Our Spring Seminar: A good time was had by all!

Hello there! We had such a great time at the seminar on Saturday, they keep getting better, and better. What a wonderful and enthusiastic crowd. They had so many great questions and were so much "into" it!
The next few blogs will be about the seminar and I will try to recap some of the information shared as I get further into it
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We started the day as usual, with some NIA, led by our expert instructor Ms. Claudia Salomon, she got the blood flowing to everyone's brain.

Next we looked at what Anti-Aging means and what an Anti-Aging program does. After this, we listened to a compounding pharmacist: Sam Georgiou talk about 'how to get your libido back'. He gave out little red cards with his 'turbo charge' formula.
I know Trader Joe's got a run on Brazil nuts and Cod Liver Oil after his talk :)! Both the male and the female participants were feverishly writing down all of Sam's tips.
I then gave a talk on what I call the Untold Truths of Hormone Replacement where we discussed the common misconceptions about what exactly Menopause and Andropause entails. I'll get more into that in another blog.
Dr Scott Buckner, an Interventional Radiologist, talked about Varicose Veins and a non surgical alternative for Fibroid treatment.
After lunch and an additional stretch with the NIA instructor we talked about .........Feet!
Watching the audience, it was clear that most people had never really given much thought to their feet however at the end everyone had a new appreciation of the two things that carry us around all day long! Everyone was planning to get their feet checked at their first opportunity. I really wished I had been a little more pro active with my feet, we really need to embrace every part of our bodies and what they do for us.
Every one loves show and tell, so I showed before and after pictures of Acne Treatment, Wrinkle Therapy with Dysport and Fillers, Obagi and skin tag removal. This was followed by a demonstration of Filler insertion on Cindy Battle and Free Dysport for everyone which was really popular.
We rounded the day off with a Zumba class.
Last but not least, I would like to throw a shout out to our sponsors for being so forward thinking as to support an Anti-Aging Seminar : The Vein Clinic, Professional Arts Pharmacy, Arbonne, Chef Tracey, and Angela Riddick, Obagi and Spectracell. What a great day! Hope to see you all at the next seminar in October. In the meanwhile, please be healthy.

Spring Seminar Agenda

Spring is here and its time for another seminar!
Our Spring Seminar will take place at Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center in Ellicott City on May 21st 2011. It starts with registration at 9.30 am and ends at 4 pm.

We will be discussing:

Anti-Aging

Hormone Balancing

Restoring the Sex drive in Women and Men

Non surgical treatment of Fibroids and Varicose Veins

Taking care of our Feet as we age

Weight loss; The HCG diet

Dysport as an alternative to Botox, Restylane and Perlane fillers

and of course:

Practice NIA and Zumba

The seminar is open to men and women of all ages, hope you can make it!

Sign up on line at this website or by phone at 410 992 0011. It is $20 in advance, imagine that for an all day program you can't beat it, and $25 at the door. Hurry, its filling up fast!

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!