Guest Profile
Dr. Eric Gordon
"My deep respect for the individuality of my patients is the heart of my practice.The point is to carefully listen to each patient and correlate their subjective experience with pertinent objective laboratory tests, to determine unique treatment guidelines that allow the innate wisdom of the body to overcome illness and restore good health."What Dr. Eric Gordon emphasizes is listening to his patients. "I believe my patients. Their description of what is going on in their body is the most accurate way we have to assess what is going on with them. I interpret the information they present, and blend it with laboratory results and imaging and other tests to determine a protocol that is customized to their condition."Patients with poorly defined chronic illnesses react differently to all types of environmental stressors and medical interventions. While one patient may respond well to a particular protocol, other patients may not respond at all, or even have a negative reaction.Dr. Gordon knows there is an interwoven complexity to these illnesses. There is a layering of the body’s adaptations to environmental toxins and infections from pathogens that is unique to every person, depending on their genetic susceptibility, organ vulnerability, toxic exposures, medical history and life circumstances. The body’s various biological systems - immune, endocrine, neurological, gastrointestinal and so on - influence each other and are influenced by each other, both in the development and progression of illness, and also its resolution.When illness has been present for a long time, a patient’s body is almost invariably dominated by the sympathetic nervous system; it is in a state of hyper-vigilance, a constant ‘fight-or-flight‘ mode. Dr. Gordon knows to begin with gentle interventions to help the body find a place of rest and safety. These initial steps allow the parasympathetic nervous system to function appropriately, to let the body find its way, and start healing itself.This necessitates an eclectic approach. Dr. Gordon says, "As the components of a person’s chronic illness reveal themselves, so will treatment direction. Some patients may immediately benefit from intravenous therapies. Others may respond initially to energetic modalities, such as Frequency Specific Microcurrent or Photon Stimulation. Some patients may require antibiotics while, for others, herbal or homeopathic remedies may be more suitable. Everyone has different supplementation requirements, and needs to follow different detoxification strategies."In addition to seeing patients in his practice, Dr. Gordon has organized and served as medical advisor and moderator for a series of medical symposia in Northern California. From 2007-2009, these intensive five-day meetings brought together extraordinary faculties consisting of approximately 30 leading international academic medical researchers and cutting-edge clinicians, respectively focusing on CFS, Lyme, autoimmune diseases and autism.For Dr. Gordon, however, knowledge and understanding does not come primarily from research, but from interaction and direct experience with his patients. He is first and foremost a private practice physician. His deep respect for the biochemical individuality of his patients is at the heart of his approach.
