year industry, and because of legislation back in 1996, the FDA has no authority to demand quality and effective supplements.  This FDA-hands-off issue has lead to the fact that the buyer-beware.  No telling what is out there and if it is effective or even safe.

The Canadian study of a couple of years ago revealed that with DNA testing many of the over-the-counter supplements were just not offering what was on the label.  The attorney general's office of the state of New York followed up a year later with their own investigation and made some big box and chain supplement stores pull their products off the shelf.

How to solve this problem.  Well active patients at our practice are allowed access to high-quality, self-regulated GMP companies that adhere to a much higher standard and have their products independently laboratory tested for quality analysis.  One particular distributor requires this of every brand-name they carry.  Only caveat here is that access to this distributor is limited to healthcare providers.  This makes it impossible for the general public to get direct access.

You should have access to the best products.

For a limited time Priority Health will grant access to non-patients following a one-time (lifetime) membership fee of $10.

What you will get:


  • Access to a national distributor that screens all formulary companies with independent laboratory analysis of their products.
  • Drop Shipping (free with larger orders) right to your door.
  • Access to a wide variety and hundreds of products (dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, homeopathic preparations and essential oils) from dozens of manufacturers.
  • 15% Discounts on all Dietary Supplements ordered.
  • Bulletins and Health Updates from Priority Health (quarterly)
  • Access to well written articles and PowerPoint presentations on a variety of health topics (archived in your password protected Internet portal)
  • 10% discount on doctorate level provider (ND) health and lifestyle coach telehealth consultation for the year 2016.



Inquires/sign-up please email:  Dr.Saleeby@carolinaholisticmedicine.com


For more on Frontline and the Dietary Supplement Industry click on this link.


Saturday, February 6, 2016

Orlando, Palm Bay, Vero Beach, Tampa, Ft Myers... are new markets for Priority Health's brand of Functional and Integrative Medicine

Launching this week.... Priority Health will set up services to bring its brand of Functional Medicine to the Orlando Florida and surrounding area of Central Florida and the Space Coast.  

The mission is to provide Preventive and Predictive Medical testing with follow up high-level counseling and education at a very affordable cost to the healthcare consumer.  Additionally it will be made very convenient in a house- or office- call platform.  Ideal with those who are very busy, cannot break away for a doctor's visit easily or who have limited mobility.






More to follow, but visit and LIKE US at: https://www.facebook.com/CentralFloridaHolisticMedicine


areas around Orlando, Palm Bay, Vero Beach, Melbourne, Tampa and Ft. Myers are all included in our service area.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Test your Thyroid levels at home

Recent technological advances make it possible to check more advanced thyroid laboratory tests:

Besides the common TSH  these home kits offer free-T3 and free-T4 as well as TPO antibody titer levels.  They can be purchased nationally via online e-commerce health site Zimetry.  No need for a prescription, no need for a doctor's visit.  Simple and cost effective for those monitoring their thyroid hormone health.

https://www.zimetry.com/thyroid-profile


Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Sad state of affairs for some MDs who get reported to medical boards. Some good practitioners go thru HELL and lose their license. Easy for BigPharma and Insurance companies to file a complaint to get good doctors out of practice. Happens time and again.

The Black Cloud of a Medical Board Investigation

Leigh Page
|December 23, 2015

Doctors' Worst Nightmare: A Complaint Filed With the Medical Board

When a complaint has been filed against a doctor at the state medical board, it can sometimes be the beginning of a long nightmare. Often, physicians initially aren't told much about the complaint, and even if they think the charges are overblown, they may plead guilty because they fear worse consequences if they insist on a full hearing. But doctors then end up with a black mark on their record, which can lead to more adverse actions.
It sounds like something out of The Trial, the novel by Franz Kafka, which begins this way: "Someone must have falsely accused Josef K., for he was arrested one morning, even though he had done nothing wrong." Josef K. is unable to find out the details of his case. He is never jailed, but having to wait for the decision to come down is punishment in itself—slowly wearing him down and making it hard to focus on work.
To be sure, there are distinct differences between Josef K.'s experience and what doctors go through with a complaint. Kafka's story, like an actual nightmare, gets increasingly surreal, and it ends in murder. A medical board action, on the other hand, follows a clearly laid-out set of rules.
And physicians who are prepared are then able to fight the situation, protect themselves, and take steps to make sure the situation turns out better than it potentially could have. Physicians can hire attorneys to help them at every step of the way, and the vast majority of complaints are dismissed with no action taken against them.
However, a small percentage of complaint investigations can get quite aggressive, according to attorneys who represent physicians in board cases. Over the course of the investigation, the allegation against the physician can completely change, and in some cases, the board can summarily remove the doctor's license without a hearing. The board's final decision has ripple effects, such as a permanent mark on their records, loss of hospital privileges, and potentially being dropped by health insurance carriers.
The attorneys say that bad investigations vary widely, depending on the state and even the individual board members who are involved. But the fact is that all boards have a great deal of potential power over physicians, and their actions can ruin careers. Boards can subpoena records, suspend licenses without a hearing, pressure doctors to sign self-incriminating settlement agreements, and withhold certain information at the hearing.

