Our culture is prescription–happy. When depressed, we look to medication. When men lose their potency, again we turn to so–called 'miracle drugs.' But is all that necessary? Or is it even helping?
Dr. Cristina Salmon, owner of Clinical Age Management, has a better idea. A graduate of Georgetown and UT Southwestern, this physician has spent the majority of her career working in the Emergency Room. Watching the seemingly interminable revolving door of urgent care, Dr. Salmon was disappointed with the lack of preventative care. Of even her sickest patients, Dr. Salmon says that “If we had done some preventative medicine early on, we probably could’ve avoided an ER visit.”
Her pregnancy further inspired her pursuit of new avenues to wellness. After giving birth to her daughter, Eva, Dr. Salmon experienced debilitating fatigue which prevented her from waking before 9 a.m. Rather than seeking more common treatment, Dr. Salmon did research and went to conferences, discovering bioidentical hormone replacement. In her research, she discovered that many people could benefit from hormonal treatments. If a patient is suffering from a lack of one or more hormones, everything from their weight to their mood can hang in the balance. Most of the candidates for these treatments report symptoms such as weight gain, loss of muscle, loss of concentration, loss of memory, and like Dr. Salmon, fatigue. As Dr. Salmon says, she “was her first patient.”
For a little over a year now, Dr. Cristina Salmon has owned and operated Clinical Age Management (CAM). Rather than offer standard prescriptions, CAM specializes in bioidentical hormones. “Bioidentical means that compounding pharmacists will make it from the body in natural ways and give it back,” Dr. Salmon explains. Most pharmaceuticals require slight chemical manipulations in order to establish their uniqueness, but these chemical alterations also open the door to significant side effects. On the other hand, bioidentical hormone replacement avoids the synthetic pitfalls of most market pharmaceuticals.
So what exactly does 'clinical age management’ involve? When a patient arrives at CAM, Dr. Salmon spends about an hour reviewing the relevant hormones, such as testosterone, estrogen, cortisol, progesterone, thyroid and aldosterone. She explains that as we age, the level of each of these hormones decreases. In women, both estrogen and progesterone fall sharply around menopause. In men, so–called 'andropause’ brings a sharp decrease in testosterone. Though these changes are inevitable, they are not without remedy.
Of her departure from more mainstream medicine, Dr. Salmon explains, “I have one foot in western medicine and one foot in more homeopathic medicine. I try to do everything naturally first, and if not, there are a lot of great medicines out there.” She admits, “for some people, it’s unlikely that the hormone treatment will be sufficient.” While severely clinically depressed patients are unlikely to benefit, 90% of those experiencing depression in general will benefit from hormonal treatment.
Though most of her patients are trying to rectify hormonal imbalances, some patients come seeking far more elective treatment. For example, a returning soldier requested growth hormone, which he used in Iraq to supplement his weight–training. Dr. Salmon flatly refused him, saying that she “treat[s] growth hormone deficiencies; when you’re dealing with someone going above and beyond; it improves hand–eye coordination, but also side effects and adverse outcomes.”
Because so many of her treatments are innovative and unfamiliar, Dr. Salmon makes sure to only utilize treatments grounded in research. For example, Chelation therapy has anecdotal evidence to support its benefits for cardiovascular health, but there is little research to support it, and so Dr. Salmon won’t likely offer it. Dr. Salmon points out that such therapies stand little chance of such essentialstudy unless they can gain the interest of pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Salmon is the proud mother of a three and a half year old daughter, Eva. Her husband, Brian, owns Baby Vision, a company providing 3D 40 Ultrasounds. These ultrasounds provide expecting parents, as well as their family and friends, with detailed images as never before. While simple ultrasounds provide only a blurry rendering of your baby, 3D 40 shows life–like images of your growing child. Many clients point out how nice it is for the father to 'bond’ with the child in this way, as they are unable to experience the same bond as the mother.
Ten years from now, Dr. Salmon would love to expand the healing capabilities of her practice, offering an onsite nutritionist as well as raw food restaurant with vegan options. She feels that there is no better way to teach a patient to eat well than to show them how. She would also like to feature a physical arm of the practice, offering yoga classes to her patients. Though the potential for growth seems limitless, Dr. Salmon says, “I don’t want anything huge. I’m not in the practice of managing employees. I really would rather deal with medicine.”
