CHARLESTON, S.C. – As the health care debate rages on, local age management physician Dr. Mickey Barber is calling on President Obama to take a cue from Cenegenics Carolinas and consider the role of preventive medicine in improving our health care system.
“We hope the Obama plan is about empowering people with information to help them make the right choices, which is what we do at Cenegenics Carolinas,” Dr. Barber says. “The underlying issue isn’t just taking medication to treat disease; it’s making lifestyle changes to prevent disease. Most Americans know they need to lose weight, exercise, eat better and quit smoking. The problem is they don’t understand how to make that happen, and together, we can fix that.”
Patients coming to Cenegenics Carolinas begin with an initial executive health evaluation. This seven-hour comprehensive assessment includes 90 different blood labs and other tests that measure body fat, muscle mass, bone density and cognitive abilities to provide a detailed picture of a client’s overall health and risk factors. After the evaluation, the patient’s personal Cenegenics physician prescribes a customized regimen of nutrition, exercise, nutraceuticals and hormone optimization to maximize their health.
Once patients return home and begin following this customized health plan, they check in regularly with Cenegenics and return for an annual evaluation and to assess their progress.
Nutrition is a key component of the Cengenics program and patients are schooled in the Cenegenics Food Diamond, an alternative to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Guide Pyramid. The Food Diamond literally reshapes the way people eat. It calls for water as the central component of a healthy diet, as well as fresh vegetables (organic, cooked or raw) and lean protein (fresh water fish, free range hormone-free poultry and grass-fed, hormone-free meat, shellfish, tofu, soymilk and soybeans), rather than carbohydrates and dairy products – all of which contribute to weight gain.
Cenegenics patients also can participate in a new initiative, the Advanced Lifestyle Program, in which they select from a menu of health- and fitness-related programs, such as how to create healthy meals, stress management, yoga and sports training, to explore in depth.
Dr. Barber says Obama also should consider the benefits of adult stem cell collection and storage, which Cenegenics now offers its patients through a partnership with AssureImmune. Collection and storage of patients’ own stem cells (versus those from a bank which may or may not match) can help people better fight the effects of known killers, from cancer and heart disease to diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
“Regenerative medicine is the best health insurance your family can have,” Dr. Barber says. “It’s not prevention, but a smart plan for your future health since at some period in time most people will need the health benefit stem cells offer.”
About Cenegenics Carolinas
Cenegenics Carolinass a Charleston-based medical institute that helps patients manage the aging process through a customized regimen of exercise, nutrition and hormone optimization to improve their quality of life and help them feel healthy and years younger than their age. Headed by CEO Mickey Barber, MD, a board-certified anesthesiologist and former assistant professor at Tulane University, Cenegenics Carolinas is one of only seven Cenegenics centers in the country. For more information, call 843-724-7272 or visit www.cenegenics-carolinas.com.