Legislator Investigates 'Overzealous' Board

Doctors who have gone through the board process often don't want to talk about it publicly, but they have been talking to Michael W. Chippendale, a Republican in the Rhode Island House of Representatives who is chairman of a state commission investigating Rhode Island's medical board.
Chippendale's concerns about the board began more than a year ago, when he showed up at his gastroenterologist's office for a colonoscopy, and the office was closed. He learned that all three doctors were forced to stop work for a week, owing to a complaint filed against one of them. He won’t reveal the details of the complaint, but it "didn’t even have to do with practicing medicine," he says. "It was more of a personal accusation." Chippendale says the police had looked into it and dismissed it within 24 hours because it was "outlandish."
He says the board initially suspended the doctor's license and then reinstated it with restrictions. The doctor is not allowed to perform procedures, which are an essential part of his work. But the investigation still hasn't been closed. The legislator says the physician has undergone three board-ordered psychiatric evaluations and now it wants a fourth one, but he has refused to take it. "His attorney's position has been that the board was sending him to forensic psychiatrists until they got the answer they wanted," Chippendale says, adding that the doctor has started a civil action against the person who filed the complaint.
The Rhode Island board, like all boards, is prevented by law from discussing specific cases, and it has said little about Chippendale's investigation. A statement[1] by a spokesman for the board, provided in October to the Providence Journal, said simply, "We look forward to providing whatever data or other information that the legislative commission needs as it looks at the discipline process."
Chippendale's commission, authorized by the legislature, is starting to hold hearings. After he released a press release on the commission, "I got a deluge of phone calls and emails from doctors," the legislator says. "They're still coming out and letting me know their stories." He says it's beginning to appear that perhaps the board has been "overzealous." He thinks it has become a quality-of-care issue, because intense investigations divert physicians from their work.
"There is this universal and overwhelming fear doctors have toward the board," Chippendale says. "It's the kind of fear that a 4-year-old has about the bogeyman in the closet. At first it seemed irrational to me, but I think I understand it now."

More Dangerous Than Malpractice Lawsuits

Doctors are often more fearful of malpractice lawsuit than a complaint to the medical board, but in fact, a complaint to the board is more common and potentially more dangerous than a malpractice filing, according to William Sullivan, DO, an emergency physician and attorney in suburban Chicago who has represented physicians charged by the Illinois board.
Complaints are omnipresent. According to a 2009 report[2] about the California board, 1 of every 8 physicians in the state was being reported to the board each year. About one quarter of complaints to the board were investigated, and about one quarter of investigated complaints led to disciplinary proceedings against the physician, the report added. Adverse actions by medical boards are reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB), and their number is almost four times greater than the number of malpractice payouts that are reported, Sullivan says.

It’s Easy for People to File Complaints

Unlike malpractice claims, board complaints don't require an injury to take place and they're simple to file. The complainant just has to fill out a form and send it in.
Moreover, many states have begun allowing people to submit complaints online, further boosting the number. For example, the Oklahoma board began allowing online filings in January 2013. In the 2 years after the change, the number of complaints was 40% higher than in the 2 years beforehand, according to figures provided by an Oklahoma board official.
Making it easier to file has made complaints less reliable, according to Jeffrey Lane, who worked for 31 years as an investigator at the Georgia board and now is a consultant at the Atlanta law firm of Allen, McCain & O'Mahony. Medical board investigators triage each complaint the board receives. With online access, "patients can just fire up the computer and send in complaints that don't meet the board criteria." Examples include unhelpful staff or having to wait 3 hours to see the doctor, he says.
Whereas filing a complaint gets easier, filing a malpractice lawsuit still remains challenging. The patient has to find a plaintiff's attorney who agrees to take the case and spend money gathering evidence and hiring expert witnesses to make a case, Dr Sullivan says.
In contrast, people who file complaints won't get any money for "winning" the case, but the board will do the investigating for them. Dr Sullivan reports that some complaints actually start as malpractice cases. For example, when he requested records to answer a complaint, he noticed that several plaintiff's attorneys had asked for the same files.
There are other differences between a complaint and a malpractice case. In such states as Georgia and Maryland, complaints can still be filed anonymously. Many states have stopped accepting anonymous complaints, but even these states withhold the complainant's identity from the physician at least until the hearing stage.
Of course, a physician will know which patient filed a complaint when the board subpoenas the patient's records. But when a pharmacist, nurse, or another healthcare worker files a complaint, the physician may not know who it is. And in any case, physicians won't be able to confront the complainant unless the case goes to a hearing, and that may never take place because physicians often settle the charge in a so-called "informal conference" with board officials.
Another difference from malpractice cases is that a complaint can morph into a totally new charge. When the board subpoenas the medical records, investigators may decide they have no evidence to support the original complaint. But in the documents, "they may find some other potential violation and open an investigation on that," says Andre D'Souza, an attorney at Leichter Law Firm in Austin, Texas. The new charge might be sloppy record-keeping or failure to obtain informed consent from the patient. "There are no statutory limits on this power, which potentially leaves it open to abuse," D'Souza says.
In Rhode Island, Chippendale says his commission has found instances of the board coming up with a whole new set of charges against a doctor that can bring new life to a failing case. "It appears that the board doesn't like to lose a case," he says.
Once the board determines the charges against a physician, it will announce them to the public, Even though the case has not yet reached the hearing stage, physicians will begin to feel the consequences, says Tracy Green, a Los Angeles attorney who defends physicians in board actions. The charges are announced to the public, which "puts insurance carriers and hospitals are in a difficult position," she says. They don't want to look like they are protecting physicians who might lose their licenses. So even without a hearing, "you may be dropped by certain insurance plans, and your hospital privileges may also be affected," she says.

