In 2003, I got a phone call from actress and best-selling author Suzanne Somers.

Suzanne was writing a book on hormones and menopause, and as I am a medical doctor and an acknowledged expert in bio-identical hormone therapy and anti-aging medicine, she wanted to interview me.

Within a few months of that first interview, Suzanne came to my clinic in Santa Monica, California. While she had no symptoms or complaints, she was curious about what I did and how it differed from the other doctors she had interviewed.

She was so impressed that she elected to become my patient. A decade later, Suzanne still comes to my clinic for treatments, and I have been a featured contributor in eight of her best-selling books.

In a city full of doctors offering every kind of anti-aging treatment, why have stars like Suzanne Somers and Vanessa Williams, as well as the “movers and shakers” in the entertainment industry, successful business people, doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists, made the journey to my clinic in Santa Monica for over 25 years?

Why do they, like Cornelia Guest, tell me, “You saved my life … I’d be lost without you”?

Why am I considered the “best-kept secret” in youth-centric Hollywood?

And why do I have people calling me from every continent except Antarctica to ask for my help?

Simple: I have developed a program that consistently helps people look and feel years younger than their actual age.

And through this blog I want to share it with you so that you, too, can quickly start to improve your health and feeler better than you may not have felt in years.

The sad truth is that poor health is something that most people in this country are struggling with. They may not necessarily be suffering from specific illnesses, but they certainly lack the energy they had when they were younger to do the things they most enjoy.

In fact, lack of energy is the number one complaint among my patients, just as it is among patients of most other physicians.

Add to that chronic stress, low libido, memory problems and “foggy” thinking, joint pain and lack of flexibility, and you have the potpourri of symptoms that the majority of Americans experience each and every day.

I am here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Your body is designed to be healthy and to retain its youthful vigor well beyond what most people today expect and think of as normal. My patients and I are living proof of this.

The reason my program is both unique and so effective is because it combines the best of leading edge discoveries from both conventional and complementary, or alternative, medicine, and in particular, because of its focus on Energy Medicine, which addresses health at the cellular or energetic level.

Both aging and disease are created energetically by such factors as environmental toxins, nutrient deficiencies, and excess stress. This fact is something that is often overlooked by most physicians today.

While conventional medicine views the body mostly from a physical and chemical perspective — using tools such as x-rays, CT scans, biopsies, MRIs, and mammograms to look inside the body, and blood, urine, stool, and lymph tests to do chemical analyses of bodily fluids — Energy Medicine sees the physical body as an energetic system.

Any imbalance or disease is a result of disturbances in the energy field of a particular organ or system.

If left untreated, these disturbances eventually produce biochemical abnormalities, and then alterations to tissues and organs. Therefore, Energy Medicine has the capability of diagnosing and treating problems at the energetic level before they ever manifest as specific symptoms.

This is important because millions of people in the U.S. today aren’t really sick—but they aren’t really well either.

Many patients come to my practice complaining of fatigue, lack of focus, diminished productivity and enjoyment of life. They’ve been to their primary care physicians and had batteries of tests that show nothing wrong. But these people know they’re not healthy, and they are seeking solutions that will restore their missing vitality, energy, and zest for life.

When they walk into my office, their experience is very different. Yes, I run the usual blood and urine tests to confirm that their readings are in the normal range. But then I use tests such as bio-impedance analysis, heart rate variability, applied kinesiology, and electro-dermal screening, to assess the energetic health of their cells. I ask about their lifestyle, how well they eat, how much they exercise.

I ask whether they have amalgam dental fillings (which leak mercury, a toxic metal, into the body), and how many hours they spend exposed to electromagnetic radiation from their cell phones and computers.

I ask about their work and relationships, and how much stress they’ve been under. (You can learn more about the testing methods I employ, and find the same questionnaire that I use with my patients, in my book Outstanding Health: The 6 Essential Keys To Maximize Your Energy and Well Being.)

It quickly becomes clear where the patient’s energetic weaknesses are located—typically, depleted adrenals in combination with overtaxed elimination systems (kidneys, liver, and lymph).

Once I determine where the weaknesses are, I then can prescribe specific lifestyle changes, nutritional support, and other treatments to bring the body gently back to electrical, chemical, and physical balance.

The information I share in Outstanding Health has been designed to create the same changes for you.

By making use of the precepts of Energy Medicine to treat the causes of ill-health rather than symptoms, and to increase well-being by increasing energy, I am able to help my patients you towards renew and revitalize themselves at every level - body, mind, and spirit - so they can enjoy greater health and vitality no matter their age or health status when they first come to see me.

You may be wondering how I came to develop my Energy Medicine approach to health care.

My journey began in 1986, when I went from being a burnt-out emergency room physician to practicing at a holistic clinic in Westwood, California.

One of my best friends, Bill, came to see me complaining of fatigue, and I diagnosed mercury toxicity from the amalgam fillings in his teeth.

I advised him to have his fillings removed and ran a blood test (similar to a food allergy test) to determine which metals would be compatible with his body to use in the replacement fillings.

But when Bill came back from the dentist, he had a list of recommendations the dentist had produced by using an energy screening device that measured skin resistance changes when various metals were introduced into the circuit.

I compared the results from the blood test and the results from the device, and they were identical. I said, “If measuring skin resistance (a noninvasive test) could produce the same results as a blood test, I want to know more.”

Thus began my comprehensive education in Energy Medicine, which has included trainings in Germany, certifications in medical acupuncture, homeopathic medicine (including creating my own line of homeopathic remedies), nutritional and supplement studies, as well as studying the sub-clinical effects of stress and lifestyle on health.

In the years since then, I have applied the precepts and principles of Energy Medicine to both my extensive conventional medical knowledge and my work with bio-identical hormones to create a comprehensive program that has helped thousands of people live more healthy, vital lives.

My patients range from ages 1 to 95 and come from every continent except Antarctica. I also have trained, consulted with, and recommended doctors who practice Energy Medicine all over the world.

And I believe that anyone, armed with an understanding of Energy Medicine, can re-ignite their spark of energy and health. It is my hope that Energy Medicine will soon be integrated into our nation's healthcare system. In the meantime, in this column, I will be sharing with you tips and information you can use to become healthier than you might even imagine is possible.

Stay tuned...

To your outstanding health!