Therapeutic Services


Nutritional

Integrative Functional Medicine: Integrative Functional Medicine is a therapeutic approach toward health, wellness and prevention which emphasizes health of the whole person. It does this through consideration of:

  • genetic and lifestyle factors
  • avoidance and elimination or remediation of irritant factors such as allergens, environmental toxins, heavy metals, stress factors
  • restoration of normal digestive ecology through diet and nutraceutical support.

This orientation to medical diagnostics and therapeutics has become the cornerstone of today’s integrative and complementary physicians.

The tools of functional medicine include:

  • a thoughtful consideration to the patient’s story complemented by physical examination
  • the dietary history and optimization of nutrition through dietary modification and herbal or nutritional supplements where indicated
  • dietary and detoxification strategies toward rebalancing the digestive tract
  • stress reduction

These approaches do not exclude ongoing traditional medical approaches.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture was introduced in the 18th century when French and Jesuit missionaries returned to France from Indochina, bringing with them ancient texts to translate and study. The first schools of medical acupuncture were established by physicians in France where acupuncture has enjoyed continuous study and practice within the French medical community for over 150 years. That tradition was brought to the United States by Joseph Helms, MD, a Johns Hopkins and UCLA-schooled physician, who took the full 4 year training within the French acupuncture school.

The vast majority of physicians practicing acupuncture in this country began their study of acupuncture with Joseph Helms, MD, who inaugurated Medical Acupuncture for Physicians in 1980. The original course was accredited through his UCLA, then Stamford, and most recently through Helms Medical Institute, accredited by the ACCME. Medical Acupuncture for Physicians lays a broad foundation for its practitioners spanning the spectrum of acupuncture paradigms, ranging from French energetics to Five Elements to Traditional Chinese Medicine. In addition, it includes more neuro-anatomically-based interpretations such as Craig PENS (percutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) and myofascial trigger point technique. Adding to their medical background in anatomy, biochemistry, physiology and pathophysiology, physician acupuncturists continue to make an important contribution on both research and clinical fronts, deepening our contemporary understanding of acupuncture’s effects.

The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, represents the vast majority of physician acupuncturists in the US today. It convenes an annual symposium, publishes a peer-reviewed and indexed journal, and lobbies for increased recognition of medical acupuncture within the hierarchy of traditional allopathic medicine.

Dr. Cooke initiated her study of acupuncture through the Medical Acupuncture for Physicians program in 1995. She has participated in numerous continuing education seminars towards deepening her acupuncture knowledge and skills since that time. As new scientific evidence emerges to support the age-old notion that we are much larger than the bodies we inhabit, the role for acupuncture in the evolving modern paradigm gains ground.

Ondamed PEMF

Ondamed Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF) by biofeedback: ONDAMED is a biofeedback device that a practitioner uses to determine which frequencies of sound, as well as the accompanying weak pulsed electromagnetic fields, cause a response in a patient’s autonomic nervous system. Temporary stimulation by these frequencies, combined with the patient’s cognitive and non-cognitive participation, promotes relaxation, muscle re-education, and rehabilitation that returns the body to its former state of wellness. You can learn more about Ondamed PEMF and its broad application at this website: https://ondamed.net/us/

Hypnosis

Dr. Cooke first brought hypnotherapy to the practice in 2001, originally for smoking cessation, in combination with ear acupuncture. It was so successful for a number of people, that requests came in for hypnosis for other issues. It is something Dr. Cooke enjoys doing very much. Dr. Cooke developed an induction method, a composite of various techniques to which she had been exposed through yoga nidra, meditation, through early acting classes, as well as her hypnosis training, which has been quite successful in putting people in an optimally relaxed and suggestible state. The patient is asked to tape the hypnosis as it is ongoing on their smartphone so it can be replayed as recommended. It can be a useful technique for working through subconscious blocks that stand in the way of living in to your health goals.

IV Therapies

IV nutrient therapy has become part of the stock-in-trade of many complementary medical practices over the past 40 years. This is not administered “on demand” as is common on the street in many urban centers today. The appropriateness of IV therapy is assessed in each person’s case. The more common therapies available in Dr. Cooke’s office include multivitamin drips, IV vitamin C, IV glutathione, IV phosphatidylcholine, to name a few. Indications may vary widely. The overarching goals of these therapies are to support microcapillary circulation, to assist detoxification processes in the liver more intensively, and to boost energy. These seldom provide a permanent solution to a given illness, but can give an important leg up on the situation. Dr. Cooke is judicious in their use.

Low Dose Naltrexone

Low dose naltrexone continues to win increased support for its adjunctive use in a wide array of diseases.

Naltrexone, an opiate receptor blocker, was first marketed to treat opiate overdose and later found application in the treatment of depression and alcoholism at a 25 to 50 mg dosage. It was
later discovered that taken in fractional dosage, of 3 to 4.5 mg, in the absence of opiate intake, it had the effect of boosting levels of the naturally occurring opiate-like chemicals in the brain, chiefly beta-endorphin and meta-enkephalin. These neurochemicals, released into circulation, have an anti-inflammatory action and also boost natural killer (NK) cell activity; that is, the NK cells comprise roughly 5% of the white blood cells in circulation which scavenge for virus and
defective cellular material, possibly nascent cancer cells.

Given this mechanism of action, it was found that naltrexone could significantly aid people with a variety of diseases such as autoimmune illnesses, multiple sclerosis, some chronic viral infections,
and even some cancers. While a number of collateral benefits of naltrexone have been documented, there are certain precautions of usage to which the patient must be alerted.
Bernard Bihari, MD, was one of the early clinical research pioneers in the broad application of low dose naltrexone. Dr. Cooke had the privilege of sitting with him in his office on two occasions and
consulting with him many times by telephone, asking lots of questions, sharing clinical observations, in those early years of using LDN. His generosity of spirit is fondly remembered.

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Travel medicine

Travel medicine is the preparation of travelers for health maintenance and disease prevention for foreign or wilderness travel.


Due to permanent staffing changes wrought by the pandemic lockdowns, Dr. Cooke no longer offers travel vaccines. However, she will provide all other conventional travel services, as well as integrative preventive strategies to minimize your disease risk during travel. Whether doing UN relief work in high-risk zones, or trekking in the Himalaya, many of her patients have attested to the benefits they achieved from following her simple instructions. One UN worker reported that she was the only one in her group who didn’t get sick during 6 months in Kosovo. Another fellow was the only one to escape illness during several weeks trekking in Nepal.