Minor Complaints Can Snowball

Many complaints involve relatively minor issues—such as alleged rudeness, fee issues, and inadequate explanations of care—and the board usually dismisses them without opening an investigation. At the Texas board,[3] for example, 26% of complaints were dismissed without an investigation in fiscal year 2014.
But once the file is assigned to an investigator, and the investigator contacts the doctor, the situation can begin to snowball, according to Ronald W. Chapman II, an attorney in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. "When the investigator contacts them, most physicians don't realize that this could be the beginning of a long investigation, and their licenses could be on the line," he says.
Chapman says the investigator might call the doctor up and tell him there's a small matter he wants to clear up, and proposes a casual meeting at a local coffee shop. Chapman says many doctors agree to discuss everything, because they want to demonstrate that they have nothing to hide, but even statements that seem innocent could end up being used against them. The best thing to do, he says, is to decline to provide a statement and contact an attorney. "Most doctors don't realize that you don't need to say anything at all," he says.
Some boards expressly state that they don't handle complaints about rudeness, whereas others handle quite a few of them. "I get a ton of these cases," says Ryan Wozny, a Dallas lawyer who defends physicians in board matters. He adds that they can actually be harder to defend than a clinical matter. "Then you have a debate over what is rude vs what is necessary for good patient care," Wozny says. For example, a doctor asking the patient's family to leave the room so that he can conduct an examination on the patient may receive a complaint about rudeness, filed by a family member.
Some boards can be hard-nosed about minor cases, especially if the physician is uncooperative. They may take action against these physicians and post the action on their website and in press releases for the media. In 2012, the Maine board issued a press release[4] announcing that it had placed a 72-year-old neurologist on probation, on the basis of a complaint about rudeness to an adolescent patient. The neurologist "must attend classes in medical ethics, boundaries and patient communication," the board reported.
The release stated that the elderly doctor "acted in an unprofessional manner by being rude, condescending, and throwing a tissue box at a patient who was crying." But according to the release, the doctor's own version of the events was slightly different. Rather than throwing the tissue box "at" the patient, he simply admitted that he "tossed the box of tissues onto the patient’s lap." He also admitted that he "might have told the patient to stop crying in an inappropriate way and that he may have been 'emotional' in his discussion with the patient and his parent," the release said.
The board's interaction with the physician is unknown because boards don't discuss cases and the neurologist did not respond to requests for an interview. But the wording of the release suggests the physician was reluctant to admit to the charges. Also, it took more than 1 year after the complaint was filed for him to sign the consent agreement in an informal conference.
According to some attorneys, physicians can get a better deal if they push for a full hearing instead of signing a consent agreement. "The board members and attorneys attending an informal conference could be completely uninformed about the medicine," according to D'Souza, the Austin attorney. But at a formal hearing, doctors can present evidence and may have a chance to confront the complainant, which could bolster their case.
Board defense attorneys say it helps to have them present at the informal conference, because they know what the board is looking for and can often negotiate a lower penalty, or even have the charges dropped completely. Wozny, the Dallas attorney, estimates that about one fifth of the proposed sanctions are dismissed at the settlement conference with the Texas board, but almost none of them are dismissed when the doctor doesn’t have an attorney present.
However, the situation is quite different at the Michigan board. "Once a formal complaint has been authorized, it is very, very difficult to get a complaint dismissed during the informal conference," says Chapman II. To get the case dropped, "you would need to produce actual proof that you did not violate the public health code."

Major Complaints Can Prompt Immediate Loss of License

One example of a medical board's immense power is its ability to temporarily suspend doctors' licenses if the board finds that they are an "imminent threat" to public safety. This action is sometimes triggered by complaints that would make headlines, such as improper prescribing of opioids from a pharmacist or sexual offenses.
Such cases are a dilemma for boards. Waiting for a hearing would ensure that the physician hasn't been falsely charged, but during that time, the physician might be a threat if he's guilty and the board would be accused of harboring a threat to the public safety. In these cases, the board is empowered to act immediately and temporarily suspend the physician's license before the hearing can be held.
But temporarily suspensions can create some Kafkaesque experiences for innocent physicians caught in this process. D'Souza says a temporary suspension in Texas can last for years. Meanwhile, the action has already been reported to the NPDB, and it's well nigh impossible to undo the listing. However, D'Souza says temporary suspension are very rare and getting rarer. According to Texas board statistics supplied by D'Souza, 13 such cases were allowed in 2014, down from 32 in 2011. 
Chapman says the Michigan board provides for a similar action, called a "summary suspension," but the board is required to expedite a hearing. Viewing the seriousness of the charges, you might assume that the Michigan board has an open-and-shut case against these doctors. But Chapman, who has defended several of these cases, says he has always been able to overturn the suspension.

Public Pressure on Boards

State medical boards were conceived as a form of peer review wholly operated by physicians, who still serve without pay. Even a couple of decades ago, Wozny says, the Texas board was widely seen as running "a good-old-boys network" of physicians. "A physician would be privately reprimanded, and the public would never know," he says. But those cozy relationships, if they ever truly existed, have long gone.
Today, boards are increasingly seen as guardians of the public trust. Although boards are still dominated by physicians, they now have two or three nonphysician members—often attorneys involved in health law. All members are appointed by the governor, who has a political stake in a board decision that allows a suspected rogue physician to keep practicing. Such cases make headlines.
Boards are under increasing pressure to go after "bad doctors." In 1999, the consumer group Public Citizen began publishing yearly rankings that purportedly showed each board's effectiveness, based on its number of "serious actions" per 1000 physicians. The rankings[5] were based on yearly data released by the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB). The federation protested about the way in which Public Citizen was using its data, but the rankings had a powerful effect, according to Lane, the medical claims consultant who used to work for the Georgia board. He recalls that some board executives around the country lost their jobs owing to low rankings from Public Citizen.

Still Pressure on Medical Boards

In 2012, the FSMB stopped reporting state actions and the Public Citizen rankings came to a halt, but public pressure on medical boards hasn't let up. This became clear in 2013, when the Michigan board stripped the license of oncologist Farid Fata, MD, after it was shown that he had been giving chemotherapy to healthy patients so that he could bill them more. A Medscape article[6] on Dr Fata's sentencing received more than 300 comments from readers.
However, it wasn’t the board that exposed Dr Fata. He was charged by federal authorities on a tip from a whistleblower. In fact, the board had received a complaint about Dr Fata in 2010 that never led to any actions against him. The Detroit Newsreported[7] that the nurse who filed the complaint said she had never even been interviewed by the board, though state officials claimed otherwise. In any case, Fata was allowed to operate for more than 2 more years after the complaint was filed.
Chapman thinks the board has gotten tougher since the Fata debacle. "There is less benefit of the doubt than before," he says. Considering that the board was left with a considerable amount of egg on its face from the Fata case, "I don't fault the board for looking more thoroughly into complaints, but what happens is that more doctors get caught up in this increased scrutiny," he says.
That isn't the only possible fallout from the Fata case. Last year, the Michigan department that oversees the board instituted rules that allow it to overrule a disciplinary decision by the board. Basically, the department can overrule the board if it obtains agreement from the board chairman, who serves at the pleasure of the governor, that the public health and welfare would be in jeopardy if the decision was allowed to stand.
David Rogers, an attorney in Farmington Hills, Michigan, knows of no cases where this new right has been exercised yet, but thinks it's a setback for physicians. Physicians would clear themselves in a full-blown hearing, and the board would officially exonerate them, only to see the decision overruled by the department. This is not only a very Kafkaesque scenario, but Rogers says it would also violate a physician's right to due process.

