Clinical Nutrition

Dr.  Ostroff’s  Approach to Nutritional Medicine

“I believe that we can detect warning signs of cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes and other serious illnesses much earlier using more refined laboratory analysis, and thus treat the patient with more subtle non-pharmacological solutions before crisis medicine is the only viable option.”      Dr. Cathy Ostroff

Because of her training in Chiropractic Philosophy which considers optimum health and well being to be innately programmed, Dr. Ostroff is deeply grounded in natural law.  So when she began to study nutritional medicine in the early 1980s, one of the driving philosopies that got her attention was the concept of food as medicine — that specific foods could reverse the course of disease and help restore health. Conversely, a diet of unhealthy, fast food could bring on dis-ease as clearly demonstrated in the movie Super Size Me, in which independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock consumes McDonald’s food for 30 days.   

            In the film, all three doctors who monitored Spurlock’s health before and during the experiment were surprised by the degree of rapid deterioration in Spurlock's health and the dramatic rise in certain markers on his blood chemistry; one MD states that the irreversible damage done to his heart could cause a heart attack even if he lost all the weight gained during the experiment! 

Interestingly, others have conducted similar experiments with fast food and have had quite disparate results, which underscores Dr Ostroff’s belief that there is a vast range of individual differences in health and metabolism. 

Getting Healthy & Staying Healthy

Many of us have tried to change our diets and habits with some success, but we are tethered to a health care system that relies on national policies aimed at treating everyone the same, while ignoring the needs of the individual.  Such thinking naturally leads to a standard diet which, at best, can only appeal to an average man or woman. These generic diets are promoted by such organizations as the American Cancer Society and The American Heart Association. While they have helped to raise public awareness about dietary portions and other rudimentary standards of nutrition, they only address the average person, who statistically is fictional.  The proposed results of this approach are ultimately themselves fictitious.  In every case, real people fall through the cracks.  

The one-size-fits-all approach is not just a fault of traditional health institutions. It’s also promoted by many alternative practitioners and distributors of food supplements. Research shows that although the intake of supplements has increased during the last 15 years, the incidence of degenerative diseases has actually risen during that time.  By using an individually tailored approach that incorporates whole, nutritious foods with targeted supplementation, Dr. Ostroff has been able to achieve positive outcomes for most of her patients and a normalization of subclinical patterns and defects as measured by blood work.

Most doctors would agree that subclinical or pre-clinical events and warning signs always precede the onset of disease.  But current standards of care discourage doctors from looking at pre-clinical factors and demands that doctors treat only the disease label, or established risk factor.* With few exceptions like pap smears and colonoscopies, doctors are restricted from ordering tests not supported by existing diagnoses. Otherwise, the tests may be denied by health insurance policies. 

As an anthropology major, Dr. Ostroff studied the work of epidemiologists and others who analyzed the health of particular populations, especially homogeneous, genetic peoples in certain regions of China, Oceana and Russia for example, yielding important facts about food and health patterns. 

Recent studies show the cancer prevention and heart healthy properties of fruits and vegetables in general and in some cases very specifically.  For instance, we know that curcumin from turmeric and grape seed extract from grapes have potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties. Research has demonstrated the link between milk-related products and the incidence of Type I Diabetes.  Active ingredients of certain plants have been studied extensively and isolated for use in nutriceuticals and botanical supplements. 

Such studies have propelled evidence-based nutritional medicine into the forefront prompting a convergence of clinical, conventional and nutritional medicine.  Here we observe that scientific research into the causes and common denominators of degenerative and auto-immune disease links aberrant physiology to deficiencies of essential nutrients including vitamins, minerals, and amino acids.  For instance, many people with multiple sclerosis are found to have extremely low levels of B12, cobalt, iodine, zinc, magnesium and/or vitamin D—and experience improvement in their symptoms or reduced attacks when their diet is supplemented with these nutrients. 

What does the Process Entail? 

            Dr. Ostroff first offers a prescription for a comprehensive laboratory panel to screen for blood sugar, liver, kidney, heart, electrolyte, endocrine and blood disorders and risks. Then she consults with the patient and his or her physician to get a detailed history and an accurate picture of symptoms and patient concerns.  Dr. Ostroff consistently researches current scientific literature, finding strategies to support a patient’s homeostatic mechanisms to create an individually tailored program.

Given the developments in evidence-based nutritional medicine, Dr. Ostroff’s model helps prevent illness before it occurs and helps empower patients to choose a healthier diet and lifestyle options.

*For example, several years ago research into CoQ10, a natural anti-oxidant, was reported at the American Heart Association annual meeting.  The report indicated that CoQ10 given in combination with another nutrient, L-carnitine, could potentially reduce the death rate from congestive heart failure by 30%.  To our knowledge, that was the last time the AHA annual meeting reported any findings on CoQ10 because it could be obtained without a prescription and the pharmaceutical companies would not be investigating a product they could not own or obtain the exclusive rights to sell.  A similar occurrence happened when homocysteine was linked to cardiovascular disease more than cholesterol at a time when cholesterol-lowering drugs were about to be marketed.