Optimal Health Spectrums – Optimize your health at our Integrative Medical Practice!
Dr. Lynne Mielke, who founded Optimal Health Spectrums, offers Integrative Wellness Medicine for adults and children, including comprehensive Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy, HCG Diet programs, food allergy testing, individualized nutritional assessment and supplementation protocols, heavy metal detoxification or chelation, mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and optimization of the gastrointestinal and immune systems for a healthier and happier you!
At Optimal Health Spectrums, we believe that your health requires a balance among all of the body’s systems, and that just drugging a symptom is not the best approach. We practice evidence-based Integrative Medicine for men’s, women’s, and children’s health. We look and test for the underlying CAUSES of your symptoms, and treat those causes usually with non-drug approaches, so that the symptoms naturally go away, many times without medication. If a medication is still needed, it can still be used, but it is the last resort, not the first resort.
Lab reference ranges are based on mass population norms. But what if the majority of people today are not optimally healthy? Then the reference ranges are not optimal for health either. That is the situation that we are in today. As an example, the “normal” age for the onset of puberty has been consistently lowered over the years. Could it be that entire large groups of children are being affected by toxins such as plastics that act as hormone disrupters and are artificially pushing children into puberty before they are mentally or physically ready? Instead of trying to find treatable causes of early puberty, the American Academy of Pediatrics just keeps pushing the normal age for puberty onset earlier and earlier. There are many examples of similar false logic in traditional adult medicine also – e.g. most thyroid lab norms are not optimal either.
Your first visit at our Integrative Medical Clinic will include a history of your current symptoms and medical problems, a brief physical exam, and then we will order lab tests appropriate for your situation. Our lab testing is more extensive than at most doctor’s offices because we test many body systems at the same time, looking for the underlying causes of your health problems, knowing how they all inter-connect. Your initial treatment protocol may include some nutritional supplements that are important for your health situation, possible dietary advice, lifestyle recommendations, educational reading recommendations, as well as conventional medical advice, when needed.
When your lab tests come back we will have a follow-up appointment where we will review them together, every test will be explained to you, and you will get copies of them all. Additional treatment recommendations based upon your lab results and symptoms will be made at that time.
As we work together as a team to optimize your health, you will be learning lots of important new information on how to prevent diseases in the future, and how to get healthy now!
Your first visit at our Integrative medical clinic will include a history of your current symptoms and medical problems, a brief physical exam, and then we will order lab tests appropriate for your situation. Our lab testing is more extensive than at most doctor’s offices because we test many body systems at the same time, looking for the underlying causes of your health problems, knowing how they all inter-connect. Your initial treatment protocol may include some nutritional supplements that are important for your health situation, possible dietary advice, lifestyle recommendations, educational reading recommendations, as well as conventional medical advice, when needed.
When your lab tests come back we will have a follow-up appointment where we will review them together, every test will be explained to you, and you will get copies of them all. Additional treatment recommendations based upon your lab results and symptoms will be made at that time. As we work together as a team to optimize your health, you will be learning lots of important new information on how to prevent diseases in the future, and how to get healthy now!
Questions? Call us at 925-846-8000 or Get Started Online by visiting our New Patients Section!
We order specialized tests of blood, urine, stool, saliva, and hair, to assess your nutritional status, immune system, gastrointestinal system, hormonal balance, toxic body burden, and even your DNA to find out what you are predisposed to. These specialized tests (not all are available at most doctor’s offices) uncover issues that may be contributing to your symptoms, such as chronic immune reactions to foods and inhalants, chronic underlying viral, yeast, or other infections, deficiencies in critical nutrients and hormones, or systemic inflammation and autoimmunity.
For the blood tests, we recommend that you schedule an appointment to come to our lab for the blood draw, or you can go to a lab close to you. Our phlebotomists are exceptional at drawing blood and are familiar with all the complicated processing requirements of our tests, unlike outside labs. If sedation is necessary for the blood draw, that can be arranged. We want your lab experience to be a positive one. Some tests kits are also given to you to collect and complete at home. Overall, when we get this important laboratory information, we are usually able to figure out how to help you feel better, even if you have a complex condition that has stumped many others!