Conclusion

What is happening in Michigan, however, may be running against the general trend around the country. In the past, state legislators often spearheaded efforts to make physicians more accountable to the public, but now some lawmakers are pressuring boards to be more accountable to doctors.
In addition to Chippendale in Rhode Island, Rep Richard Morrissette, a Democrat in the Oklahoma legislature, is investigating his state board. In January, he held hearings on the board's action and then introduced[8] legislation that would limit its powers. "Long overdue, the people and physicians of the state now will have faith in a system that oversees doctors’ behavior which is fair and important," Morrissette said of his bill.
Both the number of complaints and actions taken by boards seems to be subsiding in some states. The 2014 report by the Texas Medical Board showed that the number of complaints filed with the board had fallen 17% after reaching a peak of 8182 in 2009. And the FSMB reported[9] that the number of adverse actions by boards nationwide reached a peak of 4560 in 2009 and has been declining up to 2012, the last reported year.
But even though the numbers are down a little, board actions can still be a nightmare for the small number of physicians who get caught up in them. "Going through the process can be quite stressful, and there aren't a lot of resources for physicians who go through this," Dr Sullivan says. "Many doctors just internalize their feelings." A recent British study[10] of physicians who had complaints filed against them found they experienced unusually high rates of serious depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
Sullivan added that it's hard for the public to understand what physicians go through. "It's not the same as getting fired," he says. "If you get fired, you can always get another job, and no one may know what happened. But an adverse action by a medical board follows you wherever you go."

References

  1. Salit R. R.I. legislative commission to investigate doctors' complaints of medical licensing board. Providence Journal. October 6, 2015. http://www.providencejournal.com/article/20151006/NEWS/151009555 Accessed November 2, 2015.
  2. Douglas JB, Osinoff P. What to do when the medical board comes knocking—an overview of licensing board procedures. Martindale. July 1, 2009. http://www.martindale.com/health-care-law/article_Bonne-Bridges-Mueller-OKeefe-Nichols_734038.htm Accessed November 2, 2015.
  3. Texas Medical Board. Texas Medical Board statistics, fiscal years 2005-2014. December 12, 2014.http://www.tmb.state.tx.us/dl/C8FA28C1-3B5F-7975-6B9A-AC550003AB34 Accessed November 2, 2015.
  4. Public Citizen. Ranking of state medical boards’ serious disciplinary actions: 2006-2008. April 20, 2009.http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=594 Accessed November 2, 2015.
  5. Maine Board of Licensure in Medicine. Portland neurologist warned and placed on probation. February 14, 2012.http://www.maine.gov/md/discipline/releases.html?id=352267 Accessed Nov. 2 2015.
  6. Lowes R. Physician who gave unneeded chemo gets 45 years in prison. Medscape Medical News. July 10, 2015.http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/847791 Accessed November 2, 2015.
  7. Berman L. One nurse's gutsy effort to protect patients. Detroit News. February 6, 2015.http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/columnists/laura-berman/2015/02/05/berman-gutsy-nurse-whistle-blower/22964301/ Accessed November 2, 2015.
  8. Oklahoma House of Representative. HB1412 passes committee to improve the Oklahoma Medical Licensure & Supervision Board. February 18, 2015. http://okhouse.gov/Media/PrintStory.aspx?NewsID=4996 Accessed Nov. 2 2015
  9. Federation of State Medical Boards. US medical regulatory trends and actions. May 2014.https://www.fsmb.org/Media/Default/PDF/FSMB/Publications/us_medical_regulatory_trends_actions.pdf Accessed November 2, 2015.
  10. Bourne T, Wynants L, Peters M, et al. The impact of complaints procedures on the welfare, health and clinical practise of 7926 doctors in the UK: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ Open. 2015;5:e006687.http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/1/e006687 Accessed November 2, 2015.
 

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Telomere, Telomerase & Telomere Length Testing without blood draw

The telomere length is the measurement of the end caps on each chromosome that has been correlated to your longevity.  This is measured as an average of several cell's chromosomes and the mean telomere length (TL).  This can be done via blood sample as seen in some very expensive testing labs, but recent developments in cutting edge biotechnology and lab science has made the measurement accurate with the use of a buccal swab (sample of cells from inside your cheek).  This can be done without having to draw blood from your vein.


https://www.zimetry.com/telomere-length-test-kit-saliva-sample-collection


You can measure your TL with a HOME TEST KIT.  And all for far less... $99 for this test kit from Zimetry.  It is recommended obtaining a baseline measurement and then reassessing every 6 to 12-months to see if any interventions help in lengthening your telomeres.  The longer your telomeres the longer your estimated life expectancy.  For more on TL read:  TL Article by Dr. Saleeby

image of the telomere at end of chromasome

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Hefty Price Tag on Viral Hep C "Cure".... do you have $85K?

FDA approves new hepatitis C combination treatment.


The Wall Street Journal (12/19, Loftus, Subscription Publication) reported that the FDA approved AbbVie Inc.’s new treatment for hepatitis C, called Viekira Pak, after clinical trials showed that more than 90% of people with the most common subtype of hepatitis C in the US, Genotype 1, were cured. Viekira Pak consists of three new medicines, paritaprevir, ombitasvir and dasabuvir, in addition to one older drug, ritonavir. The treatment regimen will reportedly cost $83,319 per patient for the standard 12-week treatment, which is below the price tags on either of Gilead Science Inc.’s hepatitis C treatments: Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) or Harvoni (ledipasvir and sofosbuvir), costing $84,000 and $94,500, respectively.

