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About |
Edward Lichten, M.D.,PC
Email: drlichten |
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Edward Mark Lichten, M.D. Fellow, American College of Surgeons Fellow, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists |
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"Medical Practice will learn to strengthen the body's own defenses
Introduction: Of course I will not live forever!
Background Information: "Anti-aging" and Disease Research: Why? Because the focus has always been GENETICS! We are tall if our parents are tall and we live long if they lived long! We inherit errors of metabolism, the fat gene, or even the genes for certain cancers from our parents. And the 'sine qua non' is, if one lives a long life it is the result of the genetic association with parents who lived long lives! But what about ENVIRONMENT? Our genetic predisposition may suffer because of the environment. By adding the stress of exposure to violence, injury, smoking, food and air additives, one can shorten his or her potential for longevity. What has been overlooked are Hormones! Only recently did main stream medical research realize that the messenger for our genetic predisposition to the tissue is through hormones! That is why a 50 year-old's broken bones take longer to heal than a 15 year-old's! The messenger hormone levels are lower in the older individual!!! And when we add back the hormones, like estrogen, the individual can stay more alert, oriented, involved, active, and recover faster--she or he LIVES BETTER and LONGER!. Members of the Association for the Advancement of Anti-Aging Medicine and the Life Extension Foundation agree that longevity is influenced by our environment (stress, food, vitamin intake) and hormonal replacement. As a member of both, I whole-heartedly agree. And I follow a combination program of vitamin and hormonal replacement while conducting medical research in an attempt to discover the roles that hormones take in the treatment of disease!
The Doctor:
My philosophy and the focus of my practice of medicine is changing. After two decades of focus on the pharmacologic [drugs] treatment of disease, I have slowly come to realized that modern medicine cannot yet deliver on all our expectations for a long and health-filled life. Doctors of Medicine, M.D.'s, and Doctors of Osteopathy, D.O.'s, through the application of scientific principles, have eliminated polio, smallpox, and most deaths from childbirth. With DNA mapping and gene therapy there will be new ways to diagnose and treat cancer and even correct some of the now, untreatable inheritable disease states. But the fault with our health system is that there is little or no preventive care. Illness is not treated until it is recorded on a "scientific test." Therefore, our medical practice remains disease oriented. As an analogy, we do not send out the ‘posse’ until the ‘horses are out of the barn.’ And between not recognizing the development of illness and waiting until the disease is so wide spread to treat, scientifically based medical practice routinely misses the best opportunity to treat disease: by preventing it first! Just look at the increased incidence of people with heart and renal failure, the increase in diabetes and asthma, the nursing homes filled with sufferers of chronic illness, and the drop in fertility in both men and women if you doubt that there are 'cracks' in our ‘scientific’ practice of health care. For with all our medical marvels, the average man, woman and child today is fatter, less physically fit, more stressed and generally less healthy than our parent’s generation. And if we do have some answers to medical care then why in the United States do we continue to spend more health care dollars on "not approved"-- non allopathic services including manipulation, acupuncture, and naturopathic/ herbal therapies than on conventional medical services? Most people realize that health care is a personal matter: every individual needs to take an interest in maintaining a healthy environment. Eating correctly, exercise, and stress reduction are general goals that focus on improved quality of life issues: quitting smoking, decreased alcohol and drug use, and weight loss are specific examples. Our hope in developing the USDOCTOR home page is to increase your awareness of the non-surgical or less invasive treatments of common diseases and to ask the question to you "why we are 'not as healthy' as we can be?" Simple and alternative treatments as they become available will be described so that you might consider this information in your treatment of some common medical problems. We hope that you can adopt a program of prevention for yourself and your family that will include the use of vitamins, exercise, diet, and natural remedies to supplement those of standard medical practice. We believe in the scientific principles of medical practice: medical studies must be reproducible and based on logical principles. But at the same time, we believe that the patient usually knows best that 'something is not right' even when there is no test to prove it so. We listen to our patients' complaints. We believe that the key to good health is with preventive medicine. At the same time, we believe that hormonal and alternative therapy is an often overlooked mainstay to both treating many 'diseases' and is part of the natural plan for "prevention of disease". We encourage our readers to ask questions about their health care and relay their positive and negative experiences with medical and alternative therapies through an associated "chat line." You will find that our USDOCTOR on the INTERNET information is based in scientific medicine: we have contributed original research and will reference the published clinical findings of others within each article. But more importantly our primary responsibility as DOCTORS is to apply common sense and look at the whole patient and together decide what is normal and what is not. It is "not normal" to not sleep, to be tired, to be in pain, to be depressed most days. It is not normal to have no exercise tolerance, to have no drive or interest in sex, and to look for solace in alcohol, self-abusive patterns, and psychotropic and illegal drugs. We will plan to develop each topic with an the extent of the ‘medical problem’ and the directions being taken in its standard treatment. Then, the direction of our writings will be to develop the background science and theory behind new research and try to explain how this may apply to the clinical practice of treating the patient. With this additional information, hopefully you will be better educated to the concept of disease and the alternatives and/or additional treatments that may be applicable to your specific medical needs. No one treatment is correct for everyone. There are many individuals over the years that all of us have treated but to no avail. It is not our desire or intent to suggest that one treatment is the best. Rather, we propose that those who avail themselves of medical care must first educate themselves and then actively discuss with their health professionals what options are available in their individual medical care: Our first goal, therefore, must be
Then we can hope to LIVE LONGER & BETTER in a life style that supports Medical Articles/ Presentations by Dr. Lichten are available in his curriculum vitae.
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| Revised: January 1, 2007 | |||||
