Thank you!

Last weekend I was thrilled and amazed to receive an honor from the local chapter of the AKA at their annual International Women's Day luncheon.
Interestingly, some of my patients think that my volunteer and teaching activities are a distraction to my practice so I really thank a patient of mine Ms. Shawn Jackson who nominated me for the award. Shawn realizes that volunteering is not only OK, it is actually necessary for professional women to give what we can to uplift our communities. I also commend the AKA for their acknowledgement that we should all use our gifts to help others and we should think globally. Women the world over look to women in the United States as role models and mentors.
It has indeed been an exciting 2 weeks for me, one weekend I am returning from Haiti where I was doing what I love: Helping people take better care of themselves and teaching and then the next weekend I am receiving an award for for it.
I think there is a need in all of us to help our fellow human and in my case volunteering fills that void. I love it! I receive so much more than I give every time.There have been times when I have been depressed at the scope of the work to be done and the smallness of my contribution but now I realize that even if you only help one person, you have made a difference.
As Livingston said:" Sympathy is not a substitute for action"

Thank you AKA for the wonderful award, I am proud and grateful to have been selected.

How old is your spine? Can it keep up?

No that's not a typo, how old ARE your bones? And can they keep up with everything that you would like to do?

This may seem like an odd question and probably not one you have asked yourself lately, however you should. In fact you should question the age of all your organs and do what you can to maintain their vitality. Many people spend a lot of time focusing on what age their face may appear to be and with modern medicine they are able to adjust that but what about their other systems?

This is the essence of what Anti-Aging or Age Management medicine is about. Figure out what damage has been done and slow it down or fix it. Figure out if you have enough of what you need nutritionally to get through the day. How do you know what your Glutathionine and Selenium levels are if you don't get them checked? What is your anti-oxidant level and why don't you care?

Time marches on and it will be harder tomorrow than it is today to repair and revive yourself, if you allow yourself to deteriorate completely it may actually become impossible. So don't wait. Lose the weight, do some form of exercise daily, exercise your brain and have a plan.

A study done at the Deaconess Medical Center in Boston showed that by the time a person is 75 they will have three of these six conditions: Frequent falling, urinary incontinence, confusion and memory loss, osteoporosis or arthritis, heart disease and depression. But this should not be looked upon as inevitable and remember with each condition comes more medication!
I read this today: You know you are old if your back goes out more than you do! What a pleasant prospect.

Anyway! Coming back to those bones, if you are over 50 or a post-menopausal women you should have a bone density scan ( along with a colonoscopy and an Anti-Aging evaluation). Remember that your bones are as strong as they will ever be at the age of 18 from then on your goal is to hang on to what you have. Weak bones can lead to misery and death as you get older.

Then again it doesn't hurt to take care of the outside AS well so I'll throw in a little plug for our February special. You can get "Botox" for as little as $50 before the end of February and $50 BACK on fillers, only through the end of the month.

Stay Young, Healthy and Happy!

The Fall Seminar

Hard to believe it will soon be time for our Spring seminar and I haven't written about the last one yet! The spring seminar will be in May this year and once an agenda is decided on it will be posted. Meanwhile for those of you who missed it, here's the 'wrap' on our Fall conference:

Our Fall Seminar was held on October 24th at Turf valley Golf Club and Resort, it was great!
We had a really good turn out, perfect weather and lots of enthusiasm. From the minute Claudia (Salomon4Nia.com) started us off by putting us through the paces of NIA there was great energy and excitement in the banquet hall.

The inital discussion was about obesity and why many diets seem to fail. We talked about the 'D'spot in the brain which controls the loss and redistribution of fat and how abnormal fat stores are kept in a vault that is difficult to access. We talked about ways to get rid of this fat and other weight control tips.