============


Hi-Dose Vitamin C IV infusions at about $100/infusion which has fewer side effects and likely better efficacy is a bargain price.  Twice weekly IV VIt C infusions for a few months w/ Liposomal on days not infused....  Human clinical case reports show cure (Dr. T. Levy reports in his book "Primal Panacea")... for more visit www.PHC365.com 

Source:  From AMA Morning Rounds...

Friday, December 19, 2014

Plaques Tangles Amyloid Inflammation Biomarkers Dementia Alzheimers


Proven ways to detect and assess your risk for cognitive decline, dementia and Alzheimer's Disease.

Proven ways to treat to prevent PRIOR to developing amyloid plaques and tangles.  A drug free approach with proven human published studies.
1.  Get yourself tested
           - ApoE 4-allele assessment
           - Methylation Pathway (MTHFR phenotype 
                + Methylation Pathway assessment

2.  Inflammatory Marker assessment (at least 5)

3.  Tx with customized Free-Radical Scavengers
           - Antioxidants
           - Research Proven Agents (those with greatest bio-availability)

4.  Get started early, by the time you are forgetting about this article it is too late.  AD can be prevented, but cannot be reversed.

We come to YOU!  www.PHC365.com

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Dr. Saleeby's MUST READ LIST...

Click on this Link to take you to Amazon.com and you can order and have shipped the following:

Dr. Saleeby's  "Wonder Herbs: A guide to three adaptogens."  (2016).

"Stop the Thyroid Madness, II"  where Dr. Saleeby authored Chapter 3 on NDT  (2014).

Dr. Barry Sear's "A week in the Zone"... helpful anti-inflammatory dietary recommendations, eliminate diabetes, reduce weight, live healthy.

Dr. Michael Ozner's book:  "Heart Attack Proof".

Pam McDonald's book on Apo E.

Dr. Horowitz's book on Chronic Illness and Lyme Dz. (2013)

Dr. Thomas Levy's "Primal Panacea" (2012)

and others.....


     

Saturday, November 1, 2014

Priority Health + HealthWave = GREAT Patient Care.

Priority Health now on board with HealthWave, to help patients with ease of checkout and order the very best supplements/products that Dr. Saleeby and Richardson prescribe.

 Link to HealthWave


Friday, October 31, 2014

House Calls available in parts of SC and NC... Chronic Disease Patients do not have to suffer.


Innovative Medicine: A Patient's Journey with Lyme Disease from Innovative Medicine on Vimeo.

Do you have Chronic Illness that seems to evade routine traditional healthcare paradigms?  Have you been to multiple specialists without definitive answers and placed on one drug after another that seems to just mask your symptoms?  

Maybe it is time to jump ship and turn towards another "way" or "model" that utilizes better diagnostics and therapies.  This video demonstrates one case, a man suffering from Lyme disease, and the therapy that changed the life of one person tremendously.  For more info on our practice visit: www.PriorityHealthSC.com.  We can even come to you in SC and NC.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

ThumbTack... web presence.

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Lyme Disease, co-infections such as babesia, ehrlichia and bartonella should not be ignored.




Recently attended the 2014 ILADS Lyme Conference in Washington DC in October.

Armed with new knowledge and training in the Dx and Tx of Lyme and associated co-infections with additional training to come via ILADS programs, I will be evaluating folks for Borellia infections (Bb) and co-infections like  BABESIA · EHRLICHIA · BARTONELLA.

For more info call 800.965.8482
member of ILADS

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Free Health and Wellness Webinar

 Register today for this Free Webinar



A FREE Evolution of Medicine ONLINE summit. This may be of interest to many of my patients. Use the link below to register:

Monday, September 1, 2014

NC Medical Board watches out for its people...

“For the benefit and protection of the people of North Carolina…”

Newsletter: Forum, No. 3 2014
Categories: President's Message,

Image for “For the benefit and protection of the people of North Carolina…”As you know, the Medical Board’s mission is to protect the public. One of the most important ways it does this is by intervening to protect unsuspecting patients from treatments that are outside accepted standards of care and, at times, risky.

This may not sound controversial, but it can quickly become so when we delve into specifics. In this article, I will give you my personal take on how the Board attempts to balance challenging and sometimes competing interests when considering cases that involve nonstandard treatments.

Medicine by its nature is constantly evolving and new treatments and modalities are developed on an almost daily basis. The best of these are hailed as innovations that extend and improve life – and some even live up to their promise. The worst are eventually denounced as snake oil that, at best, empty patients’ pockets while filling them with false hopes and, at worst, harm or kill them.

Often, though, things are not so black and white. Some cases the Board reviews involve treatments that are apparently without scientific basis, yet relatively benign and, at times, anecdotally effective. When reviewing these situations, Board Members must ask this important and difficult question: When should the Board interfere with a patient’s freedom to choose in order to protect them from financial exploitation or false hope when the potential for harm is low?

The HCG example
In 2013, the Policy Committee of the Board amended its position statement entitled, “The treatment of obesity,” to indicate that the Board does not consider human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) to be an appropriate treatment for obesity. The decision, which the full Board approved, was based on two main factors: 1. The Board’s belief that there is no proven scientific basis for the treatment of obesity with HCG and 2. Some evidence of risks associated with the therapy.

Months after the amended position statement was approved, the Board reviewed a complaint regarding a licensee who prescribed HCG for weight loss. This prompted a reexamination of information about the treatment. And while nothing changed the Board’s view of the efficacy of this treatment, upon further review of the risks, the Board concluded that the potential for patient harm is not as significant as initially perceived. The Board voted to strike the language referring to using HCG for weight loss as inappropriate from the Board position statement.

It’s somewhat unusual for the Board to reverse course on an issue in such a relatively short period of time. But the case of HCG is an excellent example of the type of issue the Board is required to make decisions about on a regular basis.

Should patients be free to consent to treatments that we, as trained medical professionals, find to be entirely without scientific basis? Should patients and their medical providers have total freedom to decide what treatments are used? Or are some controls acceptable? For example, should the Board give its blessing for providers to give patients their treatments of choice as long as they are adequately informed that the care falls outside of accepted standards? How does risk factor into the Board’s obligation to protect? How much risk is acceptable for the patient to assume?

