the ModeraXL Team
A ModeraXL Moment with...
Frederic J. Vagnini, M.D., FACS
V is for Valuable. Dr. Frederic J. Vagnini is a valuable member of the ModeraXL Team. He brings a wealth of experience in medicine as a physician and surgeon. In particular, his knowledge in the fields of Clinical Nutrition, Preventive Medicine, Longevity, and Addiction are of the utmost importance to the ModeraXL mission to help people.
V is for Vagnini. Dr. Frederic J. Vagnini, one of the most interesting and well-rounded physicians or health educators you'll find anywhere. Currently in his practice of 21st Century Medicine, he runs the Heart, Diabetes, and Weight Loss Centers of New York with offices in Manhattan and Long Island.
V is for Voluminous. It would take volumes to cover Dr. Vagnini's extensive career in medicine. He graduated from the St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1963. Then, he successfully completed 8 years of post doctorate internship and residency in New York City where he studied surgery, vascular, heart and lung surgery at the Downstate Medical Center and Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
V is for Veteran. Battle-tested after his extensive training, Fred Vagnini entered the U.S. Army where he served as a Lieutenant Colonel. Over the next quarter of a century, Dr. Vagnini operated as a heart, lung and blood vessel surgeon. He has performed successful surgeries on literally thousands of his patients with various forms of heart and blood vessel disease.
V is for Voice in the Media. Dr. Vagnini has been seen and heard through hundreds of radio and television appearances as a guest expert. Formerly he hosted a health program on the Fox Television Network. Now, Dr. Vagnini can be heard on his weekly Sunday afternoon live call-in radio show, "The Heart Show," which has been aired for the past 15 years on the powerful WOR-AM 710 in New York. He can now be heard with another radio talk show, weekends on 1210 WPHT-AM in Philadelphia, PA.
Frederic J. Vagnini, M.D. is also the author of numerous mainstream books on issues covering cardiovascular health, weight loss, diabetes, carbohydrate addiction, and side effects from medication. In addition, he has published countless articles and research papers in various professional medical publications.
V is for Versatile. While his skills and success as a surgeon grew, Dr. Vagnini's desire for helping people to improved health expanded into other areas of modern medicine. He developed a greater interest and focus on Preventive Medicine, and became sought after for his expertise in Health Education and Clinical Nutrition.
Here now are excerpts of a 2010 interview with Frederic J. Vagnini, M.D. and award-winning journalist, Question. Baldrick was conducting his own research for a documentary on Innovative Practices in 21st Century Addiction Treatment:
Question: Dr. Vagnini, based on your extensive background in medicine spanning decades, we could start our discussion anywhere. Let's begin with your current dealings with addiction.
Dr. Vagnini: Call me Fred or Dr. V. When you're talking about addiction treatment, there are really four known main areas. There are illicit drugs or street drugs like cocaine, heroin, and so on. There are also many addicted to prescription medication, drugs such as Oxycontin, Valium, and Demerol. Then there is of course alcoholic addiction or alcoholism. And the fourth is addiction to nicotine, smoking cigarettes.
If I can, I'd like to share my own opinion about a fifth major area of addiction, and I think it's a strong one. In treating so many diabetics, I've done extensive work with insulin and glucose. I'm quite sure there is a tremendous addiction to sugar in this country. I think we're killing our kids with too much sugar.
Now back to your question. In my two offices in New York, I see many patients with addiction to alcohol and smoking. I also treat diet patients, so you'd better believe I see many people with unhealthy food addictions, too.
Question: The deeper I go into research on addiction treatment, it seems like the stigma of addiction remains stuck way back in the 20th Century. Based on what you deal with every day as a medical doctor, do you agree most people need to look at addiction differently? As a disease?
Dr. V: Absolutely. There's no question about the addiction stigma. For reasons beyond me addiction is not widely considered a mental disease. And let me tell you, it's not just by the public. It's with plenty of doctors, too. You're one of the few really addressing it.
Most people think nothing at all of smoking and alcohol abuse, but they are really dangerous addictions. Food addictions, too. When you're talking about people using street drugs, they're just wrongly considered low lifes.
Now we've also got young kids raiding the medicine chest at home, taking prescription drugs, getting high and getting hooked. In recent years, snorting heroin has become a big thing and there's new popularity of people inhaling it. Cocaine addiction remains another big problem.
We've got to take a closer look at addiction and addiction treatment. Addiction is more than a physical withdrawal. There's also an increase in tolerance. Addicts no matter what substance they're using get so addicted they develop an increasingly greater tolerance. The disease makes the addict need more and more of the addictive substance to create the feeling of the high. This sad reality only makes the stigma of addiction even worse.
Addiction causes neurological problems. Neurotransmitters in the brain become depleted. The addict's brain simply cannot function properly. Beyond the brain, addictions create major nutritional deficiencies in the entire body. This too is dangerous. The question is "How do you get started?"
