In order to provide the highest quality medical care while reducing your weight, we will need a copy of your most recent complete medical physical; including lab work, EKGs, and any other pertinent medical information (such as recent stress tests, echocardiograms, pulmonary functions tests, chest x-rays, etc.). 

If you have had none of these exams or tests during the last 12 months it still would be advisable to collect all of your previous medical records and bring them with you for your first medical consultation in our office. This testing may be done in our office or, if it is more convenient for you to return to your primary care physician, we will give you a prescription to bring with you to their office so that you may obtain the necessary tests. 

We always include physical exams when we initially consult with you. Our goal is to initiate treatment as quickly as possible in order to lower a persons risk factors for multiple diseases as well as to work towards cures and significantly reduce the amount of medications a person is currently taking.

In order to achieve this goal, we will have to medically clear each individual as stated above, but we will work with each one of you on an individual basis in order to make it easier and less costly for you.

The first step in this process is to set up an appointment with one of our physicians and bring with you as many medical records as you are able to obtain. During your initial consultation, the physician will determine what will be necessary to medically clear you and begin treatment. (Most of you will need minimal testing. If you already know that you have many medical problems, then you may require extra tests.) 

If you do not have your own internist or you have not had a recent complete physical, you may schedule this with one of us in our office in order to clear you medically for the treatment of weight management. 

Following this, we will begin consultation visits using NIH guidelines and medical therapy to reduce your BMI to normal. This is NOT a "diet clinic." We are medical specialists who deal in the neurophysiology of the brain controlling the appetite center, satiety center (a feeling of fullness) and numerous neuroendocrine reflexes (including hormone reflexes from your brown fat cells, and many organs including pancreas, and stomach, etc.) These issues sound complicated, but are all thoroughly explained during your visits so that you will always understand what we are doing and why.

There will always be numerous questions from each individual about how we treat medically and what occurs during our consultation. This information is extremely technical and will be completely answered during each visit with the physician. 

The medications that we use deal with the neurophysiology, neurotransmitters, and neuroendocrinology of the areas of your brain that control your appetite, satiety (a feeling of the being full) and numerous reflexes from other areas of your body that affect your metabolic rate as well as appetite. 

During your consultations we deal with every organ system of your body enabling us to manage any other medical problem that may coexist. Any medication that is used will be explained in its entirety and is extremely safe. Some of these medications have been used for the last 50 years, even in children, but were never used properly in order to achieve significant weight reduction and maintenance. 

We follow NIH guidelines and have put together numerous medical research studies all of which consistently show that the only way a person can lose weight (at least 10% of their body mass or more) is to significantly reduce their caloric intake.  

However, this loss will be regained within four years if not medically treated for prevention. There are neurologic reflexes that are programmed in humans to cause this to happen. These are the types of things that will be explained during our consultation.

If you already have a primary physician of your own, consultation letters will be sent to them periodically updating them with your progress. After you have reached a satisfactory BMI, we will recommend that you return to your primary care physician and schedule periodic return visits to our office for maintenance follow-up. 

If you have other medical illnesses, for example hypertension, diabetes or heart disease, these will be monitored closely through your office visits and medications will be changed or reduced while consulting with us.

The medications that we use to lower your BMI are extremely safe. When you compare the risks of any these medications to the diseases that develop from your elevated Body Mass Index, as well as the risks from taking numerous medications to treat these diseases for the rest of your life, the benefits of treatment far exceed the negligible medication risks! 

More importantly, treatment directed only at the diseases caused by excessive weight, fails to reduce your risk of cancer. At present the only way to reverse the increased mortality rate associated with obesity is to actually lose the weight.

Our goal is not only to PREVENT THE ONSET OF but to CURE or IMPROVE A DISEASE to the point where it may require minimal medications, especially in those who begin with multiple drugs.