Precision Medical Care Newsletter - February 2025
Goodbye, January!!
Spring is getting closer every day, we are ready to transition out of the cold weather!
Our precision practice has had a productive January:
18 new patients have been seen for consultation between our three offices (Clarendon Hills, Chicago and Naples) and three precisionist physicians (Doctors Johnson, Agarwal and Sadiq). We love to help people kick off their New Year with a “Precision Plan” for the pursuit of one’s optimal health!
Stay tuned as we hope to be announcing new office locations soon! Please keep sending your loved ones for referral, we can usually get new patients scheduled for labs within a week and seen at the office within a month. Kelly can set up the consultations and she can be reached by phone at 734-634-3448 or email at mdprecisionmedical@gmail.com.From the desk of Dr Agarwal who is an expert in the field of regenerative procedures for acute and chronic joint injuries:
Enhancing PLAYspan with Regenerative Medicine
At Precision Medical Care, our mission is to help you optimize your healthspan—the quality of life you enjoy throughout your years. As part of this mission, I bring together my backgrounds in integrative medicine and interventional pain management to offer regenerative medicine techniques. This means addressing the root causes of pain, promoting healing, and enhancing function so you can live a vibrant, active life.
These approaches aim to support your body’s natural ability to repair and rejuvenate, blending cutting-edge science with a holistic understanding of your overall health.
So, what is regenerative medicine for pain? It’s a set of minimally invasive treatments designed to target pain at its source by promoting tissue repair and reducing inflammation—especially when combined with the foundations of a precision medical plan for optimal results.Here’s a quick primer on some of the therapies we offer:
Prolozone Injections: A technique combining ozone gas with vitamins and nutrients to stimulate healing, improve oxygen delivery to tissues, and reduce inflammation. This option is often used for acute joint pain, ligament injuries, and chronic musculoskeletal discomfort. Medical ozone therapy has a long history of successful use abroad.Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP): PRP uses your body’s own blood platelets, concentrated into a healing solution, to repair damaged tissues and accelerate recovery. It’s highly effective for tendon injuries, arthritis, and soft tissue healing and works well when people have worked on their metabolic health.Exosomes: These are small signaling molecules derived from stem cells that play a key role in enhancing cellular repair, reducing inflammation, and promoting regeneration in areas of injury. Exosome therapy is at the forefront of advanced regenerative medicine, offering cutting-edge possibilities for healing and recovery.
Each of these treatments is tailored to your specific needs and goals, whether you're dealing with chronic joint pain, recovering from an injury, or simply seeking to stay active and healthy as you age.
If you’re curious about whether regenerative medicine might be right for you, let’s start the conversation. I’d love to hear about your goals and challenges, and together we can create a personalized plan to help you live pain-free and play at your best. You can reach Dr Agarwal directly at breathandbodymd@gmail.com.
Spotlight: Alzheimer’s Dementia
Our ability to define diseases by how they arise and not how they manifest is a powerful tool that permits us to better predict, diagnose and treat a whole range of conditions. “It’s a pretty amazing moment,” Largent acknowledges, “but the science is really outpacing policy right now. We are having all these changes in the midst of a system that needs to find new ethical, legal, social and clinical ways of helping patients and families.” https://apple.news/AfkoRw7UfQXqwsainAJSPOQ
Precision Evaluation & Prevention, the Precision Medical Protocol:
(adapted https://content.iospress.com/download/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad230467?id=journal-of-alzheimers-disease%2Fjad230467)Before age 50, a “cognoscopy” has been recommended for baseline laboratory evaluation of one’s personalized risk related to the four major systems implicated in brain amyloid deposition. You’ll recognize many of these lab tests as we trend/track them on your “Biomarker Panel”
Inflammation (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, albumin:globulin ratio, omega-6:omega-3 ratio, homocysteine, uric acid, autoimmune markers)Toxins/Infections: exposures to infectious pathogens, environmental and hormonal disruptorsEnergetics: Glucose:Insulin signaling, Mitochondrial Health, Blood flow/Vascular Health, Lipid signaling/metabolismTrophic support: Neurologic growth factors related to the health of brain tissue: hormones and nutrients (B vitamins, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc, copper, omega-6:omega-3 ratio, omega-3 index), and hormones (estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, pregnenolone, sex-hormone binding globulin, DHEA sulfate, and thyroid).
