PATH Medical, located just steps away from the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, bustles with an excitement markedly different from the pulse of the city street. It’s a heightened level of energy that smacks of enthusiasm and passion, and it can be felt throughout the office as staff members greet visitors, explain treatments, and guide patients through every step of the healing process. Clearly, the staff at PATH Medical love what they do, and they take their cues from the practice’s charismatic director, Eric Braverman, M.D.

Dr. Braverman founded PATH (The Place for Achieving Total Health) in 1988. Since then, he and his staff have restored health and quality of life to thousands of patients, many of whom had long given up any hope of leading a productive life. Through the latest advances in medicine and technology, PATH Medical helps people maintain or regain wellness by merging conventional methods with novel therapies offered by complementary medicine.
Dr. Braverman employs a “head-first” approach to medicine. His 26 years of practice have focused on the brain’s role in health and wellness. “The brain is my focus because it is the life-giving force of the body,” explains Dr. Braverman. “Remove the brain and all you have is a corpse, a body without an electrical generator. I see the brain as the body’s central organ, with all the other organs taking their cues from the top, so to speak.”

Dr. Braverman believes that most bodily afflictions have their origins in brain chemical imbalances. Each of the four lobes of the brain in essence produces a primary biochemical, called a neurotransmitter, which is responsible for a specific brain function. If there is a biochemical imbalance or deficiency, the body experiences symptoms related to that particular deficiency. “Eighty percent of the complaints prompting someone to seek medical care are directly related to deficiencies in one of the four primary brain chemicals,” Dr. Braverman says. “The most common ailments that patients complain about are back pain and arthritis, high blood pressure, memory, and weight loss. The aging brain, in some capacity, precipitates or exacerbates each of these age-related conditions.”

Dr. Braverman’s practice at PATH specializes in connecting the aging-related symptoms to the medical disease. It’s a simple remedy: to restore your health, restore your brain chemistry. “At first, chemical deficiencies exhibit themselves as mild symptoms that, if properly and early recognized, can be addressed by dietary changes, supplements, and lifestyle modification,” Dr. Braverman explains. He believes that the earlier you start, the better your chances of postponing or completely avoiding the ravages of the aging process. “Alzheimer’s doesn’t occur overnight,” he says. “Just like heart disease, it’s a condition that begins slowly, silently, and progresses over the years. If you keep your cholesterol low, you’ll reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. Similarly, if you address those first lapses of memory, there’s a chance that you won’t totally lose cognitive function later on in life. And that’s all we can hope for.” Dr. Braverman has successfully used the same approach for the reversal of such chronic degenerative diseases as osteoporosis, heart disease, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, arthritis, and early cancer.

Dr. Braverman and his staff at PATH Medical work toward that hope each day with their cutting-edge approaches to medicine. The PATH team, which includes physicians, physician assistants, clinicians, and allied health practitioners, employs a multi-modal process to effectively battle the source of an illness on a number of levels. To meet this challenge, Dr. Braverman and his staff tailor a customized treatment program for each patient at PATH. Treatments may include nutritional supplementation, hormone replacement to correct deficiencies, chelation therapy to remove toxic heavy metals from the bloodstream, lifestyle changes, and a number of biofeedback training techniques.

Dr. Braverman’s innovative approach to medicine uses head-to-toe computerized diagnostic assessments—high-tech, non-invasive tests—to detect the earliest stages of disease and aging throughout the body. Of course, brain health is included in all diagnostic and treatment protocols, and PATH’s premier brain assessment technique, BEAM analysis, measures the speed and strength of neurotransmissions, metabolism, and electrical activity.
BEAM (brain electrical activity mapping) is step one on the road to diagnosis and recovery. This laptop-sized computerized device uses an EEG instrument, in conjunction with auditory and visual stimuli, to evoke reactions from the cortical region of the brain. Using electrodes similar to those used in an EKG, BEAM analysis shows how the brain functions when challenged, giving concrete evidence of how brain chemicals can alter brain function. The procedure reveals critical data about how the brain processes signals on three levels: neurological, biochemical, and electrical, providing vital information about the brain’s nerve cells, or neurons—specifically, their overall health and ability to function normally. If the neurons aren’t working as they should, chances are that the brain’s overall health is compromised.

Table 1: “The Pauses of Life”: How each section of your body goes into a type of menopause. Dr. Braverman, through life-extension techniques, has reversed all of these pauses to a significant degree or another.