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Reprint from
Thursday, November 25, 1998
Clinic combines traditional and Eastern treatments
by
Betsy Levinson
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It's been an either/or situation up to now.
Health care consumers can follow traditional route for disease prevention and treatment or try their luck with alternative medicine.
But now, both pathways to health are integrated under one roof with the Oct 1 opening of the Concord Clinic on Winthrop Street in West Concord.
The pioneering clinic is under the direction of Dr. Charles Malis, a physician whose approach to medicine embraces the traditional as well as the lesser-known Eastern.
"Patients ought to have all their choices explained," said Malis, "We offer the best of both, a blend of the conventional and alternative. Patients get to choose or combine techniques. Whatever works is good medicine."
Inside the spacious, well-lit building, there are a variety of examination, testing and treatment rooms, as well as a lend-a-book library of medical references and holistic books and a large conference room for multi-disciplinary "consults."
But it's the patients who set the agenda.
"Dr. Malis operates independent of any health care system" said Nancy Goldy, marketing director for the clinic. "If he sees the need to refer a patient to a specialist, he will find the best person and make the arrangements."
I'm a throwback, an anachronism," said Malis during a recent interview. "I'm living in the 1990s but my ethics and training are from the 1970s and 1980s."
He receives patients at a round glass table in his new office. Around him are pieces of artwork that have been in his family for generations. There is a faded photograph taken of his grandfather in 1957 with Pope Pius XII in the Vatican where, as Malis tells it, his grandfather cleaned the Pontiff's teeth.
Malis began practicing medicine at Emerson Hospital in 1989 after several years of cardiovascular research at Massachusetts General Hospital. He noticed "too many people dying of heart attacks and strokes," brought on, he believes, by a lack of understanding about their causes.
"I can prevent heart attacks and strokes 100 percent of the time, as long as preventive treatment is undertake," Malis said. "They are both preventable events. I guarantee it."
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In response to the alarming number of heart patients he saw, Malis founded the Concord Longevity Center in 1991 at the John Cuming Building. He developed a rapport with chiropractor Dr. Jeff Robichaud who shared his belief that patients need "to know their health and what they deserve," Malis said.
"Doctors are losing sight of the patient," Robichaud said. "They are too busy telling a patient what is important rather than listening for what is important."
The two men because disillusioned, then angry, with what they saw as the "gate-keeper" mentality as practiced by many doctors in modern HMOs. The Longevity Center evolved into the Concord Clinic as Malis and Robichaud began seeing positive results combining holistic treatment with traditional.
"I guarantee patients get what they need," Malis said. "I have no ties, no network outside of the professionals in this building."
Appointments are 30 to 60 minutes long. "I make recommendations for a fitness plan for everyone," he said. "I get a biochemical profile. And I suggest what alternative options might be available, if I think it would help."
In addition to Malis and Robichaud, the clinic houses the office of nurse practitioner Heidi Glover, acupuncturist Christopher Swain, naturopathic physician Janet Beaty, two massage therapists and a nutritionist. There is a cardiovascular lab, a bone densitometer and a physical therapy room as well as two chiropractic treatment rooms.
"Many therapies and medications were developed over thousands of years," Malis said, plucking a book on world religions out of his bookcase. "Chinese traditions, ayurvedic, these are not voodoo. They need to be incorporated when appropriate. The have been tested for centuries."
"How many 60 or 70 year olds can afford to wait for the time it normally takes for drug trials to conclude before they can access new preparations." He said. "When conventional therapy fails, why not explore other safe proven treatments that are available already?"
Points of entry to services at the clinic can be via independent phone call or referral from a primary care physician. "We take all insurances except HMOs" said Goldy. "Or patients can pay for services received."
On the table in Malis' office, there's a figure of the Greek god, Hermes standing on one toe, holding a caduceus, a symbol of the medical profession. "Hermes is the messenger," Malis said. "That's a metaphor for the clinic. We're the messengers."
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Reprint from
Thursday, September 21, 1998
Using nature's way to wellness
Getting back to basics can cure what technology fails to solve
by
Jocelyn C. Barborn
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When David R. of Concord went skiing with his son for the day, he knew that he was finally really well.
"Last winter," he said, "I would not have been strong enough to drive there, let alone ski for the day."
As someone who shares the same medical diagnosis with David, I was eager to find out how he had recovered from the chronic illness we both had. I understood when he described, "It feels like a flu but without the sniffles."
Imagine feeling so exhausted that getting into bed each night feels like you've run a marathon to get there - - but sleep is fleeting and difficult. Your joints ache, your muscles hurt, your eyes are sensitive to light, your digestion is upset and the unrelenting fatigue goes on and on.
"At my worst I was in such a "brain-fog", he said, "that I couldn't follow what people were saying or find the words to answer questions."
Then the tingling sensation in his nerves began, and David finally said to his wife, "I can't blame this all on stress and age any more." (He was 36 at the time.) "I think there's something very wrong with me."
His internist sent him to a respected neurologist at Emerson Hospital who performed a battery of neurological tests to rule out Multiple Sclerosis, brain tumor and other serious diseases.
All tests were negative, including blood work. Still David knew he was a very sick man. After months of tests the neurologist diagnosed David with Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS). There is no known treatment or cure for the illness and the cause still mystifies the medical establishment. Conventional medicine could only offer limited symptomatic relief.
"I did some reading on the subject," he said, "and it terrified me because all the research said that people were sick for three to ten years or more.:
"The turning pint" he said, "was when I went to Dr. Janet Beaty, a naturopathic physician."
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Naturopathic Approach
Naturopathic physicians (N.D.s) are general practitioners trained as specialists in natural medicine. The N.D. has a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine degree from a four-year graduate level college. Admissions requirements are comparable to those of conventional medical schools. There are presently two federally accredited institutions: Bastyr University in Seattle, Wash., and National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Ore.
Dr. Beady has impressive credentials - a master's degree in Education and a doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine (N.D.) from Bastyr University preceded by two years of pre-med studies. She taught special need children for ten years, worked as a massage therapist, did a year's residency at Bastyr's teaching clinic, as well as practiced at the Tyringham Clinic in England. All this preceded her naturopathic medical practice in Massachusetts. "But I was still skeptical" David laughed.
Naturopathy means literally "nature cure." It is a concept of healing that employs natural means to prevent and treat disease.
"I was immediately impressed with Dr. Beaty's patience and thoroughness," he said.
A preliminary consultation with the doctor generally takes 1 ½ hours or more, and the fees are extremely reasonable. The natural system of healing is based on eliminating stresses to the body, detoxification of poisonous products and building the vitality so that the body can heal itself.
Dr. Beady is quick to point out that she doesn't cure anyone. "I set up an environment that helps the body heal itself" she said.
She developed a special diet, stress reduction and mild exercise tailored to David's needs. The results of lab work pinpointed specific conditions in this body and appropriate herbs were prescribed as well. "Within a couple of weeks, I started feeling better," he said. "It's now two years later and I consider myself recovered."
David added, "It wasn't easy; it required a lot of discipline on my part, but I was pretty desperate."
His wife, Diane, was so impressed with David's recovery that she, too, sees Dr. Beaty for her medical care.
"The only reason our kids don't see her," David said, "is because they are healthy!"
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