FAQ

Are You an Appropriate Candidate for this Practice?

Philadelphia Personal Health accepts new patients based on availability and an individual’s appropriateness for the practice. Here is a fairly simple breakdown of who is appropriate:

  1. Appropriate
  • Anyone interested in prevention – looking at diet, cellular nutrition, weight loss, fitness, sleep assistance, stress reduction, genetic risk factors.
  • Anyone who fits into one of the nine “PPH Services” areas.
  1. May Be Appropriate
  • If you are not sure if you fit into one of the services areas, please send an email briefly describing your specific health challenge(s) and goals and someone will get back to you.
  1. Not Appropriate
  • Anyone undergoing active treatment for cancer. After you are cancer free, you are an excellent candidate for this practice. Areas of focus will be to rebuild strength, improve nutrition, and to mitigate factors (genetics, inflammation, oxidative stress) that may have played a role in a tissue environment and immune system where cancer could initiate and grow.
  • Anyone who is not willing or ready to invest time and resources into their health.
  • Anyone who is not willing or ready to make positive changes in the DESS areas – diet, exercise, stress, and sleep.

How Do I Become a Patient or Schedule an Appointment ?

Simply visit the Contact Page. 

What can I expect during my initial visit?

Initial visits are packed full of information gathering. We will review your past medical history (from the patient portal), current symptoms, and goals. Based on that information, we move to an examination. Next we talk about the likely causes of your symptoms and discuss a mutually agreeable plan of care (POC). Your original POC often includes diet, exercise and lifestyle recommendations – you will receive plenty of supportive instructional information. We will also discuss using various functional medicine labs to take a look at various body systems and/or genes that traditional medicine does not routinely cover.

Appointments during the COVID19 Pandemic

Philadelphia Personal Health remains open during the COVID19 Pandemic. Functional Medicine has many many ways to test and improve your immune health. For your safety, and ours, currently office visits are by telemedicine.  Telemedicine pairs very well with Functional Medicine. Through video we can examine your eyes, skin, nails, mouth/tongue, just like we would do in the office. We use doxy.me, a professional telemedicine software provider – you do not need an account only an internet connection. Patient have enjoyed the no travel and no parking required benefits.

Do you take insurance?

Many patients successfully use their HSA or FSA accounts.

What are your fees?

Philadelphia Personal Health is a fee for service company. The hourly fee is $180 per hour. When you use the “schedule here” link on the PPH Contact Page, the fee for your appointment time and type will be listed. For new patients, we will review the medical history you provide on our time, prior to your appointment.

What Conditions Do You Treat?

Certification in Function Medicine requires a Board Examination that test competency in Whole Body Medicine or Systems Biology (See FAQ – What Does A FM Practitioner Study.) This education makes a CFMP a generalist who looks for body imbalances that are often key contributors to many of the conditions listed below.

  • PREVENTION – Eastern medicine teaches us that most visible illness is preceded by invisible illness and that disease often begins at a cellular level. PPH uses a specialty lab (CLIA approved) and a small blood sample, to go inside your cells and assess adequacy of biochemical messengers (aka nutrients), that are crucial in the fight against both symptoms and disease. This lab also provides and assessment of general immune health and antioxidant protection. See Resources/Nutrition and Disease Connections, or click here for more specific information. Treatment is then 100% personalized to your individual needs. The lab cost is $190 for most individuals.
  • Autoimmune diseases
  • Energy Imbalances (Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue)
  • Weight Gain and Body Composition Changes
  • Hormone Imbalances (Adrenal, Thyroid, Sex and Steroid Hormones)
  • Osteoporosis and Osteopenia
  • Gastrointestinal Issues (IBS, Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, SIBO)
  • Musculoskeletal Injury; Pain, Weakness, Imbalance
  • Cardiovascular Disease; Hypertension, Hypercholesterolemia
  • Diabetes; Type II and Pre-Diabetes
  • Sleep Disturbances
  • Nutritional Deficiencies as well as Drug Induced Nutrition Deficiencies – Often a silent
  • Nutrition Well Checks and Pre-Pregnancy Nutritional Adequacy (looking inside the cell)
  • Telomere testing shows us our cellular or biological age which can be older or younger than are chronological age, depending on your overall health.
  • Food Sensitivities

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional Medicine is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. Read more

What does a Functional Medicine Practitioner study?

Functional Medicine is an exciting new medical model that is experiencing tremendous growth in medical communities. Read more

Working with a Functional Medicine Practitioner.

Functional Medicine practitioners promote wellness by focusing on the fundamental underlying factors that influence every patient’s experience of health and disease. Read more

Will I be asked to take supplements?

It is likely that I will ask you to be on a pharmaceutical grade supplement program, especially in the beginning of your program. People often begin at PPH with nutritional insufficiencies and/or deficiencies that they likely have had building for some time. Our less-than-ideal food supply, poor food choices, and digestion/absorptions issues often leave Americans in a chronic state of nutritional inadequacy. The human body can only compensate for so long until symptoms appear. Nutrients run, repair, or build nearly every process in the human body – that’s nutritional biochemistry! For more information, see the PPH blog on nutritional adequacy and nutritional science.

What is a Pharmaceutical Grade Supplement?

Pharmaceutical grade supplements meet the highest regulatory requirements for purity, dissolution (ability to dissolve), and absorption. Pharmaceutical grade supplements are 99% pure, with no binders, fillers, dyes, or other unknown substances. They are the lowest in potentially harmful excipients. Quality is assured by an outside party – the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). This high quality typically costs twice as much as supermarket style products but typically you get 3-4 times the dosage! You can find pharmaceutical grade in better health food stores, medical offices, and compounding pharmacies. In some states, you need a Rx to get nutrients of this quality. PPH recommends and provides only pharmaceutical grade supplements. Note: Although traditional OTC supplements are less expensive, PPH cannot recommend these unless they are third party tested by an accredited agency. I will be happy to educate you on the goods and not so goods of the products you may be consuming.

Will you change my diet?

This is where people begin to like me less……yes, I will very likely ask you to make some dietary adjustments. I/We will strive to find food that benefits your specific health needs, genetics, risk factors and your health goals. Foods that you enjoy!

What about exercise?

Yes, exercise is definitely an important part of health. Exercise prescription is more involved than most think. Exercise recommendations will take into account your gender, age, physical, orthopedic, hormone states and your individual goals. Private “get the right program going” gym appointments and/or referral to a personal trainer for more consistent support may be offered. I will be happy to use my exercise physiology and PT background to work with you or your personal trainer.

Is this different than Anti-Aging Medicine?

OK, we are all aging. The real question is “how” are you aging? Please see this document which address the true physiology of aging. It was written by me and a colleague a few years ago. Click Here. By the very definition aging physiology, yes, PPH is in effect an “anti-aging” practice.

Why is BIA testing so important?

BIA Testing is Currently On Hold Secondary to COVID19.

PPH uses The RJL Quantum II Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer (BIA). This is an FDA approved electronic device which applies a small 50-kilohertz current through the body using sensor pad electrodes placed on the right foot and right wrist. There are over 2000 published research studies utilizing BIA technology as a marker of health. BIA also offers us an independent method of monitoring the efficacy of your health and fitness protocol.

BIA testing provides information such as body cell mass, fat-free mass, extracellular mass, fat mass, intracellular and extracellular water as well as phase angle, basal metabolic rate, reactance, resistance, etc. to provide us with a picture of your overall body composition (is your distribution healthy?), hydration status (do you have enough water and is it where it should be?), and cellular integrity (are they healthy?).

Lean body mass is not just important for good looks but is necessary for overall health. According to an article published in JAMA by Dr. Roubenoff, “Muscle is the major source of protein for functions such as antibody production, wound healing, and white blood cell production during illness. If the body’s protein reserves are already depleted by sarcopenia (muscle loss), there is less to mobilize for illness.” We all want more vitality and functional capacity for as long as we can have it. We all want more metabolically active tissue (lean body mass) and less metabolically inactive tissue (fat mass). We all want our cells to be like plump, juicy grapes as opposed to dried out raisins.

Another useful important marker, phase angle, provides cellular health and integrity information. Within the last few years there have been several published papers in major journals depicting phase angle as the best indicator for prognosis of survival for patients with cancer, AIDS, and kidney disease. A normal distribution of tissue and fluid in the body is associated with immunity, high function, and longevity. An abnormal distribution of tissue and fluid in the body is associated with susceptibility, effects of disease and aging, low function, morbidity, and mortality.

Finally, proper hydration is vital to fundamental metabolic processes throughout the body. You may be drinking enough water, but is it inside the cells where the metabolic processes occur or outside the cells leading to swelling and toxicity?

Ask your trainer or gym owner if they would like to incorporated BIA testing at their facility and you may be able to test at your gym as well as in my office. Click Here for a sample BIA report.