Visit OHS New Patient Resource Section for Testing Information
Hormones are some of the most powerful molecules in our bodies. We cannot survive without them. And yet, many adults are living in a state of depleted hormones, due to stress, toxicity, and natural aging. From an evolutionary perspective, we weren’t expected to live this long, so we wouldn’t have needed any hormones. However, today we are living much longer, and have many chronic diseases that are directly related to the loss of our natural hormones. Pharmaceutical hormones that are molecularly different from our natural human hormones are not safe, and are a prime example of how it is best not to mess with Mother Nature! Remember, drug companies cannot patent a natural compound and drug companies directly control what most physicians learn about, so that is why most doctors don’t know anything about bioidentical hormones.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT) is important because we need our hormones to keep us younger at a cellular level, to prevent many of the degenerative diseases of aging (such as dementia, osteoporosis, heart disease and stroke) and to give us back a quality of life that time has stolen. Natural bioidentical Estrogen, Progesterone, Testosterone, Thyroid (T3 and T4), Cortisol, Melatonin, DHEA, Pregnenolone, and Human Growth Hormone all need to be present in optimal amounts for you to feel the “symphony” of optimal health!
The HCG Diet works quickly – results are almost instant. It is so gratifying to step on the scale and see your weight decline daily! Many of our patients lose a pound per day on average.
It is healthy – no pre-packaged foods, full of chemicals and preservatives. This diet recommends simple, organic foods that you prepare at home. This teaches you how to eat properly for life.
It is easy – the recipes are fast and easy to make, and taste good.
You won’t be hungry – the HCG suppresses your appetite, so that you are physically comfortable during your weight loss.
You won’t be tired – the HCG helps your body burn so much fat that your metabolism doesn’t slow down, so you have plenty of energy to keep functioning in your busy life!
It doesn’t require intensive exercise – exercise is important for our overall health, but it is a hard way to lose weight and isn’t recommended during this diet.
Learn More About Optimal Health Spectrums HCG Weight Loss Programs
Integrative Psychiatry uses an approach to mental health that combines the best of conventional psychiatry with safe, Integrative medical methods to improve effectiveness. Integrative Psychiatry provides care that gives you more than just disease management and symptom reduction. It shifts the focus to prevention and wellness, and allows for a greater focus on the whole person – both mind and body.
What is the difference between Integrative Psychiatry and traditional Psychiatry?
Traditional Psychiatry usually involves diagnosing a patient by their list of symptoms. If a certain number of mental symptoms are present, a diagnosis is made, and then usually a Psychiatric medication and/or counseling is recommended. The problem with this is that a given symptom, say low mood or fatigue, can often have many different medical causes. Most Psychiatrists are not trained to look deeply into the possible medical causes of mental symptoms, and assume that most symptoms are psychological in nature. Many mental symptoms have a medical or physical cause. Often, if the underlying medical cause is addressed, the mental symptoms go away, and the patient feels well. To find the medical cause requires medical testing of blood, urine, saliva, hair, or even stool samples, depending on the patient’s symptoms and problems. Sometimes even genetic testing is useful to determine what a person’s genetic predispositions are.
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Adrenal Fatigue is at epidemic proportions today, due to our stressful lives. Even some teens have it, from the stress being placed on them to succeed. Anyone who “burns the candle at both ends” is at risk.
Adrenal Fatigue is a medical condition where there is sub-optimal Cortisol production by the adrenal glands, leading to symptoms of exhaustion, feeling burned out, or a feeling of not being able to cope. It is often accompanied by a “foggy brain” or difficulty focusing and prioritizing, which can lead to feelings of inadequacy and mild depression. A person with Adrenal Fatigue sometimes has to drag themselves through their day, self-medicating with high levels of caffeine to keep functioning.
When someone has low levels of Cortisol, they have trouble getting things done, and they can easily lose their temper, not having any tolerance for things that didn’t used to bother them. Daily life can feel like a struggle.
When Adrenal Fatigue is properly diagnosed and treated, patients feel like they have a new lease on life, like they can cope with what life throws at them. They can handle the daily stresses of life without feeling overwhelmed, and that feels good!
Learn More About Optimal Health Spectrums Adrenal Fatigue Programs
Did you know that the thyroid gland makes two thyroid hormones, and that the most commonly prescribed thyroid medications (Synthroid, L-Thyroxine, and Levothroid) only contain one of them? And it isn’t even the most important one? Wouldn’t you rather have both, the way nature intended?