Treatment cost is yet another consideration. Current law gives the Board the authority to protect patients from financial exploitation by licensees. A review of cases over the years provides numerous examples of situations where the Board has stopped licensees from benefiting from the aggressive marketing of costly therapies of unproven clinical value. Should the Board always step in to protect patients’ pocketbooks? Only when large sums of money change hands? Only when there is no informed consent or there is a vulnerable patient?

The issues the Board considers go well beyond whether a particular weight loss treatment safely melts pounds. The Board has made difficult decisions in cases involving nonstandard treatments in the fields of oncology, infectious disease and mental health, just to name a few.

These decisions are never made lightly or easily. And, the Board is rarely of one mind at the outset of these discussions. At times, some Board members are strongly motivated to act to protect patients not only from physical harm or financial exploitation but also from the false hopes promised by a treatment in which the Board has no confidence. Others on the Board are inclined to stay out of such situations, provided the threat of patient harm is minimal. Regardless of Board members’ individual views, the NCMB employs the same objective framework when evaluating these difficult cases. At minimum, the Board weighs the following factors:

1. Does it work? In evaluating any case that involves clinical medicine, the Board considers accepted and prevailing standards of care and, in the specific instance of care that is experimental or otherwise unestablished, available evidence that demonstrates the treatment’s safety and efficacy. The Board acknowledges that many, many treatments and modalities are used successfully and on a routine basis without the benefit of placebo controlled double blind clinical trials. That said, we look to published research and authoritative consensus statements when considering any therapy.

2. What are the risks? All medical care, at the end of the day, is a balance between the potential benefits and the recognized risks. When considering the appropriateness of any treatment under review, the Board always considers known risks to the patient as well as information regarding potential benefits and clinical efficacy.

3. Is the cost exploitive? The cost of treatments under review is often an important consideration, particularly in situations where care may be outside accepted standards and/or those where care is not covered by medical insurance. In the past, the Board has taken action to intervene when it determines that licensees have exploited patients financially by recommending costly treatments that either don’t conform to the standard of care or have been used in an overaggressive manner.

4. Is the patient informed? As part of its review of any case involving experimental or nonstandard treatments, the Board carefully examines the licensee’s process for obtaining informed consent from patients. It is the Board’s position that any patient who is considering a nonstandard treatment should be clearly and thoroughly informed that the treatment falls outside of the norm well in advance of making a final decision. The licensee should clearly explain all potential benefits and all recognized risks of treatment. In numerous cases the Board has reviewed, the Board has permitted licensees to continue offering nonstandard therapies as long as a robust informed consent process is in place – especially when the nonstandard therapy is used in combination with other established treatments.

These factors provide a solid framework for evaluating and making decisions in cases that involve new and nonstandard treatments that come to the Board’s attention. These cases are rarely easy, and I don’t see that changing. Options for complementary and alternative therapies abound and Internet access plus the general tendency and expectation for patients to take greater command of their health keeps patient demand for these treatments soaring. Add to this the economic realities of medicine, which motivate licensees to provide treatments that are in demand and, often, more lucrative than established therapies since they are usually not covered by health insurance. These factors, along with innovation in medicine, will keep the Board busy well into the future.

Now, I’d like to hear what you think. How far does the Board’s obligation to protect the public from nonstandard treatments and modalities extend?

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comment:  Very nice article.  The board needs to remain both an advocate for NC patients AND physicians.  Often times non-EBM treatments are prescribed and non-FDA approved drugs used to treat patients as part of Standard Practice Guidelines.  The influences of some BigPharma, Governmental and Insurance Industry pressures make delivery of affordable and good healthcare difficult.  While I understand the boards mandate to protect the citizens, I feel very strongly it should also protect the physician's delivering needed healthcare services to those citizens.  Respectfully,   JP Saleeby, MD

Saturday, August 16, 2014

Tumeric to your health!

Turmeric


by Yusuf M. Saleeby, MD
(to be published in upcoming American Fitness magazine)




Turmeric is a rather popular herbal these days for its touted reputation at knocking down inflammation.  We know that inflammation is a major player in everything from heart disease to stroke to cancer.  Controlling inflammation for those with high levels, will yield improvements in their quality of life.  When we think inflammation we often think of painful joints, but inflammation goes way beyond these observable and overt symptoms.  Inflammation (the silent type) has been implicated in heart disease, cancer, dementia (Alzheimer’s disease), diabetes and many other disorders.  Treating inflammation naturally with turmeric makes a lot of sense.  There is evidence abound that this natural and relatively safe therapy works.

Turmeric is produced from the rhizamatous herbal Curcuma longa.  This plant belongs to the ginger family of plants called Zingiberaceae.  There are some 124 species of Curcuma, many used medicinally.  Curcuma zedoaria which is the Javanese white turmeric root while having medicinal properties of its own, should not be confused with the C. longa species that we are considering and discussing here.  So pick and choose your turmeric wisely.  Not only the plant, genus and species, but also the processing and preparation to obtain a high quality, bioavailable, final product achieving highest medicinal value must be considered.
In the 13th chapter of the book Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects. 2nd Edition, Sahdeo Prasad and Bharat Aggarwal discuss the history of the medicinal and culinary use of turmeric dating back some 4000-years.  Some three-thousand articles appear in scientific publications over the past 25-years discussing the use of turmeric as a therapeutic in both animal and human studies.  While this short article hits some of the highlights, this book has one of the best and in-depth look at turmeric and curcumin that I have found and is quite heavily referenced for credibility. 1,2,3