After this a doctor from the Vein Clinic talked about Fibroid embolization, Varicose viens and Venous congestion. The audience listened with great attention and had plenty of questions for the speaker.
We then got started on the subject of skin care and tips. Always be gentle with your skin even when it itches or you cant resist the urge to pick. Apply your anti-oxidant solution daily. I showed several 'before and after' pictures of skin procedures we do in the office including : removal of moles and other lesions, clearing up severe acne, melasma (dark pigmentation of the face associated with hormonal changes and pregnany)and then pictures of Botox and Fillers to prepare everyone for the afternoon demonstrations.

The morning ended with an in depth discussion of Andropause (Male menopause). Most of the men were nodding in agreement by the end of the presentation with the sudden realization that they do indeed suffer from symptoms of Andropause but had just never known what to call it.
The vendors/sponsors of the program were a great hit. People signed up for Viridian "green" electricity supply, Vitamin testing, NuSkin demonstrations, Vien assessments and Zumba.

Our afternoon program included live demonstrations of Botox and Filler and discussions of Bio-identical hormones. Some lucky participants won Obagi products and free vitamin testing.

We finished with a Zumba class!

Well, more fun is in the offing, Stay tuned! If there is any specific subject you are interested in that you would like discussed at the next seminar please let me know asap.

Meanwhile, Happy New Year and see you soon.

Return to Harvard

After 27 years I finally returned to Boston and the Harvard Medical area. Of course the area is very built up and now all the Hospitals seem to be one big collective conglomerate. In my day, Beth Israel was very distinct from the Dana Faber Institute and Deaconess but no more, where one ends the next one starts.

The T (the Boston mass transit system)is still fairly decrepid and jammed packed with people who all seem to be under 30, My Lord! I never realised when I was one of them, that 90% of the people on the T are students. I bet Boston has more students per square yard than anywhere else in the country. My husband and I felt like 'seniors'almost everywhere we went. Speaking of the T at least it now comes out to the airport negating the need for the old 2 hour sit in the tunnel.

Well, my purpose of going to Boston was to return to my old stomping ground. I find that people at Schools of Public Health are always so interesting and 'Global'. Full of ideas about how to change the World's health.

On my way in to the Alumnae event I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the chief investigator of the MRFIT trial, himself an alumnus. The MRFIT trial was one of those pivotal trials that proved that a high Cholesterol causes heart disease. That was big news back then! He smiled when I suggested I might need his autograph, I believe he was from the class of 47!
At the registration desk, I asked if anyone else from the class of '84 was there. "What did you say" one of the students asked, "2004 or 1994?" "err... that would be 1984 I responded" now feeling very flattered as they all looked incredulously at me. I was similarly astounded to hear myself, could time possibly pass that fast? I was looking at graduate students in my old school who were not even born when I was there. We were equally fascinated by each other. "Its nice to know your anti-aging program is working" joked my husband.

Later,we went to Harvard yard and bought Harvard sweatshirts, mugs and key rings. Did I feel at home? Not at all, I felt like a tourist and when I discovered that Filene's had been closed my heart sank. All these years, to tell the truth that's what I missed most about Boston, Filene's!

I am officially a Marylander, proud and happy to be back doing what I love practicing medicine! Its nice to be able to go back when you want to but nothing beats the present. I often say reliving the past only wastes the present and diminishes the future. The future is ours to live ! Stay healthy, feel great, do better!!

Aging is no fun! ( However our seminar is will be!)

Let's be honest: the other title for this blog is "keeping it real".
Why? because aging, at least physically, really is not any fun. Aging is, after all a degenerative process and that is exactly why 'Anti-Aging' is so important.

With Anti-Aging, the process is not so daunting and we retard the rate at which our body degenerates,and slow the rate at which various organ systems become problematic.

On October 23rd 2010, I will once again be giving a seminar on how to feel good and look good as you age. It is about what YOU can do to help yourself maintain and reach new heights as you get older.

