Monthly Archives: May 2023

Nattydread

Spirituality in Medicine: A Messianic Judaism View Point

My Mom recently challenged me that if I talk about God to my patients, it is unethical. I totally disagree. I don’t proselytize, which we don’t practice in Messianic Judaism. At my Synagogue, Simchat Yisrael, you must choose the narrow gate that leads to life, Yeshua Hamashiach. Your existence as the light of Adonai Echad, is what draws the person to the narrow gate, but the person must choose the highway, the narrow gate, and not the Broadway, as my Rabbini, Paul (Yaacov) August would say. He reminds our Shabbat Bible study every Shabbat, that Judaism is la familia, the way of the family of B’nai Israel. It’s very grounding and humbling.

My Rabbi, Joshua Brumbach, during membership classes emoted that all we have to do, to imbue the light, is always practice mercy, Tikkun Olam (repair the world) and Shalom (peace, tranquility, wholeness, completeness and wealth), everything else, is noise/commentary/irrelevant, as per the great sage Rabbi Hillel.

Currently, in the United States there is so much anxiety and loneliness, secondary to the valuation of ourselves as capitalistic wage slaves on the military complex plantation of rampant capitalism. I am a capitalist myself, but I practice symbiotic/commensalitic capitalism, in other words societal corporate governance promoting Shalom fiscal health. Thus, all fiscal policy negotiations must be mutually beneficial, as per Game Theory.

Ultimately, we have to regress towards the mean of our Godliness, that is, the image of God, in the Tanach. That is our inherent/innate identity, nothing more, nothing less, and all else is commentary, as per Rabbi Hillel. Shalom.

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Medicine: The Business of People and NOT the Business of Money

As a Surgical resident I quickly surmised that the administrators were running medicine, and deciding the faith of physicians. Ultimately, medicine has become a trifecta of revenue cycle management/billing and coding, financial management/accounting and last but not least medicine.

During my second year of Surgical Residency I devised a plan to create compentency in the trifecta of the business of money, medicine had become. Firstly, complete a MBA in healthcare management. On the road to the MBA, I realized I needed knowledge of government taxation. Additionally, I thought the road to healthcare equity was healthcare law. Fortunately for me with prayers, conversations with Adonai Echad, the answer turned out to be the most utilitarian degree, which was Accounting with a specialization in Government taxation. The answer to equity in healthcare was appropriations, encumbrances, and expenditures, that is, the budget and the budget justification.

Ultimately, I wholeheartedly agree with the great Suzy Orman, people first, then money, then things. We have to return expeditiously to the Hipprocratic/Imhotep way of practicing medicine, thus, people first at all times, that is, to inherently be in the business of people, and NOT in the business of money.

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How to Turn the Tide of the Opioid Epidemic: Health Care Equity in Opioid Use Disorder (OUD)

The main pathway to turning the tide of the opioid epidemic, is medicine for opioid use disorder (MOUD) Telemedicine, with Pharmacists being allowed to give intramuscualr (IM) Buprenorphine shots if needed. Additionally, patients who are revived with Narcan, should be given IM Buprenorphine immediately or medical cannabis for sustainable therapeutic medicinal therapy.

We must destigmatize mental health care for opioid use disorder, and, thus, Behavioral Health Wellness Centers should be established. Treatment regimens with Buprenorphine/Naltrexone/Medical Cannabis, as well as, the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) acupuncture protocol, and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), should be first line treatment, and standard of care.

The solution to the eradication of the opioid epidemic is Telecounseling, Telegenetics, and Telemedicine MOUD. A patient who is admitted to a Behavioral Health Wellness Center should have a pharmacogenetic test, and a spinal tap to evaluate cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) for neurometabolic deficiencies, that are a part of the organic component of mental illness. The organic components of mental illness must be treated aggressively, to minimize the neurospychiatric side effects, and weight gain with current psychiatric drugs.

Ultimately, it’s all hands on deck, relative to healthcare clinicians, such as Doctors, NP’s, PA’s and Pharmacists, so that there is a possibility of stemming the tide of the opioid epidemic, and mental illness in the United States of America.