Note from Dr. Trites
I’ve been working on a new project, or an old one depending on how you look at it. For my own health journey, I take inventory of what has happened in the last month, quarter and year for myself, my spouse, our children, and grandchildren. Then that extends to our family, my mentors, close family and friends who believe in what I do and trust what I’m doing for them.
While the majority of my family have had vast health improvements, over the last several holidays, baby showers, and family visits I’m getting similar questions. Do I need to take all of my supplements every day? Is there a powder or a liquid I can take vs a pill or vice versa? Is this the best product available? Is there a more affordable product?
My family has these questions and so do our patients. For the past eight years, we have had input on supplement formulas, and I have thousands of dollars of research using blood tests to determine if a product is working or not. Then, I have to decipher whether it is a population miss or an individual miss based on their lifestyle and unique genetics. (This is a good reason to have your genetics run through our genetic program).
Over the past four years, many companies such as Nestle, Herbalife, Fullscript and hundreds of pharmaceutical companies are snatching up big players in the supplemental nutrition world. Year after year, I have had to fire companies for violating our terms of quality and recently one of our biggest companies with tons of research, data, and publications bowed down and are now outsourcing their products. Ugh! I believe my patients and my family deserve the best product, and of course, at the best price.
Many of these corporate takeovers have changed the quality of the industry. When I first began my health journey, I learned to read labels. Many big box stores, including those that don’t make 100% of their profits from supplements, cut major corners. When it comes to supplements, you get what you pay for. Think about this. I’m sure you’ve heard our planet isn’t entirely safe or clean, right? So, if you have to pay a fisherperson to hand catch in a non-polluted area to get your fish oil to make fish oil supplements, or you could pay a fish farm that raises them in pens and is polluted, which one is cheaper?
When you’re a big box store, the bottom line is generally maximum profit. The smaller companies, under $100 million in revenue, understand they are fighting for the scraps. But, it’s not really scraps. Their customers are educated people who want to feel better and not fall apart as we age. This is where the nitty-gritty takes place. I have created a webinar so you can learn how to read labels, what are hidden names for gluten, MSG and other triggers, and what to do at home to help you not accidentally expose yourself. Included in this webinar are how to reduce or prevent autoimmunity and helpful lifestyle knowledge you need at home. It’s around six hours of information for $150. Or, you can always make an appointment for 1:1 time to learn about how this applies specifically to you.
For my companies from whom I choose to buy supplements, I demand spec sheets for mold, fungus, heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides and other toxins. Wouldn’t you like to know that your supplement has been tested for these things? Many in the nutrition industry are not! That is because the FDA does not have a stance on the dietary supplement industry—unless someone dies from taking them. Then, the FDA gets involved. So, you could be taking a load of beetle dung for your arthritis or a supplement that is no longer viable because it sat on a shelf for three years or in a warehouse that had unregulated temperatures or a number of other factors that negate the effective ingredients. In the end, you spend a lot of money on a supplement and you gain nothing. This is my pet peeve for wholesale nutrition companies. They need to do better. Some patients do not want to wait until we restock a product so they buy from a big box store or Amazon to save a few dollars and, in most cases, the product is expired or inferior based on the factors I just mentioned. It’s a difficult and expensive lesson to learn but I want people to be healthy and not bamboozled.
So, over the next few months, you will see some changes in the products we carry. With those changes, I also expect to see changes in everyone’s pocketbook because many of the products we have tested and are moving to are less expensive, or are more products for the same price, or have a longer shelf life.
Be well,
Dr. Trites
Office & Technology Update
Rachel has been now working directly with Dr. Trites for the last couple of months as his assistant during patient appointments. For now, she will now be your main point of contact for patient care, including ordering lab tests. She will continue to help at the front desk as needed.