HISTORY & RESEARCH:
In Ayurvedic medicine turmeric is well established for treating a variety of conditions from respiratory to liver disorders, from rheumatism to diabetic wounds.  In traditional Chinese medicine this herbal was used to treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. 1,2
 There are studies in the peer-reviewed scientific literature since at least 1985 showing benefit in cancer prevention, as an antioxidant, anti-mutagen, reducer of inflammation, having anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties.  In vivo human trials also conducted in the mid-1980’s until the present showed positive effects of turmeric against cancer, as an anti-cytotoxic agent, and an agent that protects liver cells (hepatocites).  Other studies show its ability to reduce cataracts and showing properties of reduction in serum glucose in diabetics.4,5   Other studies showed neuroprotection, improved healing in wounds and ulcers, as an adjuvant arthritis treatment.  There are even reports of positive effects in atherosclerosis and lipid oxidation reduction.5   A Chinese journal even reports positive effects in respiratory disorders and asthma.6
Turmeric is traditionally prescribed for upset stomach (dyspepsia) at about 500 mg four times daily.  As an anti-inflammatory for osteoarthritis (OA) the dose is usually different.  One study used a specific product called Meriva, (www.phytosomes.info/public/meriva.asp) for a study on arthritis.7 

Those suffering from rheumatoid arthritis (RA) have a slightly different maintenance dose.  A published report utilized a specific formulation of the turmeric constituent, curcumin (BCM-95®, www.bcm95.com).  This proprietary preparation of turmeric is apparently seven-times more bioavailable than the usual commercially available turmeric compounds.8   A 2014 article published on the use of turmeric in a head to head study against a traditional NSAID (ibuprophen/ Motrin®) showed equal or even better reductions in pain and inflammation and lower incidents of adverse events with turmeric.9
Not only the dose, but the preparation is often important with regard to disease and severity of symptoms.10

PRECAUTIONS:
A few precautions should be mentioned with regard to this spice.  When Turmeric is consumed in the lower doses associated with food consumption it is relatively safe.  However, when used medicinally, larger doses are prescribed and needed to achieve a therapeutic effect.  Supplements contain up to 500 mg per tablet or capsule in general and are prescribed to be taken up to four times a day.  That is around 2000 mg as a therapeutic dose.  Doses this high have the ability to lower blood glucose and blood pressure.11,12  So those on diabetic and BP meds must be careful. 
Turmeric also thins the blood and can cause excessive bleeding when paired with other herbals or drugs with similar properties.  Caution should also be taken with certain medications that can alter a person’s liver metabolism.  Co-administration with agents such as aspirin, warfarin (Coumadin®), non-steroidals and anti-platelet drugs should warrant careful observation and monitoring.  Additionally, herbals such as angelica, clove, Danshen, garlic, ginger and Ginkgo biloba, ginseng and willow root can cause bruising and bleeding.  A National Institute of Health web site reports concerns of turmeric use and gallbladder disease.  Gallstones and bile duct obstruction with turmeric use can worsen.13,14   In pregnancy, turmeric can promote uterine bleeding, so it is not advised in the pregnant and nursing mothers.15

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS:
Turmeric contains over 100 components after intense phytochemical analysis by researchers, but the main root extracts of interest are the volatile oils containing turmerone and the coloring agents called curcuminoids.  Volatile oils include d-α-phellandrene, d-sabinene, cinol, borneol, zingiberene, and sesquiterpenes.  Curcuminoids consist of demethoxycurcumin, 5’-methoxycurcumin and dihydrocurcumin, all being natural antioxidants and possessing potent pharmacological properties.  Turmeric happens to be a good source of the omega-3 fatty acid and αlpha-linolenic acid, both sharing anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties and useful in maintaining health.  Some components are beneficial at enhancing the immune system, while others essentially kill cancer cells.16,17,18

PREPARATION:
Before turmeric can be used the rhizomes must be processed.  Whether for medicinal use or as a culinary spice, the hard rhizomes are first boiled or steamed in an alkaline environment.  Traditionally, in India the process involved earthenware filled with water and the rhizomes and covered with leaves and a layer of cow dung.  The ammonia in the cow dung reacts with the turmeric to produce the final product.  For obvious hygienic reasons this method today is discouraged, in place of the manure, sodium bicarbonate is used to achieve about a 0.1% alkaline water solution.  Boiling lasts between 40-minutes to 6 hours depending on the region and method of preparation.  Once in a powder form the coloration remains indefinitely, but the flavor and medicinal potency diminishes with time and sun exposure.1

MEDICINAL USES:
The beneficial effects of turmeric over a 4000-year history were historically achieved through simple dietary intake with food consumption.  Health benefits were realized even at low doses, over protracted periods of time.  The activities and used in medicine of the golden spice turmeric include antibacterial and antiviral activity, anti-inflammatory, antitumor and antioxidant properties, and for many years in regional traditional medicine it saw heavy use as a digestive system aid.2,3   Turmeric has been shown to exhibit antiseptic properties, cardioprotective, hepatoprotective and nephroprotective effects in contemporary research studies.19  Some believe it to impart radioprotective protections as well.20

In closing, the ubiquitous golden-yellow spice found throughout India in curried dishes has proven itself quite a safe and useful medicinal herbal.  When used correctly in the proper form and dose, it can impart healing properties on a wide range of human disorders.

-----
Yusuf M. Saleeby, MD is an integrative age management physician.  He has authored a book on Adaptogen Herbs and most recently a chapter in a 2014 publication on Hypothyroidism.  He is a regular contributor to American Fitness magazine.  He exhausts gentle integrative treatment modalities before the consideration of pharmaceuticals in his clinical practice.  For more information visit www.saleeby.net.






Turmeric is helpful in:

Ø  Reducing inflammation and pain in arthritis conditions.  A clear winner in a recent clinical trial going up against Motrin®.9

Ø  Reducing pain and inflammation in Rheumatoid Arthritis.21


Ø  Reduces the risk and occurrence of dementia (Alzheimer’s Disease).  New studies demonstrate a very useful therapy in preventing neurodegenerative disease.12,22

Ø  Reducing cataracts in diabetics.23


Ø  Reducing serum glucose levels in those with insulin resistance and diabetes.24

Ø  Reducing blood pressure in those with elevated BP (hypertension).25

Ø  Improvement in erectile function (ED) in men.  More effective and safer than Viagra®.26












 








©2014



References:

1.       Prasad S, Aggarwal BB. Turmeric, the Golden Spice: From Traditional Medicine to Modern Medicine. In: Benzie IFF, Wachtel-Galor S, editors. Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects. 2nd edition. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press; 2011.