When replacing thyroid hormone, it is important to take a natural, bioidentical thyroid hormone, such as Naturethroid or Armour. This contains T3 and T4 in the proper ratio to help us feel our best. Natural thyroid hormone is best taken twice per day on an empty stomach since T3 is a short-acting hormone, unlike the synthetic T4-only products, that can be taken only once per day. We only prescribe natural thyroid, and our patients report feeling better than they have in years.
Studies have shown that most patients feel better on natural thyroid (T3 plus T4) than on T4-only products, so why would you take anything else?
Learn More About Optimal Health Spectrums Thyroid Hormone Replacement Therapies
Optimal Health Spectrums provides nutrient therapies by both infusion and injection. IV nutrient therapy is the infusion of vital nutrients such as vitamins and minerals directly into the bloodstream. This bypasses the digestive system and allows the nutrients to immediately reach the cells and tissues where they are needed the most. Nutrient therapy is a fast and efficient way to replenish vitamins and minerals and revitalize the immune system, thereby promoting optimal health. Our most popular shots are vitamin B12 for energy and optimal brain function, and vitamin D for those who need a quick immune boost.
We offer a large variety of vitamin infusions, ranging from vitamins A, D, C, and E, as well as the B vitamins including Folinic Acid. We also offer infusions of several minerals, including Magnesium, Zinc, and Selenium. In addition, we intravenously administer Phosphatidylcholine (an essential component of every cell membrane) and Glutathione (the most important antioxidant and detox aid in the body). IV nutrient therapy is beneficial for many conditions including but not limited to gastrointestinal disorders, Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, cancers, viral or other chronic infections, neurological disorders, asthma, recovery from surgical or accidental wounds, and improving weak immune function in general. Give your immune system a fighting chance with IV nutrient therapy!
Learn More About Optimal Health Spectrums IV Nutrient Therapies
There are many different ways that the immune system can react to food. An IgG (Immunoglobulin type G) reaction is a delayed, systemic inflammatory response to a food, which can show up as behavior problems in children – or pain, fatigue and irritability in adults, hours or even days after eating the offending food, making it very difficult to pinpoint which food is causing the problem.
A simple blood test can help identify the IgG reactive foods which are causing challenging behaviors, worsening gut, brain, and body inflammation, and making people feel bad. When the offending foods are removed, improvements are often seen in areas such as attention, cognition, behavior, and sleep. Chronic coughing
Learn More About Optimal Health Spectrums Food Allergy Programs
Toxins or poisons in our environment fall into two general categories – chemicals and heavy metals. These toxins damage us in many ways. They can attach to the inside and outside of our cells, blocking our normal biochemical pathways, causing the immune system to see those cells as abnormal and initiating an autoimmune response, and can cause direct oxidative stress. Think of oxidative stress as the cell being “on fire” from beams of free radicals that “burn” or damage the cell inside and out. If the fire goes on long enough, the cell is damaged which causes premature aging and cell death. Cancer especially is a highly toxin-related illness.
There are three things we can do about this.
First – Learn how to avoid further exposure to the toxins.
Second – We can pour water on the flame – take antioxidants and other natural supplements to help with detox.
Third – We can remove the “blow torch” or the source of the flame, and that generally requires heavy metal detoxification (chelation), along with other detox methods, such as Far Infrared sauna therapy.
Regular detoxification is now considered to be a requirement for most people to be optimally healthy living in the constant sea of toxins in our environment. We can help you get the poisons out of your body, so that they don’t weigh you down and cause illness in the future. This is important preventive medicine!
Optimal Health Spectrums Heavy Metal Toxicity and Detoxification Programs
It is impossible to be optimally healthy unless the gastrointestinal and immune systems are in good working order. The GI and immune systems are intimately related to each other. Up to 70% of the immune system actually resides in the intestinal track.
A strong immune system is necessary to fight off invading organisms that are opportunistic – waiting for any opening or weakness in the system to strike. There are many types of organisms that can invade our bodies. The main types are Viruses, Yeasts, Parasites, and Bacteria (including Lyme and its coinfections (Babesia, Erlickia, Bartonella, etc.).
