I’ll be speaking at the Atlanta chapter of Noetic Sciences, July 16.
Posted by davewou in Uncategorized on June 20th, 2009
The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was founded by Apollo astronaught Edgar Mitchell. IONS
- Explores the frontiers of consciousness
- Builds bridges between science and spirit
- Researches subtle energies and the powers of healing
- Inquires into the science of love, forgiveness, and gratitude
- Studies the effects of conscious and compassionate intention
- Seeks to understand the basis of prevailing worldviews
- Practices freedom of thought and freedom of spirit
The following is the press release from http://www.plastikos.com/events.htm:
Monthly Noetic Sciences Meeting (on the third Thursday of every month)
Please join us for our July Noetic Sciences meeting on Thursday, July 16th at 7:15PM at 4370 Georgetown Square, Atlanta GA 30338. Our guest speaker will be Dave Ou, M.D. and he will be speaking about Consciousness and Healing: A Medical Doctor’s Journey as a Patient and Practitioner of Holistic Medicine. Join us for refreshments at 7:15PM followed by our speaker’s presentation at 7:30PM.
Dave Ou, M.D. has had a long interest in holistic and energy medicine and uses it successfully to help those who have not been successful with conventional and alternative medicine. He graduated Cum Laude in Physics from Cornell University, received his M.D. from the University of Miami and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University. His views on healing have been influenced by diverse systems of thought including conventional science, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, homeopathy, quantum physics, and medical intuition. He is uniquely trained in cutting edge systems of energy medicine as one of three medical doctors in the U.S. certified in Nutri-Energetics Systems and one of 3 medical doctors in the U.S. certified in Matrix Energetics. He has spoken to medical students at Emory and to leaders in holistic medicine throughout North America and Europe.
He has spent much of his life trying to learn how to help the body heal itself because of his own health challenges that began in childhood. Through his personal experiences, his perspectives on love, healing, energy, and consciousness have constantly evolved. He’ll share both his successes and failures during his 20+ years of exploration of numerous holistic modalities. Finally, he’ll share his latest findings on little known systems of energy medicine that he has found to have powerful and reliable effects on even serious health challenges.
Dr. Mercola endorses Matrix Energetics – Was I involved?
Posted by davewou in Uncategorized on June 11th, 2009
Many of you have noticed that I often give links to Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website. His website is the most visited natural health website in the world and even exceeds Drs. Deepak Chopra’s and Andrew Weil’s sites.
I noticed that Dr. Mercola gave a talk on Matrix Energetics, one of the modalities I use, at a conference in Chicago http://autismone.org/default.cfm?goto=chicago&page=thriive
I then noticed that he wrote “Additionally there are large numbers of highly effective energetic therapies like Meridian Tapping Techniques, or quantum approaches like Matrix Energetics, which can provide powerful options.” at the end of the following article: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/06/09/In-The-Land-of-the-Free-is-Natural-Medicine-One-of-Your-Freedoms.aspx
I started to wonder if I was involved. The reason is that last year, I helped teach a class on energy medicine in which Dr. Mercola’s then medical director was one of my students. I demonstrated Matrix Energetics on him and he in turn took a class on Matrix Energetics and demonstrated it to Dr. Mercola’s staff.
Regardless of whether I was influential or not, I applaud Dr. Mercola for recognizing a modality that has worked very well on many people in my office and around the world.
For those in the Atlanta area, a Matrix Energetics seminar is coming to town in November 2009. My understanding is that details will soon be posted on the Matrix Energetics website. It’s open to the public for anyone who wants to harness their own ability to help others heal. There’s usually a free introductory seminar the night before the main seminar for those who want to get a preview before they commit. You should be prepared for a mind opening experience unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
–Dave Ou, M.D.
I just came back from a holistic primary care conference
Posted by davewou in Uncategorized on June 10th, 2009
I recently returned from a conference called “Heal Thy Practice: Transforming Primary Care” sponsored by Holistic Primary Care. It was a conference for medical doctors in primary care on how to bring integrative medicine into primary care. It was a great experience to be among like minded doctors in internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics who are dedicated to helping their patients improve their health without relying on pharmaceuticals.
One of the main concerns that we discussed is that the current medical system in the U.S. does not focus on prevention of illnesses. One speaker said the amount of money spent on prevention is a measly 3% of all money spent in the U.S. on healthcare. A very large percentage of the health care problems are entirely preventable, but the system is designed to take care of problems when it’s already too late.
