Dr. David Minkoff’s Health Blog

Optimum Health Report #318

Dr. Minkoff - a doctor with tremenduous experience in treating various diseases

In This Edition:

Mandatory Flu Shots and Your Rights

We had another great success this week. It PROVES that if you are sick, or have been sick for a long time, you can get better with our program.

“I can’t say enough great things about the staff here at LifeWorks!! Everyone makes you feel good during a time when you are really down. The IV room rocks – Angel has a great style and always has a positive attitude. Wanda is patient and makes you feel welcomed. Neionie is always smiling, caring and works her butt off!! I think they all deserve a good raise. You really look forward to seeing them each day. Lisa does awesome work too even though she really messes with your diet for 25 hours. Amelia loves her work and it shows. Shawn goes above and beyond to make you feel very comfortable. Jennifer and Sue are great care givers. Dr. Minkoff is the coolest doctor I have ever met. Thank you to everyone for giving the best care and getting me well again.” Ryan. H.

You see, the right technology brings results.

If you need help like this, call our New Patient Scheduler at (727) 466-6789 and make an appointment.
I hope to see you soon.

Yours in Health,

Dr. David I Minkoff, M.D.

My LifeWorks Success Story

Dear Dr. Minkoff,

I am writing this letter for my granddaughter, Ashlee K. She was sick and every day getting more symptoms and feeling worse. She started going to doctors and getting nowhere. Test after test, countless doctors. Everything negative. They put her on a heart monitor twice, no result. They even suggested she see a head doctor because she was imagining her illness. She was angry and depressed. She said she felt like she was dying. That was very scary for the family. She was sure she had Lyme disease. She was also pregnant. We were so happy and excited. Then she lost the baby. It was horrific.

She went online and heard from other people who also went through this. Your name and your center came up more and more. She called your office and the receptionist invited her to come in and talk to patients. She had her first consultation with you. She came home very happy and amazed with her session with you. She started her treatment, vitamins and diet. She had her final consultation with you. She is now in remission and is healthier than she’s ever been. She is also 8 months pregnant with her son. We are all so happy and excited.

Thanks to you and your treatment, Ashlee is great. You are saving so many lives. You are such a blessing. You and your staff are incredible. We are eternally grateful to you. God bless you and your family always. Layla is going to be a big sister.
Yours truly,”

Rose. M (Ashlee’s Grandma)

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Jennifer Baer Hosts Free Seminar

Nurse Practitioner, Jennifer Baer, is hosting a talk about heart health this month at two different Tampa Bay venues.

The Love of the Heart

February is American Heart Month so it is time to find out about this important organ. Jennifer will describe cutting-edge tests and treatments to keep the heart in optimal shape for many Februarys to come.

Natures

When: Thursday, February 16, @ 6:30pm
Where: Nature’s Food Patch, Clearwater

Abbys

When: Thursday, February 23, @ 7:00 pm
Where: Abby’s Health & Nutrition, Tampa

The Love of the Heart: A Month of Tending to our Hearts in Many Ways.

By Jennifer Baer, ARNP

Heart happyWhen I think of February, I think of love. I think of romance. I think of hope. As we get older, the love and romance fades to the background and for some people, the health of the heart takes precedence.

According to the CDC, (Center for Disease Control), about 610,000 people die annually from Cardiovascular disease. This equates to 1 in every 4 deaths. Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease, killing 370,000 people annually.

730,000 Americans have heart attacks annually.

On a more physiological note, fluids flow through the body daily. Fluids are converted into other fluids. Cerebrospinal fluid is produced, urine is produced, reabsorption occurs, all with the central organ to keep the flow going in the body, the heart, or so some think.

The center of the circulatory system is the heart. This muscle weighs 8-10 ounces.

It beats approximately 100,000 times daily and is responsible for sending about 2,000 gallons through your body through the 60,000 miles of blood vessels, traveling to regions most of us do not know exist within ourselves.

