Dr. Rex Anderson has been a Board Certified Neurologist for the past 30 years, and just as fascinated by the brain as he was as a child. “Neurology is diagnostic. I am frequently the fourth or fifth physician consulted for the patient’s so far undiagnosed problem,” he said. “I’m a problem-solver. I like problems, and I enjoy the challenge of figuring out what the diagnosis is, and, if at all possible, piecing together a treatment solution. I don’t give up easily.”
Over the years, Anderson has treated a number of older patients with degenerative diseases – multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s among them – and always wondered why, as we age, our bodies, and our minds, began to slow down, then deteriorate. In 1990, he read the first of many articles that he would study on the decline of the human growth hormone (hGH), and he felt he’d found at least a partial answer.
“You catch a cold, a sore throat, and you get fever, chills. You know you have something wrong with you. You get antibiotics, aspirin. It goes away,” he said. “When your mind starts to go, you should also realize there’s something wrong with you, too. It’s not because you’re getting older. It’s because you have a disease.”
Curious to find out more, Anderson has spent the last 14 years doing research into what has become known as anti-aging medicine, a term which he’s not fond of (he prefers “age management”). “You start looking around and it must be something that’s internal that you’re deficient in, and when someone really looks, the usual finding is the hormone levels are much lower than optimal and dropping lower. As hormone levels decrease with age, overall health and well being suffer. So the question is, if you replace hormones back to their normal levels, do you maintain your health or if you’re not very healthy, do you get healthier? The answer is, yes. Chances are, you will, and there’s a lot of medical evidence that says you will.”
And so, today, in addition to his neurology practice in Abilene, TX, Anderson has just opened the NeuroMedical Institute for Age Management in Dallas, where he hopes to prevent degenerative diseases before they occur. His Dallas practice will focus on restoring patients’ hormone levels to their normal, pre-decline levels in order to restore a better quality of life. Hormone therapy will be part of an overall treatment program focusing on total body-mind solutions, which will also include healthy diet and exercise recommendations and nutritional supplements.
I’ve always liked being on the cutting edge of medicine and this kind of practice is definitely the new frontier,” say Anderson. “My approach to medical treatment has always been, and will always be, very proactive. This practice is unique in its scope and its methods. The individuals who are candidates for this type of health maintenance treatment are those who have a long term view of what they wish to accomplish, in that they want to maintain good health, vitality and an optimal quality of life throughout their entire lifespan. When I began this venture, I realized there were risks involved in attracting patients who were not obviously or consciously ill; but I know that the rewards for a patient committed to this type of treatment program can be tremendous.