The U.S. health system strongly encourages doctors to do procedures and tests. It takes a doctor a great deal of time to sit down with a patient to go over issues such as diet and exercise. Insurance companies will pay doctors about $100 to spend 30 minutes talking about a healthy lifestyle. In contrast, insurance companies will pay doctors $100 to spend 10 minutes to refill medications for a person with diabetes and hypertension. Insurance companies will pay doctors over a hundred dollars to take 5 minutes to remove a mole. Doctors such as myself who spend time to teach patients to prevent health problems basically lose money in our current system. It rewards doctors to spend no more than 5-10 minutes per patient.
We also talked about the high overhead of practicing medicine. The average doctor has 4 support staff members. This often involves someone who spends their whole day dealing with insurance companies. If a patient needs a test that a doctor feels is important to get, it may take a staff member hours on the phone to get prior authorization. The same thing can happen if a doctor feels that a patient needs a certain medication that isn’t covered by insurance. As you can expect, it is very frustrating and expensive for doctors to deal with the insurance bureaucracy. When you add up the cost of employees, rent, malpractice, insurance, utilities, and supplies, each doctor in my practice has an overhead of over $200,000. The partners in my practice know that we could make more money seeing patients very quickly, but we believe that we’d have to sacrifice quality of care to do so. Collectively, we have agreed to focus on quality of care so we spend twice as much time with our patients compared to average meaning we see half as many patients as the average doctor. After paying overhead, the average income of a doctor in my group is about $90,000. (Did you think all doctors were millionaires?)
You may have heard about the impending primary care shortage. Only about 3% of medical students plan to go into primary care. This is because the average medical student graduates with $150,000 of educational debt. It is impossible to make a living spending time with patients.
On the positive side, we also talked about how integrative medicine has the capacity to save the health care system. This is because it can manage chronic illnesses at the fraction of the cost of conventional medicine. However, doctors who practice integrative medicine are often looked down upon by medical boards and other physicians. Many of us shared experiences of being ridiculed by conventional medical doctors and laypeople. Some have even been prosecuted by medical boards. There was a case in Maryland in which a psychiatrist was able to get a patient off of medications using natural supplements. The patient happened to see another psychiatrist and the conventional psychiatrist filed a complaint against the integrative psychiatrist for not using medication despite the fact that the patient was stable. After several months in court, the integrative psychiatrist was acquitted. It takes a thick skin and commitment to what we believe in order to practice integrative medicine.
–Dave Ou, M.D.
Average doctor spends $70,000 per year to deal with insurance
Posted by davewou in Uncategorized on June 10th, 2009
According to the May 14, 2009 issue of Health Affairs, it costs the average doctor almost $70,000 per year to interact with insurance companies. This includes filling out forms and making phone calls to to get preauthorization for tests and prescriptions, figuring out what prescriptions are on formularies, filing claims, appeals, and trying to get paid promptly. In the U.S., this adds up to almost $31 billion per year spent by doctors’ offices.
In a previous article, I mentioned that the average physician has 4 support staff members. The above statistics would mean that over half of a doctor’s staff are there just to deal with insurance companies.
What does this mean to you? I estimate that about for every $100 paid to doctors, $25 is spent to deal with insurance. That is not good use of your hard earned money.
–Dave Ou, M.D.
Carcinogens 10,000 times more toxic than chlorine common in tap water
Posted by davewou in Uncategorized on May 31st, 2009
I recently heard an interview with water expert Robert Slovak who pointed out that one of the most dangerous chemicals found in tap water are “disinfection by-products” (DBPs). They are formed when chlorine mixes with certain organic components in water. The two major classes are trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids. They are recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be linked to damage to the brain, kidneys, and lungs. They are also linked to cancer and are considered to be 10, 000 times more toxic than chlorine. The EPA says that any level over 0 is dangerous. However, since water companies don’t have the technology to keep DBPs to 0, they allow companies to have up to 80 parts per billion.
After I heard the interview, I received a copy of my tap water quality analysis performed by my public water company. It showed that the DBPs in my tap water was up to 73 parts per billion! I then checked to make sure my water filtration system filtered out DBPs and was relieved to find it filtered out 98% of DBPs.
I suggest that you ask your water provider for a copy of their water quality analysis and look for the DBPs. If they are over 10 parts per billions, I’d recommend a water filtration system that removes DBPs. You can visit http://www.nsf.org for a list of tested water purification systems.
You can also learn more about the dangers of DBPs at http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/02/17/Tap-Water-Toxins-Discover-Your-3-Best-Solutions-Straight-from-the-Expert.aspx
Dave Ou, M.D.