As a patient of Precision Medical Care, the “Precision Plan” is customized to address the factors associated (theoretically, epidemiologically) with AD-related cognitive decline. Our goals are to:
Optimize energetic support (sleep, stress, oxygenation, blood flow, mitochondrial function)Restore insulin sensitivity (optimize muscle mass and reduce visceral fat)Improve hyperlipidemia (lower inflammatory cholesterol particles, lower triglyceride levels)Resolve inflammation (especially in the gut: bloating, dysbiosis, “leakiness”)Optimize hormones and nutrients (diet, supplements and hormones)Support Immune resilience (sleep, stress, nutrients)Identify genetic, environmental, infectious and toxic risks (alcohol, air quality, bacteria/virus, ApoE)
In summary, “AGE LATER…” once we identify just how each person is uniquely aging as these aging processes are impacting organ health. Risk is cumulative, increasing as one or more indicators are present:
DiabetesHypertensionLow blood pressureObesityChronic kidney disease
The most dynamic changes to amyloid buildup occur between ages 50-59. Changes in the brain can begin up to 20 years before symptoms of cognitive impairment or decline are evident (impaired memory or change in processing speed/thinking).
We recently met with Quest Laboratory’s neurological testing team experts to discuss the validity of blood based biomarkers that can be tested to further assess one’s risk for developing cognitive decline/impairment. We have been researching these tests for some time and are pleased to announce that we will be offering (insurance billed) laboratory testing to patients who are over age 55 with risk factors for dementia. At this time, it is unlikely that insurance will cover costs of these tests for patients under the age of 55. The cash price of the lab tests are expected to cost between $300-$600 for each of the three tests (beta amyloid 42/40 ratio, p-tau 181 and p-tau 217). We have offered ApoE testing to our patients for $95 since the inception of our practice in 2018. Click here to learn more.
Podcasts & References
Potpourri of recent notable/sharable podcasts and references that we have come across in the last few weeks:
With all the recent infectious illnesses that the kids are passing around, this is a great podcast to remind us of when it’s best to keep your child home from school: Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials Podcast
If you feel like your health insurance costs are higher than ever and your insurance company is denying more services and prescriptions, you’re not alone! These trends are not sustainable …https://www.kff.org/report-section/ehbs-2024-summary-of-findings/
“Low T” is trendy and worthy of expert evaluation. Checking labs is fundamental (refer anyone who is curious about their levels but can’t convince their doctor to order the labs to www.precisionlabpanels.com). A thorough assessment includes getting to the root cause of lower than optimal testosterone levels. Poor sleep, smoking, alcohol, nutritional deficiencies and many hereditary conditions can be related to low testosterone levels. This is a nice summary of symptoms related to low testosterone levels as well as how to achieve an integrative assessment of the causes of the condition. Proper assessment and treatment is a precision approach.
Calcium is best sourced from a healthy diet and the goal for most adults is 1200 mg daily, check out this list of foods that are good sources of calcium.
Sugar Cravings are REAL! Many of us struggle with sugar addiction, but it’s really our gut bacteria that are craving the sugar. We can try to fast those dysbiotic gut bacteria to death but it often feels like wack a mole! Here is a deep dive into the science of sugar cravings which may help you understand why our protocols often include
Intervals of fasting:calorie restrictionMegaspore (spore probiotics that lower lipopolysaccharide levels while up-regulating production of favorable gut bacteria like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacter)Metformin, Semaglutide, Tirzepatide (GLP agonists that up-regulate favorable gut bacteria like Akkermansia)
https://erictopol.substack.com/p/how-our-gut-microbiome-can-drive?utm_medium=iosThe future of GLP agonists is outlined nicely here, too.
A nice reference of meds that are currently approved to help with weight management:(Orlistat /“Xenical” and the hydrogel option previously known as “Plenity” are not very effective…but still cited)
Medicare is offering an option to help ease the deductible burden of the new year:
