What is restorative medicine?
It is the restoration of optimal physiology. It is a whole‐body concept because it affects every organ system, from our head to our toes. Restorative Medicine logically forces a new principle: that many diseases are the result of an imbalance of body chemistry, and once we restore balance and physiology we can correct the cause of the majority of diseases. This is the new message that must be heard, and will be heard because it is logical, it is rooted in science, and it is based on clinical results.
The concepts of Restorative Medicine in this book are based on the lifetime work of Sergey A. Dzugan, MD, PhD, who has fine tuned this concept and identified specific essential hormones and nutrients that need to be brought back into equilibrium or balanced to achieve optimal health, and a body able to fight disease. Using our Restorative Medicine Program, clinicians and patients can enter a brave new world in healing and will be able to effectively prevent or treat diseases and syndromes that result from imbalances, such as atherosclerosis, arthritis, migraine, fibromyalgia, menopause, depression, erectile dysfunction, and many others.
What Causes Disease?
To better understand what Restorative Medicine is all about, let’s first consider some basic concepts. One is, What causes disease? Once you know what causes a disease or disorder, you have a more solid foundation upon which to find ways to prevent and treat it. Disease can be caused by one of four factors:
- Genetics/Congenital: Conditions such as cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, Down’s syndrome, congenital heart disease, and sickle cell have clear genetic or congenital causes. In addition, many diseases also have a genetic component, meaning that genetics plays a role in the development of the condition, but it is a risk factor, and not the primary cause. That is, you can inherit a tendency to develop a certain disease.
- Infections: Diseases clearly caused by an infectious organism, which include viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa. Some examples include pneumonia, meningitis, colds/flu, urinary tract infections, bone infections, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS.
- Trauma: A fall, automobile accident, or other physical trauma can cause brain hemorrhage, post‐traumatic epilepsy, and brain injuries.
- Acquired physiologic errors: The majority of people who have disease have one or more that has been caused by acquired physiologic errors, or imbalances. Conditions such as heart disease, cancer, depression, arthritis, fibromyalgia, migraine, fatigue, ulcerative colitis, atherosclerosis, and many others fall into this category. This is the category of disease addressed by the Restorative Medicine approach.
Restorative Medicine treats the errors of physiology by restoring the body’s hormones and nutrients to optimal levels. Normally, the body strives to keep a healthy ratio between different hormones. For example, some of the hormones that work together and for which we have identified an optimal ratio are DHEA and cortisol, and estrogen and progesterone. When hormone levels and ratios are not balanced, there is a breakdown in bodily functions.
Although we talk about hormones in much detail in Chapter 3, here we just want to say that critical hormones such as DHEA, pregnenolone, testosterone, and others begin to decline around age 35. Perhaps the most important thing that happens when hormone levels begin to decline is that the body tries to correct the problem by increasing production of cholesterol. To help prevent or correct this response and others launched by the body when hormone levels fall, the main goal of our Restorative Medicine Program is to bring a person’s hormone levels back to what is optimal for each individual at age 25 to 30.