It seems with the responsibility of this little organ, we would be showering IT with the roses and chocolate it so obviously deserves!!!

In earlier times, the heart was use in rituals to pay respect to the Gods.

In Egyptian times, the weighing of the heart was considered an important practice in their relationship to death. Anubis, the Greek God concerned with mummification and the afterlife, brings a certain individual’s heart, which symbolized the way he lived his life, to Osirus, who is one of the 42 eternal judges, to be evaluated. The heart was weighed against a feather and if the scale was balanced, he was considered to have lived a good life and destined to eternity.(1)

A Daoist’s view takes on a different meaning when looking at the heart.

In 110 B.C:

Contemplations by the Huainan Masters (Huainanzi) , ca. 110 B.C.:

The heart is the ruler of the five organ networks. It commands the movements of the four extremities, it circulates the qi and the blood, it roams the realms of the material and the immaterial, and it is in tune with the gateways of every action. Therefore, coveting to govern the flow of energy on earth without possessing a heart would be like aspiring to tune gongs and drums without ears, or like trying to read a piece of fancy literature without eyes. (2)

With further research into Daoism, the view remained, that the heart is the master of it all.

Studying further into views of the heart, one concept is enlivening and new and although there has been a book published on it with proof, it may have a long way to go before receiving the accolades it deserves in the mainstream world.

The concept is that the heart is more of an equilibrium tool than a pump. Several ways this was proved. One way was with an experiment performed by Professor Manteuffel.(3) This professor bypassed the heart circulation of dogs and the flow per minute of the blood was increased. If indeed, the heart were a pump, one would notice a decrease in blood flow or even the circulation stopping.

Embryologists are very familiar with the development of you and I and how we form. They know very well, that the circulation of the blood precedes the existence of the heart and the heart beats.

In listening to a podcast from Ben Greenfield, interviewing Dr. Thomas Cowan, author of the book Human Heart, Cosmic Heart, he proves this theory further that the heart is not a pump.

He brings forth the fact that the heart is about 1 lb in size and we have enough vessels in our body to wrap the earth 4 times. Reread this sentence. We have enough vessels in the body to wrap the earth 4 times!!! It is not seemingly possible for a 1 lb muscle to day in and day out, push blood this far and in most cases, never fail.

He also discusses how it is proven in Cardiac Catheterizations, when the blood leaves the body, it exits through a vessel called the aortic arch. This is literally like a arch.

He points out that as the blood leaves the heart, if it were truly forcefully pushed out, this arch would straighten out. He likens it to a hose with high pressure water. The hose straightens out when the water is forcefully exited. But, over and over again, what is seen, is this arch BENDS more when the heart is in contraction, which is the time the heart is said to be forcing the blood out of the heart.

For reasons why this occurs, his scientific explanation, please visit the podcast on the Ben Greenfield show:  https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2016/11/why-your-heart-is-not-a-pump/.

There are many things I am aware of, as well as you most likely aware of, to tend to the heart. High on my list of suggestions is diet and exercise. A diet with fresh vegetables, lean proteins and low complex carbohydrates is a must.

Heart healthExercise, fresh air and sunshine are important as well. If one can make a goal of 30 minutes a day, 5 times per week, one would be on their way to being proactive in regards to their heart.

One of the most important supplements for hearth health is CoQ10. CoQ10 helps produce energy within the mitochondria of the cells. One heart cell has 5,000 mitochondria so CoQ10 is valuable. Here at LifeWorks, we have an amazing supplement called “The One.”  This is an amazing supplement that provides CoQ 10 as well as PQQ, a micronutrient that can create new mitochondria. I personally take this supplement and notice an improvement in well-being and energy!!!

Another important supplement for the heart is Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids.

One test we have at LifeWorks is a test called the ION profile. This test is considered the crème de la crème when it comes to functional medicine testing.

It will actually give you intracellular values of what many nutrient values are such as CoQ10, Omega 3 and 6’s and many, many more.