Sunlight can lower vitamin D levels?
Posted by davewou in Natural Healing on May 12th, 2009
Dr. Mercola just posted a new article about how sunlight can lower vitamin D levels. There are two type of ultraviolet radiation from the sun: UVA and UVB. Your skin uses UVB to make vitamin D. According to his article, UVA can destroy vitamin D. Guess what happens if you’re exposed to sunlight through windows? You only get UVA, but no UVB. In other words, to get vitamin D, you have to get sunlight without it passing through windows.
He also goes through new research that suggests showering or bathing with soap after sun exposure can wash off the vitamin D created by your skin.
Finally, he mentioned that acid blockers such as Nexium and Prilosec can lower your vitamin D levels. I’ll have to do more research on that.
For the article on how sunlight and bathing can lower vitamin D levels, go to http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/05/12/Shocking-Update-Sunshine-Can-Actually-Decrease-Your-Vitamin-D-Levels.aspx
-Dave Ou, M.D.
Does lowering cholesterol lower your chances of heart disease?
Posted by davewou in Medical Science? on May 11th, 2009
There has been a massive campaign by the media to “educate” the masses that high cholesterol can cause heart disease so lowering cholesterol must be good. What people don’t realize is that the science isn’t so clear cut. Let’s take a look at some of these issues.
Fibric acid derivatives are a popular group of cholesterol lowering drugs. They include Lopid (gemfibrozil) and Tricor (fenofibrate). According to the November 2007 issue of the American Heart Journal, they lower total cholesterol by 8% and triglycerides by 30%. HDL or good cholesterol is improved by 9%. This sounds good right? Well, they found that the mortality rate, which is the rate of death, tended to be higher when taking the drugs compared to placebo. They did not prevent deaths from heart attacks or strokes.
In the January 20, 1984 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, they reported on the Lipid Research Clinics Coronary Primary Prevention Trial, which used cholestyramine to lower cholesterol. On the average, the LDL or bad cholesterol was lowered by 10%. There was a decrease in heart disease, but there was no prevention of deaths from heart disease. They also found that there was 31-42% increase in deaths from non-heart related problems. In other words, cholestyramine reduced heart attacks, but increased your chances of dying from other diseases.
Remember when doctors used to tell women to take hormones to prevent heart disease? Doctors found that hormones would improve both LDL and HDL cholesterol by 10-15% each so they assumed that heart attacks would be prevented.
The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) tested a combination of estrogen and progestin. They not only had no effect of preventing heart disease, they increased risk of breast cancer, stroke, heart disease, and venous thromboembolism, which caused the study to be stopped. Using estrogen alone also did not prevent heart disease, but increased the chance of stroke.
The only types of cholesterol lowering drugs that have been shown to prevent heart disease are statins. They are controversial in of themselves, but I won’t go into those today.
The point of this article is that lowering cholesterol doesn’t automatically mean you’ll have a happier, longer life. Pharmaceutical reps come in my office all the time to tell me how their drug lowers cholesterol. I always ask, “Have they been proven to prolong life? They usually reply, “No, but they lower cholesterol.” My response is “Some studies have shown that lowering cholesterol can shorten your life. Treating numbers is not medicine. We want to help people, not numbers.”
The same applies to natural supplements that lower cholesterol. Do we know if they prolong life? I don’t think anyone knows.
We need to focus on ways to improve and prolong the quality of life and not obsess over numbers that may or may not relate to overall health.
–Dave Ou, M.D.
The rebirth of my holistic practice
Posted by davewou in Natural Healing, Nutri-Energetics (NES) on May 7th, 2009
Even before I went to medical school, I had a dream of having a busy practice in which most people were able to naturally recover from almost any health challenge. Through my first 10 years of private practice, the holistic component of my practice has ebbed and flowed. You see, I work in a conventional internal medicine practice and have done alternative medicine “on the side”
I first started working with pain using acupuncture. My practice got pretty busy with acupuncture, but I wanted to work with more than just pain and I knew that fear of needles kept many people away. I also found that a significant number of patients did not get satisfactory results.
The next step of my evolution occurred when I was at a conference and learned it was possible for fibromyalgia to be cured in most people using the principles of homeopathy and kinesiology. I was stunned to hear that was possible.
