How to Determine the Best Therapy for Your Health Condition

With pharmaceutical drug sales still dominating the market as well as doctors’ recommendations, Dr. Woliner explains how he decides the best therapy for his patients

Dr. Kenneth Woliner, M.D.

Not all therapies are created equal – and every patient’s needs are unique.

Some therapies are ineffective. Some therapies are toxic. Some therapies burn a hole through your pocket in the blink of an eye, and before you know it, you are left in financial ruin and still have the same health problems as you did prior to therapy.

Before blindly diving head first into the prescribed therapy, it’s important to gauge whether or not that treatment is really what’s best for you.

A doctor should always have the patient’s best interest as his or her priority. They must do right by the patient. For example, in my practice, I look for three key ingredients to ensure a successful therapy:

1) Does the therapy work?

New research by a ProPublica analysis shows that more than 1,300 practitioners nationwide received both research money and speaking or consulting fees from the same drug maker in 2012. Additionally, they received more than $90 million in research grants — plus nearly $17 million for combined speaking engagements and consulting.

These numbers, as well as other expert speculations, determine that certain therapies may be more in favor depending on the doctors’ relationships to the pharmaceutical companies.

When it’s time to prescribe my patients with a therapy, I make sure it helps them live longer and better. I want my patients to feel energetic, without depression, anxiety, or any other symptoms that frequently tag along with these major prescription drugs.

When the side-effects list is longer than the rest of the commercial, there may be a problem, Houston.

I use clinical research and extensive physical evaluations to put the puzzle pieces together. I consider all of the variables to ensure a safe, effective therapy for my patients’ conditions, whether it be thyroid disorder, fibromyalgia, diabetes, chronic depression, fatigue, candida, Crohn’s disease, hypoglycemia and more.

2) Is the therapy toxic?

An article came out a few years ago in AARP The Magazine telling the story of a 61-year-old Los Angeles civil attorney who suddenly became disoriented in Trader Joes.

Wandering the isles in a haze, yelling at her roommate, and eventually yanking the fire extinguisher off the wall to spray the kitchen and bathroom with the thick, white foam, the woman woke up the next morning recovered, embarrassed and baffled as to what triggered her bizarre behavior.

The cause was drug toxicity, a gradual buildup of prescription medication in her blood steam, her doctor determined.

The moral of the story is that some therapies can be toxic to the body. While it may help one health problem, it can ignite another… and that’s an internal fire you can’t put out with an extinguisher.

3) How much is it going to cost my patients?

The health industry will forever thrive, and it’s thriving off your dollars! When deciding therapies for my patients, I try to find methods that are relatively inexpensive and easy to do.

For example, many times, I will prescribe a manageable diet instead of a prescription drug. If I can introduce my patients to foods they can eat to lower their cholesterol, increase their metabolism, control their weight, or reduce their fatigue, I will gravitate toward the healthier, more natural solution.

Mother nature has all of the ingredients to help relieve symptoms. From the calming affects of nature for relaxation and exercise, to natural herbs and hormones, alternative therapies do exist and they have proven to work with minimal side effects. Resorting to expensive pharmaceuticals from these massive companies is not the only way, nor the best way.

There are holistic treatments available that are economical and easy to obey and can reduce the likelihood of harm done to your body.

About Dr. Woliner

For more information about Dr. Woliner or Holistic Family Medicine, visit www.HolisticFamilyMed.com, call 561-314-0950, or email patients@holisticfamilymed.com. “Like” Holistic Family Medicine on Facebook at http://facebook.com/aboutHolisticFamilyMedicine, or follow us on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/holisticmed/.