Good GI function often requires taking digestive enzymes and probiotics, and killing off infections from microbes that don’t belong there. The immune system needs many nutrients to function optimally, and there are many specialized immune-boosting supplements that can help you prevent and recover from illnesses. Even cancer has been called a failure of the immune system, so making sure these systems are functioning properly is important preventive medicine for everyone!
Optimal Health Spectrums GI and Immune System Programs
Having an optimal weight is very important for optimal health. Being overweight or obese is associated with many major health problems. The new term that has been coined is “Diabesity,” because having too much body fat causes pre-diabetes, which has also been called Metabolic Syndrome. It is all caused by eating the wrong foods and not getting enough exercise, although diet is about 80% of the cause and lack of exercise is about 20% of the problem. How do you know if you are at the right body weight? The BMI is not a very accurate measure for many people. Some researchers have suggested that the WHR or Waist-Hip Ratio measurement is a more accurate measure of health risks based on being obese. They prefer this test because it takes into account the distribution of fat through the waist and hip area, where we store the majority of our fat.
Fat can be stored as abdominal fat (an “apple” body shape) or around the hips (a “pear” body shape). People who carry their excess fat in their hips are considered to have less of a risk factor than the abdominal obesity people.
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Dr. Mielke’s interest in Lyme disease started when she first heard of a possible connection between Lyme and Autism several years ago. She began testing more of her patients for Lyme, and sure enough, many of the patients and their parents showed up positive for Lyme. Even some of her family members who used to live on the East coast tested positive for Lyme. Dr. Mielke began studying this issue, reading books on Lyme, and attended an ILADS (International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society) meeting in San Francisco, eventually joining ILADS.
There are many nuances in this complex disease, and even diagnosing it is difficult. Most doctors know nothing about Lyme and how to test for it. Many times a blood test will come back negative, but it is a false negative, and a Lyme-literate doctor has to know when to keep looking.
Many of the services offered at the Optimal Health Spectrums clinic are needed by Lyme patients, and we can help them. However, in general we will not be prescribing the complex antibiotic and herbal protocols that chronic and acute Lyme patients need. When we diagnose Lyme disease, we will refer patients to the appropriate local ILADS physicians for that, since this is all they treat. However, we will work closely with those doctors, making sure that the Lyme patients have all of the additional therapies that they need for an optimal treatment outcome.
Work Together with Optimal Health Spectrums to Enhance Your Lyme Treatment Outcome
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, also known as HBOT, increases the amount of oxygen supplied to the body by increasing both the atmospheric pressure and the concentration of oxygen you breathe in a pressurized chamber. Previously, HBOT chambers were only available in large medical centers, and were used for only a few conditions. However, with recent technological advancements in chamber design, HBOT has become available to clinics and homes, greatly expanding its use in treating many medical conditions.
How does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) work?
Increasing the oxygen concentration (above the usual 21% in room air) and atmospheric pressure at the same time allows more oxygen to enter into the blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluids. Oxygen can thus penetrate otherwise under-oxygenated tissues. This helps with all types of healing, cell growth and regeneration, detoxification, immune support, and neurological and gastrointestinal functioning, among other things. The pressure/oxygen combination also has a potent anti-inflammatory effect, which benefits many conditions that have inflammation as part of the disease process. It is a safe and natural non-drug way to heal many conditions and get healthier in the process!
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People who have shorter-than-normal telomeres are more likely to develop the degenerative diseases of aging (such as cancer and heart disease), and are more likely to die sooner than those who have longer telomeres. While having longer telomeres is not an exact predictor of your longevity, it has been shown to be highly associated with longevity and health in many published studies. Telomerase is an enzyme that naturally lengthens telomeres and keeps them healthy, but in most of our cells this enzyme is not active. Each time the cell divides, the telomere gets shorter and shorter, until eventually the DNA in the cell “unravels” (like a shoe string gets frayed when the end-cap is gone) and the cell dies.
While many healthy life-style choices have been shown to protect telomere length, and chronic stress shortens them, there is currently only one actual supplement (TA-65) that directly treats and lengthens telomeres. At Optimal Health Spectrums, we can test your telomere length and tell you whether or not you are average for your age, above average, or hopefully not – below average. We also know exactly what treatments have been found to improve telomere length, and which ones haven’t. Treating abnormally short telomeres is an important part of any comprehensive anti-aging protocol.
Anna B., Walnut Creek, CA .