In my research of homeopathy and kinesiology, I found Field Control Therapy by Savely Yurkovsky, M.D. I used it on several patients with fibromyalgia and found that in most cases, fibromyalgia could be relieved by at least 80% on the average. I found it useful for many other conditions as well. After a period of time, I reached a plateau in most of my patients in which further improvements were not occurring. In addition, the strict diet and electromagnetic field avoidance needed for FCT was very burdensome and discouraged the vast majority of patients. The one hour plus appointments were time consuming as well.
My practice changed dramatically once I started to use Nutri-Energetics (NES) in late 2008. Within 6 months, I’m now following nearly 100 patients on the NES program. I was so amazed by the initial results that I wanted to do frequent statistical analyses on how my patients were doing. My analysis shows that 95% of my patients report good changes in their health if they stick with the program for a minimum of 4 months. I have simply never seen anything like this in my 20 years of studying holistic medicine. No system is perfect so there is a small percentage of people who report small amounts of change. Fortunately, there is constant ongoing research with NES and a major upgrade is scheduled later this year.
Unlike acupuncture and FCT, I’m getting a number of referrals from my patients’ friends, family members, and their hairdressers. There are many reasons for this: 1) NES has a powerful effect on helping people heal themselves to the point that improvements are obvious to my patients and those around them 2) it’s very convenient: visits occur monthly and the supplements are simple to take 3) compared to other holistic programs, NES is relatively inexpensive.
Even with the down economy, more and more people are seeking holistic health care. I’m so thankful for finding NES. It’s given me the opportunity to assist so many people in helping them to heal from otherwise untreatable conditions. From a scientific standpoint, I frequently see changes that I didn’t think were possible. From a human standpoint, it’s so rewarding to help people in this way. This has been a huge step forward in my dream of natural healing for all. I wonder what lies on the road ahead.
–Dave Ou, M.D.
Allopaths don’t believe in healing
Posted by davewou in Natural Healing on May 7th, 2009
I see many patients who are under the care of other doctors. They often get very excited at the improvements in their health and want to share their experience with their doctors. They hope that their doctors will share their enthusiasm and curiosity into how they got better. However, many doctors can be party poopers.
One of my patients told her doctor that the past few months have been the best she’s had in years. She brought in information about my Natural Healing Program and the doctor responded that her improvements were probably “psychological”.
I’ve thought about this and wonder what did he mean by psychological? I suspect what he meant is that either there were really no improvements and the patient mistakenly believed she felt better or that there was no problem to begin with.
I have seen cases where patients imagined they were better. In most cases, these improvements don’t last more than a couple of days after which the imagination wears off. The improvements I look for are those that are sustained for at least weeks at a time and I see these improvements in my patients on a daily basis.
I’ve looked at my statistics and 90-95% of my patients report significant improvements in their health and quality of life. If that doctor is correct, then it either means I don’t have sick patients, that I’m the best hypnotist in the history of mankind, that all my patients are liars, or that I’ve found the most powerful placebo ever.
On the issue of placebos, what if a placebo helped people sleep through the night, improve their energy and concentration, regulated hormones, and improved digestion 90-95% of the time? How would you explain that? I think the most logical explanation is that the “placebo” enabled the people to heal themselves.
There are many other doctors like the one my patient saw who have the attitude than unless a treatment is created by a multi-billion dollar drug company, then no healing can occur. I’d rather be accused of using placebos than to be using modalities (conventional medicine) that have been proven to be one of the top 3 killers of people. I’m seeing more and more people awakening to the truth that they have the capacity to heal themselves. I continue to be honored to be of assistance in helping people realize their potential.
–Dave Ou, M.D.
Conventional Medicine is a leading cause of death
Posted by davewou in Medical Science? on May 7th, 2009
With all the hysteria over the H1N1 flu (aka swine flu), we need to keep things in perspective. As of today, the WHO has reported only 44 deaths worldwide.
In comparison, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2000, they reported that around 200,000 Americans die each year from the modern healthcare system. Some put the estimate closer to 1,000,000 per year. Either way, conventional medicine is considered one of the top 3 causes of death in the U.S.
One of Dr. Mercola’s most popular articles is on this very issue and can be found at:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/30/doctors-death-part-one.aspx
Now, I’m not recommending that you run as fast as you can away from doctors. Modern medicine can be lifesaving in many situations. I still prescribe medications when I don’t know of an alternative to manage a problem. What’s important is to look at all your options. The best option is a method to help your body heal itself and that’s where I put most of my focus. I’m just now starting to understand how to help the body heal itself so I have a long road ahead to understanding all its aspects.
–Dave Ou, M.D.