A4M valued member Christopher Campbell, DO, FMNM, ABAARM shares insight from his professional experience in this Member of the Month feature. 

Q1: Before joining A4M, what was your medical background?

After completing a Family Practice residency, I joined the Air Force. Having gone through medical school and residency on my own, I had some leverage to go into a Flight Surgery program, which is what I did. The Air Force trained me in Aerospace Medicine and Allergy Medicine. Shortly after that training, I became “Chief of Flight Surgery” at Edwards AFB in Southern California. As exciting and fun as my time in the Air Force was, when my three years were up, I had to get out into the “real world” and start paying back my student loans.

I moved to Northern California and focused on raising my two boys and my Family Practice. One day, about twelve years ago, I had a female patient come in asking about “bioidentical hormones.” She was going through menopause, and was reading one of Suzanne Sommers’ books. She was full of questions. Questions I had no idea how to answer. However, this patient was very intelligent and piqued my interest. And it wasn’t long before I found myself sitting in an A4M BHRT symposium. I remember sitting in a lecture on the first day of the conference, thinking to myself: “Where has all this information been hiding, and why weren’t we taught this in medical school and residency?” What an eye opener! After that conference, I couldn’t sign up as an A4M member fast enough.

Q2: What anti-aging techniques have you incorporated into your practice? How did you so?

Initially, I continued my Family Practice, and incorporated everything I was learning during my ABAARM fellowship. I replaced “Big Pharma” hormones with BHRT hormones. I started checking the testosterone levels on symptomatic male patients, and replacing their “T” if indicated. I also did targeted supplementation of nutraceuticals and made lifestyle-changing recommendations.

During the time in which I was completing my ABAARM fellowship training, I started incorporating more and more changes to the way I was treating my patients: changes that were making real improvements in their lives.

I refer to this time in my life as the “transformation stage.” I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated with practicing the “status quo” of conventional “band aid” medicine. I realized the best thing for both me and my patients would be to get away from the restraints of a conventional “insurance-based” practice.

Six years ago I left my conventional, band-aid, insurance-based, big Pharma practice and opened a concierge Integrative Medicine practice. It is the A4M training that has given me the tools to become so successful and truly optimize both the quality and quantity of my patients’ lives.

Q3: What are the benefits of practicing anti-aging medicine: as a professional, and for your practice?

Wow! Where do I start? Every aspect of both my life and my patients’ lives has benefited from my ABAARM and FMNM training.

As physicians, we are residency-trained to treat a given disease or condition. A4M / MMI Fellowships provide us with a means to further our education and hone our skills as physicians. We learn how to become more complete in how we think and deliver health care to our patients. I have so many more, better tools in my ‘doctor’s’ bag. Now, when a patient presents, I automatically start looking for the underlying cause of his/her complaint, and not just writing an Rx and sending him/her on the way.

Q4: What are the changes you see in your patients?

My patients see improvements both physically and mentally. Better overall health with more energy, strength, sleep and drive. They seem to enjoy life more.

Q5: Why would you recommend Anti-Aging Medicine to your peers?

Why wouldn’t I? Before I found A4M and became a fellow, I had lost the passion I had in medical school and residency. I felt like my life was a scene out of the Groundhog Day movie. Simply starting my first A4M fellowship put the wind back in my sails. I could actually help my patients with new modalities that not only treat the underlying cause of disease, but also prevent disease. Anytime we can cure an existing “chronic disease” in a patient or prevent future disease, we’ve accomplished the very thing most of us went into medicine for.

Q6: Where do you see the future of Anti-Aging Medicine 20 years from now?

Anti-Aging, Functional, and Integrative medicine will only grow in popularity. The more physicians that receive training, the more patients will be exposed to the life-changing differences compared to conventional medicine. It may take another 10 to 15 years, but it is my belief that the present system will be replaced by what we are doing at A4M / MMI. Once the medical schools start teaching an integrative approach instead of a predominantly pharmacological approach, we will have won as both physicians and patients.