Comment on Hitting a medical wall, and turning to unproven treatments

The online NY Times published the following comment I wrote regarding their article, Hitting a medical wall, and turning to unproven treatments, by Jane Brody on 1 May 2017.

While I was doing my residency training in Washington, DC in the late 80s, I daily saw proof that much of the current medical approach to patient care is not only misguided but profoundly unscientific. Patients were ignored;their symptoms became the focus of their physicians.
For the past 27 years I have focused on meticulous physical examination of patients, figuring out why their bodies produce the symptoms they do. I do this using ever more refined palpation of physiology via the musculoskeletal system which is a reflection of the autonomic nervous system. The ANS, the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems, is often out of balance in our patients. Most patients are in a hypersympathetic state.

Using osteopathic examination and treatment it is possible to change this. In addition, using classical homeopathy and acupuncture, patients may be guided to their natural state of health. I rarely prescribe drugs.

As Andrew Taylor Still, MD, the man who discovered osteopathy wrote, To find health should be the object of the doctor. Anyone can find disease.

Our current medical model is focused on disease. This results in the treatment of symptoms which, while not always bad ( ex. stabilization of patients in the ER or other emergency and acute situations), does not seem to be the answer to most chronic problems.

When we truly treat the person versus their symptoms and focus on changing their physiology, then we may help them return to their natural state of Health.

Here is the link to the NY Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/well/live/hitting-a-medical-wall-and-turning-to-unproven-treatments.html

A possible cure for macular degeneration.

Macular degeneration is a very common condition which in many cases may lead to partial or complete vision loss and blindness. According to the  National Eye Institute, NIH there is no cure.

Recently I met with Richard Niemtzow, MD, a radiation oncologist who currently serves as the head of all acupuncture-related services for the Armed Forces. He has devoted much of his life to pioneering new approaches to curing such conditions as dry mouth, battlefield acupuncture for pain , and other areas of medicine. Dr. Niemtzow has a PhD in electronics and is a prolific researcher and writer in the field of medical applications of acupuncture.

Dr. Niemtzow has made a discovery that may change the way in which the medical profession helps people with blindness and vision loss from macular degeneration.

Using just two points on the body and a very low level electrical current between the points, he has shown that macular degeneration vision loss can be rapidly eliminated. He has just returned from Vietnam where a research trial of this approach was conducted with patients at an ophthalmology center in Saigon ( Ho Chi Minh City). The results were astounding with all the patients experiencing immediate return of vision. He told me that several treatments may be required for long term benefit but even the limited results are impressive considering that there is currently no cure for this ailment.

The procedure takes little time, may be done in an outpatient setting, is cost effective, involves no drugs, surgery or injections into the eyes, all of which are mentioned by NIH as current approaches, none of which seem truly helpful, to this problem.

I hope to be working with Dr Niemtzow to offer this treatment to patients in the near future. He told me that when the data from the work in Vietnam has been received and processed, he will publish it.

Osteopathic diagnosis and treatment also has much to offer in restoration of normal function, physiology to the eye and we hope to add this as well to make the treatment even more effective.