18 Aug The Goldberg Tener Clinic Approach
“Causes Identified-Causes Addressed-Health Restored”
It is difficult for patients not to be overwhelmed by their medical diagnoses. Our medical system is based on grouping disease symptoms into “diagnostic” titles followed by “treatments” for the title given. The outcome of this method has been symptomatic care that has failed to restore health as evidenced by the growing number of people suffering with chronic disease and subjected to drugs riddled with dangerous side effects.
Daily we encounter patients who want to know if The Goldberg Tener Clinic “treats” a specific disease…allergies to cancer, alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis to rheumatoid disease to gastrointestinal disorders to psoriasis or fibromyalgia. Do we “treat it”? The answer is we work with patients with virtually any medical diagnosis but we do not “treat” any of them. We are not trying to be elusive. We accept patients with most diagnoses but do not “treat” these diagnoses. Our goal is to identify the causes of dis-ease and restore optimal functioning of the entire body. In doing so we have restored health to thousands of chronically ill individuals with virtually every kind of medical diagnosis. This logical approach is the outgrowth of Dr. Goldberg’s experience with chronic illness as a young man, his training in epidemiology and clinical nutrition, thirty years as a Professor of Nutrition, Gastroenterology and Rheumatology and his work over three decades with chronically ill patients whose health has been restored by re-building their health.
Know the patient that has the disease name… not the disease name that has the patient.
Health care has long been one dimensional, viewing numerous diseases but not the individual having the disease. What is missing is taking an approach specific to each patient’s needs. At the Goldberg Tener Clinic this begins with a thorough evaluation, asking the right questions, listening carefully to the answers and putting the pieces of the puzzle together as a health/disease detective, uncovering the specific circumstances that contributed to each person’s problems.
Each Person A Case All Their Own…The Pitfalls of Diagnostic Titles
It has proven easier for doctors to treat patients as diagnostic groupings rather than as complex individuals. This includes the physician who sees the patient as his “diabetic, heart disease or rheumatoid arthritis case” suitable for the latest drug the pharmaceutical representative is touting or“Alternative” Doctors with their many “ remedies”.
Sidney Baker, M.D. commented on the need to address individual patient needs rather than on insurance policies: “We human beings are quite consciously aware that each of us is different from everyone else… however, it is far easier (for a doctor) to group people to avoid the complexity of thinking about and treating each person as an individual. Supposing I were to fill out an insurance form for Seth Hammer and report that he has Seth Hammer’s disease and that I am giving him the Seth Hammer treatment…. this does not help with insurance forms.”
What Should One Do for Condition “X”?
I am often asked: “Dr. Goldberg, what would you do for a patient with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Ulcerative Colitis, Multiple Sclerosis, Fibromyalgia, ALS, Chronic Fatigue, Uticaria or other disease titles. My response is simple: I would perform a thorough interview followed by an examination and appropriate lab studies in order to develop a program, with the patient, to identify and address the sources of their illness all geared to taking the right steps to restore health. What if there were heart problems, psoriasis, asthma, lupus, inflammatory bowel disease or other serious “diagnosis?” The same I respond. Health promoting measures tailored to the needs of the individual, not drugs nor “alternative” treatments. This is not to imply that the patient should never seek medical care but rather to say that at our clinic we are involved with building health not in treating disease names or in treating symptoms.
It is by taking the time to understand the causes behind each patient’s problems that we are able to assist patients regain their health. This requires effort by the patients who must make the needed changes as their health plan evolves. The Goldberg Tener Clinic is not for those who want someone to supply an elusive “cure” that so many fail to find with drugs and alternative potions. It is for those willing to make the needed changes and work hard even when it means changes in lifestyle. Our clinic is a place where doctor and patient together delve into how the individual became ill and apply the health essentials required to rebuild health. The Goldberg Tener Clinic is not another form of medicine or “alternative medicine,” of countless “treatments”, therapies and nostrums. We focus on the identification of causes, addressing those causes and creating the proper conditions for the restoration of health.
“Causes Identified…Causes Addressed…Health Restored”. This is the foundation on which our work was established thirty-five years ago to benefit every patient who enters our office and it is the tradition we remain dedicated to today.
Paul A. Goldberg, MPH, DC, DACBN, DCBCB
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