A treatment for cardiac issues we have here at LifeWorks is EECP. This is a machine that attaches to the arms and legs and pulses the blood throughout the body, which has the heart create collateral vessels to promote cardiac circulation.

In writing this article, one thing I am aware of, is the somewhat mechanistic view we have established over time. Just as the children are being taught recitation in school, all to believe the same thing, all to take the same tests, our physicians are taught one view of the heart. One view of how to hold it, care for it and tend to it.

I do believe that we have advanced as a medical community. Weighing the heart to a feather would not help one having an acute cardiovascular event. I do believe that one view should not exclude another view. To hold the belief of the heart being a mere organ that is day in and day out doing its assigned task, is buying into the view that we are only have a physical body and nothing more.

I do believe in holding all of it in our consciousness. That we are granted this body only briefly in the scheme of things, and need to tend to it in the best way possible to keep it running smoothly and efficiently for as long as possible.

To love it and cherish it, allows us to love and cherish others in a deeper and more meaningful way.

At LifeWorks Wellness Center, we have truly cutting edge therapies to tend to this precious organ, no matter what way it pulsates!!

See your practitioner here soon for further evaluation and discussion about just a few of these tests and treatments we have to offer to get you on your way to longevity, well-being and a happy, healthy heart!


References:

  1. http://www.itmonline.org/5organs/heart.htm
  2. Manterffel-Szoege, L., ‘Remarks on Blood Flow’, Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery,10:22-30. See also: Marinelli et al: ”The heart is not a pump,’ Frontier Perspectives, Fall-Winter 1995.

LifeWorks Accepts CareCredit

Carecredit logo1LifeWorks is happy to announce that we are now accepting CareCredit cards. For many people CareCredit can provide an easier way of financing you and your family’s healthcare needs*. For more information go to carecredit.com
*Subject to credit approval.

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About Dr. David Minkoff, Medical Director

Dr. David Minkoff graduated from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1974 and was elected to the “Phi Beta Kappa” of medical schools, the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Medical Fraternity for very high academic achievement. He then completed both a Pediatric Residency and a Fellowship in Infectious Disease at the University of California at San Diego. He worked at the University of California and Children’s Hospitals in San Diego as an attending physician in infectious disease while conducting original research on Ribaviron, a broad spectrum anti-viral agent to fight disease. He also co-directed a neo-natal intensive care unit and worked in emergency medicine. In 1992, Dr. Minkoff’s wife Sue, a Registered Nurse, became interested in nutrition and health and began to go to lectures from some of the experts in the field. At the time, Dr. Minkoff was pretty fixed in his view of traditional medicine and it took a lot of convincing to get him to come to one of these lectures. After hearing Dr. Jeffrey Bland speak, Dr. Minkoff had a eureka moment and began pursuing the alternative field with a vengeance. Based on this new knowledge Dr. Minkoff and his wife set up a small clinic in 1997 to help some friends with their medical problems. What began as an experiment blossomed into Lifeworks Wellness Center, one of the most successful clinics for complementary medicine in the United States. In the process, he gained expertise in Biological medicine, integrative oncology, heavy metal detoxification, anti-aging medicine, hormone replacement therapy, functional medicine, energy medicine, neural and prolotherapy, homeopathy, and optimum nutrition. He studied under the masters in each of these disciplines until he became an expert in his own right. Dr. Minkoff is one of the most in-demand speakers in the field and wrote an Amazon best-selling book called The Search For The Perfect Protein. The demand for the products and protocols he discovered became a catalyst for founding BodyHealth.Com, a nutrition company that now manufactures and distributes cutting-edge nutritional solutions for the many health problems of today. Dr. Minkoff writes two free online newsletters, “The Optimum Health Report” and ”The BodyHealth Fitness Newsletter”, to help others learn about optimum health and fitness. Dr. Minkoff is an avid athlete himself and has completed 43 Ironman Triathlons. To keep his fitness maximal, he lives the lifestyle he teaches to others and tries to set an example for others, so they can enjoy a life free of pain and full of energy.