Katelynn will begin working as our nutrition coach. She will be the main point of contact for the SHAPE ReClaim, Keto, and Prolon programs. She can help with your questions about your specific dietary need and can even help with meal plans! You can schedule a 30-minute, online consultation ($50) with her by emailing her at assistant@choosenewleaf.com or by calling the office at 469-491-7535. There is a note from Katelynn about SHAPE at the end of this newsletter.
Angela will continue to fill in at the reception desk as needed. We hope to add a part-time person to help Rachel and Katelynn. We have had some great candidates but we are still looking for the right person. If you know someone who is passionate about conservative, holistic health practices, enjoys meeting and talking to new people, excels at multitasking, and knows their way around a computer, please send them our way!
Jordan is back from maternity leave and will continue to oversee our Oklahoma clinic. We are glad to have her back!
We are very close to introducing our new patient portal! Our upgrade will also include a new appointment scheduling system so be looking for more details about that new interface as well. We have had a few technical snafus but hope to be ready to launch mid-summer.
You’ll also notice a new credit card processing device at the Dallas office. This is a contactless process that takes Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay. We plan to be able to accept cryptocurrency in the future. Let us know if that’s something that would interest you! As a reminder, we have the ability to save your preferred payment method on file. Let us know if you’d like to save that information with our clinic for faster checkouts or supplement refills.
Genetic Program—Revamped
About a decade ago, there were only a handful of players in the genetic testing genre. Today, there are hundreds. Many are now owned, like supplement companies, by Big Pharma and many sell your data. I, and hopefully you, have issues with this. Not to mention, none of these companies, to date, are following the research with genetic testing. In 2019, I completed a four-year program in genetics with Dr. Dunn and worked with her providing insight on correlating blood tests. At the first of the year, Dr. Dunn launched her own genetic testing company that follows the research. Compared to the big players, 23 & Me and Ancestry, she tests depending on the year you were tested, between 90-400 applicable genes for health. This is a game-changer.
What if you’ve had your genes tested? Well, we still have your raw data and we can input that information. There are four specific programs Dr. Dunn runs, methylation, mood and personality, specific diet recommendations for your genes, and biochemical pathways for where you are stuck in your health journey.
Any one of these updated add-ons is for our current genetic program enrollees at $100 per report. If you haven’t had your genes evaluated, consider receiving your personalized plan for health.
As many of you already know, Dr. Trites created a charity a few years ago for underserved and underprivileged individuals who are looking to improve their health. Alternative medicine, specifically functional medicine is rarely if ever, covered by health insurance. Dr. Trites has been blessed to have a wonderful donor to keep this charity afloat.
Over the past 16 months, the world has changed and there are more people in need now than when we started the charity. We have ramped up our efforts and our mantra is the more healthy a person is the better suited they are to be productive and, eventually, disqualify themselves from needing financial assistance. If you’d like to donate to our 501 (c)(3), you can do that by calling the office or email contacthealthyhabits4@gmail.com for more information. All donations are appreciated.
A Note from Katelynn
Struggling to know what you should be eating or with unwanted weight? Don’t know how to shop or plan meals? Are you on Keto, Shape Reclaimed, Prolon, AIP or Paleo?
I can meet with you and help you decide how to plan, shop and best utilize the dietary program that works best for you.
If you have unwanted weight and inflammation we have a recommendation for you! SHAPE Reclaimed is a great anti-inflammatory protocol and a positive side effect to releasing toxins and decreasing inflammation in the body is shedding toxic weight that your body holds onto!
This program is only available under a practitioner and I am here to help. I will talk through the protocol, determine which program is best suited for you, explain the SHAPE ReClaimed supplement and baseline urine to monitor your bio-individuality—all from the comfort of your home. That’s right, all nutrition consults are done online.
$285 New Patient Appointment Includes
- First initial 60-minute appointment
- Urine analysis strips and analysis
- Shape drops and booklet
Follow-up appointments: 30 minutes—$50 or 60 minutes—$100
Let’s get you started on your journey. Reach out so we can get you scheduled for an online appointment, today!