The goal is to maximize all our resources both inherent and external to contnue to feel vital, energetic and sexy as the years add up, at least on paper. In short we want to widen the gap between our chronological and biological age as much as possible.

Please mark your calenders:
Date: October 23rd 2010
Place: Turf Valley Golf Resort and Conference Center, Ellicott City, MD
Time: 10 am to 4pm (break for lunch 12 to 1)
Cost: $15 before October 15 $20 after October 16th

Its going to be even more fun than the last one with a Zumba/Nia class and lots of hands on demonstrations, Get all you questions answered. Hope to see you there!

Hi from Costa Rica

Hi I am in Costa Rica for a week. My husband teaches deaf students at Galluadet and he is here to oversee a summer project at the deaf school. It is the rainy season now, the season that is referred to as winter here and rain it does, everyday!
The terrain is incredibly lush and green and I am sure these rains are partly responsible.
I thought this country would have more of a Carribean flair but it doesn't, most Costa Ricans seem to take themelves very seriously!
Here are a couple of photos, unfortunately the volcano was shrouded in clouds this morning so I dont have good shots of that but plenty of other aspects of nature.

Watch for my 'Men's Blogs' and for our fall seminar which is coming soon.
As they say in Costa Rica "Pura Vida" (pure life)!

Growth Hormone the mystery reparative hormone

The majority of my Anti-Aging patients are male but the reverse is true when it comes to Hormone Replacement. Its an observation that I find interesting, why the difference? I'm not sure.
This month I am going to focus on issues affecting Anti-Aging specifically and many of them are more male directed intentionally because I think that sometimes women's issues are overrepresented.

What is Growth Hormone exactly and why is it so popular? Growth Hormone is naturally secreted by the pituitary it affects almost every organ in the body, it is a master controller of metabolism and muscle tone.

In my opinion, Growth Hormone is a misnomer,oftened referred to as HGH (Human Growth Hormone) it was originally named because children without it didnt grow. In adults once the growth plates are closed there is no opportunity for getting taller no matter how much growth hormone a person takes.
The name gives the impresion of a substance that can cause strange things to grow like horns and cancer, it actually does not. It is in fact HGH a reparative hormone which helps the body repair damage and heal faster.

I recently had a patient whose company sent him to a leading hospital annually for an 'executive' physical. This, and the fact that he had formerly been a triathlete led him to believe that he was very healthy. After he had some arthroscopic surgery last year he became very frustrated because he could not get back to his prior level of fitness. A friend told him he needed to find an Anti-aging physician and he found me. I ran a series of tests on the patient and started him on therapy. We optimized his vitamin, and supplement levels in addition to short course of HGH.
At his 3 month follow up visit, the patient told me he was 'back to 100%'. It took less than 90 days to get him back in condition, something physical therapy and working out had not been able to achieve.
I had another patient who was 35, also an athlete and when he was offered his 5th knee surgery decided there had to be another way.
The first patient asked me an interesting question, one in fact that I couldnt answer: "Why doesnt every patient who is getting surgery get treated like this from the get go?"
I have no idea, but it seems to make sense. Why should this be 'the medicine of the future' when we have the information to help people now? Why dont more orthopedic doctors refer their patients to get 'tuned up' before undergoing the knife?
I put all the patients who come to me for a 'pre-operative' physical on a healing regimen, afterall, surgery is just self-inflicted trauma. We can anticipate the damage that will be caused and limit it.
(For more information on Growth Hormone please see my website).

Another interesting point that this case brings up is: Do you really want your preventive medical care managed in a place that is totally focused on disease? It is fine to go to the country's best hospital for 'Treatment' but the goal of Preventive Maintenance is different. Be clear about exactly what you want from your 'routine' physical exams and what your doctor's focus is. Primary prevention is the art of preventing something before it occurs, secondary prevention (for example a mammogram) is detecting a disease early enough to do something about it and then there is the third option: fixing a problem that is already entrenched.
You choose what works best for you.