2.       Krishnaswamy K. Traditional Indian spices and their health significance. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2008;17 Suppl 1:265-8.

3.       Pari L, Tewas D, Eckel J. Role of curcumin in health and disease. Arch Physiol Biochem.2008;114(2):127-49.

4.       Miyakoshi M, Yamaguchi Y, Takagaki R. et al. Hepatoprotective effect of sesquiterpenes in turmeric. Biofactors. 2004;21:167–70.

5.       Araújo CC, Leon LL. Biological activities of Curcuma longa L., Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz. 2001 Jul;96(5):723-8.

6.       Li C, Li L, Luo J, Huang N. [Effect of turmeric volatile oil on the respiratory tract]. Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 1998 Oct;23(10):624-5.

7.   Belcaro G, Cesarone MR, Dugall M, et al. Efficacy and safety of Meriva, a curcumin-phosphatidylcholine complex, during extended administration in osteoarthritis patients. Alt Med Rev, 2010:15:337-4.

8.       Antony B, Merina B, Iyer V S, Judy N, Lennertz K, Joyal S. A pilot cross-over study to evaluate human oral bioavailability of BCM-95® CG (BiocurcumaxTM), a novel bioenhanced preparation of curcumin . Indian J Pharm Sci, 2008;70:445-9.

9.       Kuptniratsaikul V, Dajpratham P, Taechaarpornkul W, Buntragulpoontawee M, Lukkanapichonchut P, Chootip C, Saengsuwan J, Tantayakom K, Laongpech S. Efficacy and safety of Curcuma domestica extracts compared with ibuprofen in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a multicenter study. Clin Interv Aging. 2014 Mar 20;9:451-8.

10.   Jäger R, Lowery RP, Calvanese AV, Joy JM, Purpura M, Wilson JM. Comparative absorption of curcumin formulations. Nutr J., 2014 Jan 24;13:11.

11.   Chuengsamarn S, Rattanamongkolgul S, Luechapudiporn R, Phisalaphong C, Jirawatnotai S. Curcumin extract for prevention of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2012 Nov;35(11):2121-7.

12.   Ringman JM, Frautschy SA, Cole GM, Masterman DL, Cummings JL. A potential role of the curry spice curcumin in Alzheimer's disease. Curr Alzheimer Res., 2005 Apr;2(2):131-6.

13.   Rasyid A, Rahman AR, Jaalam K, Lelo A. Effect of different curcumin dosages on human gall bladder. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr., 2002;11(4):314-8.

14.   National Institutes of Health MedlinePlus:  Turmeric. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/662.html (accessed 8/22/2014)

15.   Turmeric. University of Maryland’s Medical Reference Guide.  http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/herb/turmeric (accessed 8/22/2014)

16.   Ruby A. J, Kuttan G, Babu K. D, Rajasekharan K. N, Kuttan R. Anti-tumour and antioxidant activity of natural curcuminoids. Cancer Lett., 1995;94:79–83.

17.   Selvam R, Subramanian L, Gayathri R, Angayarkanni N. The anti-oxidant activity of turmeric (Curcuma longa). J Ethnopharmacol., 1995;47:59–67.

18.   Ahmed Hamdi OA, Syed Abdul Rahman SN, Awang K, Abdul Wahab N, Looi CY, Thomas NF, Abd Malek SN. Cytotoxic Constituents from the Rhizomes of Curcuma zedoaria. Scientific World Journal, 2014;2014:321943.

19.   Gilani AH, Shah AJ, Ghayur MN, Majeed K. Pharmacological basis for the use of turmeric in gastrointestinal and respiratory disorders. Life Sci., 2005 May 13;76(26):3089-105.

20.   Araújo MC, Dias FL, Takahashi CS. Potentiation by turmeric and curcumin of gamma-radiation-induced chromosome aberrations in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Teratog Carcinog Mutagen. 1999;19(1):9-18.

21.   Chandran B, Goel A. A randomized, pilot study to assess the efficacy and safety of curcumin in patients with active rheumatoid arthritis. Phytother Res., 2012 Nov;26(11):1719-25.

22.   Baum L, Lam CW, Cheung SK, et al. Six-month randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, pilot clinical trial of curcumin in patients with Alzheimer disease (letter). J Clin Psychopharmacol, 2008;28:110-3.

23.   Grama CN, Suryanarayana P, Patil MA, Raghu G, Balakrishna N, Kumar MN, Reddy GB. Efficacy of biodegradable curcumin nanoparticles in delaying cataract in diabetic rat model. PLoS One. 2013 Oct 14;8(10):e78217.

24. Dong-wei Zhang, Min Fu, Si-Hua Gao, and Jun-Li Liu, Curcumin and Diabetes: A Systematic Review, Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, vol. 2013, Article ID 636053.

25.   Khajehdehi P, Zanjaninejad B, Aflaki E, Nazarinia M, Azad F, Malekmakan L, Dehghanzadeh GR. Oral supplementation of turmeric decreases proteinuria, hematuria, and systolic blood pressure in patients suffering from relapsing or refractory lupus nephritis: a randomized and placebo-controlled study. J Ren Nutr. 2012 Jan;22(1):50-7.

26.   Zaahkouk AM, Abdel Aziz MT, Rezq AM, Atta HM, Fouad HH, Ahmed HH, Sabry D, Yehia MH. Efficacy of a novel water-soluble curcumin derivative versus sildenafil citrate in mediating erectile function. Int J Impot Res. 2014 Aug 7.



About Me

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Charleston; Myrtle Beach, SC; Raleigh-Durham, NC; Orlando, FL, GA, NC, SC, VA, FL, United States
https://www.saleeby.net https://www.CarolinaHolisticMedicine.com medical advisory board member UK's LDN Research Trust