Discover the Journey from Surgery to Holistic Healing

I am a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon and I specialize in shoulder and elbow surgery.  I have enjoyed a career in private practice for over 20 years and during that time developed several types of surgical techniques and helped design multiple different implants as well as surgical retractors which are being used today.  However, no matter how well we designed surgeries or implants, there were still failures.  Many of these were failures of biology…meaning failure to heal.  Therefore, I became more interested in the biology of the patient.  This required deeper dives into metabolic health.

            It is not surprising that multiple factors seemed to be associated with failures such as smoking and diabetes but there were others as well.  Even elevated lipid panels have been associated with rotator cuff disease.  At the root of a lot of these metabolic problems were mitochondrial dysfunction, increased oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.  Therefore, I implored my patients to improve their metrics before we went into surgery.  This included a high protein and low carb diet to provide the amino acids to heal musculoskeletal tissue and lower triglyceride levels.  High fiber protein smoothies and probiotics to reduce cholesterol and reduce chronic inflammation.  Supplements such as high doses of omega 3 fatty acids to reduce chronic inflammation and methylated B complex vitamins for energy were also encouraged. 

            This required being intentional with nutrition and was not easy for some patients, but those that were able to stick with it, found that not only did they heal better, they felt better.  Some patients even went to the next level with bioactive peptides like BPC-157 and growth hormone releasing analogues and just crushed the rehabilitation.  I had my own knee replacement 3 years ago and used peptides and recovered quickly with significant gains in muscle mass and strength.

            These experiences have led me to really enjoy the health wellness space as there is so much agency that we have over our health with proper nutrition, attention to gut health, exercise and supplements.  My goal is to try to provide relevant and actionable information to others especially with regard to musculoskeletal health.