Look at me. I'm an M.D. I'm supposedly an intelligent person. I've had personal experiences with both alcohol and tobacco. And I still have addictions to sugar. I've been off cigarettes for 20 years now, but I was addicted to smoking off and on for 30 years. With the stresses of my busy practice as a cardiovascular surgeon, I was smoking 3 or 4 packs of cigarettes a day. Can you believe it?
The addiction stigma is wrong. Addiction is a dangerous disease. Take smoking cigarettes for example again. I've had a number of heroin addicts I've treated tell me it's much easier to get off heroin than cigarettes. In alcohol recovery, in my dealings with alcoholics, I often see them go right into addictions with sugar and caffeine. That is my own opinion.
Question: Does the stigma affect addiction treatment? I'm curious about why there's still such a common practice for getting a patient off one addictive substance by prescribing them another?
Dr. Vagnini: What a great point to bring up. From what I've seen Methadone is a real-life horror show that is every bit as deadly as the original addictive substance. Suboxone is a pain reliever used to treat opiate addiction but it adds new risks for patients. Naltrexone is well known and effective in helping people get off codeine and alcohol cravings, but it's also dangerous. So is Demerol. They're just not as toxic as Methadone. It's horrible - methadone.
Prescribing addictive medications treatment has not really worked out. Here's something else to consider. When funding becomes a problem for addicted patients to pay for these prescription drugs, many go back to the other hard drugs which originally got them addicted. Replacing one addictive substance with another has just not been good.
Question: What do you in treating patients with very different forms of addiction?
Dr. V: Regardless of the addictive substances of choice, to me the use of nutritional supplements is very important. Because so many of my patients also have other serious health problems, I have used certain pharmaceutical products or prescription drugs in the past as part of my addiction treatment. However, when I do it is always in conjunction with nutritional medicine.
I'm now recommending ModeraXL to patients suffering from addiction. I'm also a proponent of the power of lifestyle choices, the power of diet, exercise, stress reduction, prayer, and lately I've even been incorporating Transcendental Meditation. All of these provide benefits to patients with addiction.
Question: Doctor, I know you're excited to talk about ModeraXL. How did you get involved with it?
Dr. Vagnini: Well, it's because of all I have in my background. I'm experienced in preventive medicine, anti-aging, and clinical nutrition. I really know my vitamins and minerals.
I'm a big believer in nutritional therapies. The effects of drug and alcohol addiction creates multiple nutritional deficiencies. It's a nutritional nightmare for every addict.
I knew there was something to ModeraXL. I kept an open mind about it. After I got all the facts and was given all of the research, I was very impressed. And then when I realized a form of this therapy had been used successfully in an intravenous form in detox that was important for me.
I'm impressed with all of the nutrients in ModeraXL. It's like they have a telephone book of nutritional ingredients in every box.
The scientific information on ModeraXL is encouraging. It has multiple factors that are effective in the management of any variation of the disease, addiction. And then there's the value of the placebo effect.
I think it works. I like delivery system to get nutrients in there to replenish the subclinical vitamin deficiencies. Addicts have poor nutrition and you can get dramatic results in giving them plenty of the right vitamins.
I believe in it! I believe in ModeraXL. The science is there.
Question: Doctor V, am I right in thinking that many in addiction treatment and many more in the public, will think that because a product like ModeraXL is all-natural that it just doesn't have what it takes to take on a monster like addiction?
Dr. V: That's a brilliant question. I do have a lot of experience in natural medicine. Some doctors are going to say ModeraXL is hocus pocus. Even when nutraceuticals are now a multi-billion dollar a year industry, some still have doubts.
A lot of doctors are just now accepting Omega III's. Unfortunately, there remains a natural bias against nutritional medicine among doctors. They don't want to believe it. They say there's not enough research.
I hope ModeraXL does what the big drug companies have done. They go directly to the public with their products to get patients to ask for it from the medical professionals.
They should promote ModeraXL just as it is, a highly effective natural product. In my practice, I see more and more people want this. Among patients there is becoming a bias against prescription drugs. People have certain doubts. They don't trust the big pharmaceutical companies. They know there are risks of side effects. They even hear about approved drugs being taken off the market.
Question: Since we've sped through this interview, let me ask you one last question about the need for speed that goes beyond efficacy. There's no time to waste in addiction treatment is there? The risks are just too severe.
Dr. Vagnini: Speed I think is very important because people want to see results. Someone who is reaching out for ModeraXL is looking for real help. If you're an addict, you don't want to be struggling to fight the next drink or the next drug on day one of this. Speed is critical.
With addiction, people want to see results. If they don't see them right away you're going to lose many people. Think about this, when you put ModeraXL together with counseling, you can imagine just how great it will be. Add a support system in your recovery or a support group in your life, it would be very important and powerful. I feel strongly about this! I feel strongly about ModeraXL!
