About the Practice
Our practice is in response to the need for a fully qualified, experienced medical service utilizing an integrative approach to preventive medicine and treatment of illness. Most often patients enter our practice after seeing several other doctors and specialists as symptoms of chronic illnesses overlap making the diagnosis and treatment more challenging.
Our founder, Dr. Raj Patel, has been practicing medicine for over 30 years and has honed his expertise around chronic conditions like autism spectrum disorders, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS) (also known as Sick Building Syndrome), and chronic Lyme disease.
Due to the complex nature of these conditions, we address a myriad of chronic conditions that may be associated like autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines, mast cell activation syndrome, PANS/PANDAS, hormone imbalances, digestive complaints and more. We, at Medical Options for Wellness, are dedicated to delivering and building upon this expertise to support the growing number of individuals affected by these chronic issues.
We believe that radiant, optimum health-not just the absence of disease-is the natural state of the body. If you are interested in achieving and maintaining health and vitality, or if you have a specific health problem, we can assist you in your healing journey.
Our Approach
After a thorough evaluation, we provide our patients with a detailed roadmap that we will be following in helping them regain their health. At Medical Options for Wellness, we believe less is often more as many of our chronically ill patients have extremely delicate systems. We take great care in understanding their system and creating the right path to healing.
By thinking critically, we are able to use therapies that allow the patient to feel gradually better as their treatment progresses. We utilize a nutritional/herbal approach to treatment and prevention of illness coupled with lifestyle changes. Drugs are prescribed occasionally when needed. We prefer to seek and correct the underlying causes of potential problems rather than to just suppress symptoms of illness.
Our Team
Dr. Raj Patel, MD
Founder
Dr. Raj Patel is trained to work with people of all ages with his education in Family Medicine. He is also trained in, and has extensive experience with, various natural therapies including nutritional medicine, homeopathy, herbs and mind-body medicine. Integrating these diverse therapies with allopathic (Western) medicine has enabled Dr Patel to offer a highly refined approach to healthcare that produces lasting results.
Dr. Raj Patel received his Masters degree in Physiology from Rutgers University and his medical degree from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (formerly Rutgers Medical School) in New Jersey. Thereafter, he finished a three-year residency and earned his Board Certification in Family Medicine.
Over the years, Dr. Patel has specialized in treating patients with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), Lyme and tick borne diseases, and mold illness (or Sick Building Syndrome) from exposure to water damaged buildings. While these conditions seem separate and unrelated, they share many common underlying characteristics and frequently coexist.
He began working with autistic children in 1999 and to date has helped hundreds of children on the road to recovery. Dr. Patel also works with other childhood conditions like PANS, PANDAS, OCD and developmental delay.
Dr Patel’s interest in Lyme disease started in 2004 when he was diagnosed with it after having suffered from numerous seemingly unrelated symptoms for several years. Having successfully gone through his own journey with chronic Lyme disease utilizing a variety of treatment modalities, Dr. Patel has been able to refine his approach to treating chronic Lyme sufferers with incredible success. Dr. Patel is an active member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). He has also completed advanced training in pediatric Lyme disease and is a frequent speaker at Lyme conferences.
Dr. Patel first began looking into Dr. Shoemaker’s incredible work on chronic inflammation resulting from exposure to water damaged buildings (WDB) in 2010. He found that many of his “lyme patients” who had experienced only partial improvement, turned out to be simultaneously suffering from toxic exposure to WDB. Dr. Patel today integrates the findings from Dr Shoemaker as well as other doctors working with mold illness to see patients making impressive recoveries from this debilitating illness.
Today, Dr Patel, as the founder of Medical Options for Wellness, sees primarily severe chronically ill patients who have not been able to recover in spite of working with numerous other doctors. These individuals typically suffer from multiple health challenges including Lyme disease, Mold illness, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, chronic viral activation, food sensitivities and multiple chemical sensitivities among other illnesses.
Suzy
Patient Care Coordinator
Suzy has been working in the healthcare field for several decades and is an essential component of our team as our patient care coordinator. She completed her doctorate and residency in General Medicine from Alexandria Medical University in Egypt. Shortly after completing her program, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to start her life with her husband.
Growing up in Egypt, integrative medicine was already ingrained into their healthcare system where pharmaceutical medications were often complemented by nutritional support. Her education and background made joining a functional medicine practice focusing on autoimmune disease, chronic fatigue syndrome and autism a perfect fit. She started working with Dr. Patel in 1998.
In addition to assisting with patient care and blood draws, she continuously learns new techniques and modalities to better help our patients including Heidelberg hydrochloric acid testing, allergy testing, immunotherapy treatments and more.
Dr. Patel has been a Godsend for me. Over the years, I had been to see many doctors and had never come up with any "real" answers. I felt so grateful that, through him, I have finally learned the core reason for my symptoms...