Editor's note: This is the last of a three-day report examining complementary medical practices, including acupuncture, laugh therapy and natural products, which have gained more acceptance in use with traditional medicine.


David Hodges has always been proactive about his health, eating a mostly vegetarian diet and exercising. But when the Fort Wayne graphic designer neared 60 two years ago, his lipid profile – a blood test measuring cholesterol and triglycerides – was gradually worsening. The lipid profile is a good indicator of a person's risk of heart disease.

“Diet and exercise and traditional medicine were not improving the numbers,” he said, and when his doctor at the time wanted to double the dosage of his cholesterol-lowering medicine, “I wanted to do it another way.” He sought answers through Dr. Jeffrey Gladd, medical director of the now 1-year-old Parkview Center for Integrative Health, 10515 Illinois Road.

“He spent time with me, looking at me from head to toe. The first appointment was about two hours.” For starters, Gladd suggested that Hodges consider removing gluten from his diet. Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and oats and in crossbreeds of those grains.

But the gluten found in today's food is not that in our ancestors' diets, Gladd said. Processed foods today contain gluten used for stabilization, and thickening or coatings to make them more shelf-stable and eye-appealing. Genetic engineering of seeds has also likely changed gluten in today's grains.

With gluten intolerance, also referred to as celiac disease, the digestive system cannot break the gluten down. Important nutrients are not absorbed. Among the more common symptoms are fatigue or lack of energy; recurring diarrhea or constipation or both; headaches; unexplained weight loss or gain; and bone or joint pain. In children, celiac disease can stunt growth and delay onset of puberty.

Within a few months of going on a gluten-free diet, “All my (blood fat) numbers went from high to acceptable and even the low range,” Hodges said. “The gluten was wreaking havoc in my body.” The only other change he made was adding resistance training to his exercise routine. Thinner around the waist today, he said, “I feel great. I'm not tired.” He feels 20 years younger, he said. The philosophy of Gladd, who is board certified in family medicine and in Year 2 of a two-year fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona, is to first look at patients' lifestyles and diet rather than taking a disease-management approach. For those with diabetes, for example, he looks at B vitamin intake, digestive health, hormones and the thyroid, saying, “all those have strong connections in not being able to manage sugar.”

“It's really focusing on nutrition, not just counting calories, counting fat. A largely plant-based, whole-food diet is truly the only way, from a lifestyle perspective, to manage heart disease, diabetes and other chronic health problems. If your great-grandmother doesn't recognize it as a food, it probably isn't.”

He uses conventional screening methods such as lab tests and X-rays, but equally important to him is the multi-page self-assessment patients complete before their first appointment. The questionnaire gives him information on patients' sleep habits, stressors and spiritual lives, as well as on diet and exercise.

While more consumers such as Hodges turn away from a piecemeal approach to medical care and seek doctors who look at the whole picture, Gladd echoes the sentiments of other liked-minded practitioners when he says the U.S. health care system does not reward disease prevention, for patients or doctors.

“The system is set up to pay for management of disease,” he said. Although his patients' office visits are usually covered by insurance, doctors' pay is based on diagnostic or procedure codes. When he gives two hours to a patient, reimbursement is not based on time spent. Yet he is committed to a whole-picture approach and the time it takes to obtain it. Consumers taking charge of their health will drive the train in acceptance, he said.

“I've talked to physicians at (Parkview) Cancer Center who understand the need for complementary and alternative therapies. My overall dream with Parkview is to have a comprehensive center to do it all under one roof.”