FAQ

A chronic disease is defined as a condition that lasts for more than one year, causes functional restrictions or requires ongoing monitoring or treatment. They include stroke, heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and Alzheimer’s.

Although it has been demonized by our medical community, the reality is that high LDL cholesterol is not the root cause of heart disease.

Many people that develop heart disease do not have high LDL cholesterol. In fact, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol are more powerful risk markers.

Damage to the heart’s blood vessels, through such things as smoking, high blood sugar, and inflammation, occurs before cholesterol accumulates in the arteries.

When somebody has poor metabolic health, LDL cholesterol may become oxidized and contribute to the process that leads to heart disease. 

Metabolic health refers to the body’s ability to utilize the food you eat, to grow, repair, provide enough energy for your activities, and have adequate storage for when there is less food available.

Metabolic health is vital for our overall wellbeing, and helps to protect us from many chronic diseases including Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.

Markers of metabolic health include:  

• Waist size  
• Blood pressure  
• HDL cholesterol   
• Triglycerides  
• Fasting glucose

Many people already have these numbers from routine check-ups, but if not, a simple blood test will be all you need.

Tracking metabolic health is simple, so you can monitor the effects of your efforts easily and quickly:

• Your waist circumference and body fat percentage
• Blood work: insulin level, fasting glucose level, cholesterol panel (triglyceride:HDL ratio)   
• Blood pressure
• Wearing a continuous glucose monitor

The biggest improvements will come from the food that we eat.

Choose whole, real food, and eliminate processed items. This includes avoiding vegetable and seed oils, which are unfortunately found in the majority of packaged foods. An optimal diet will also have minimal processed carbohydrates and added sugars.

Adequate amounts of high-quality sleep will also improve your metabolic health. Ideally, stop using electronic devices an hour or two before you go to bed, to give your body the opportunity to unwind and prepare for a great night’s sleep.

Moving more is also an effective way to improve metabolic health.

Exercising is one of the best ways to improve your metabolic health, but it isn’t enough on its own. It isn’t possible to out-exercise a bad diet.

The food we eat affects our cells, our blood, and our entire body. Exercise can help us control our weight but it won’t make unhealthy foods less damaging. The primary goal of exercise should be to build and maintain muscle, because muscle is more metabolically active.

It’s also more effective to be active throughout the day instead of carving out a short amount of time for exercise and then being inactive for the rest of the day.

No. We are a specialty practice focused on metabolic health and heart disease prevention, and we do not provide primary care.

That means we are not the right people for routine physicals, acute illness, vaccinations, referrals to other specialists, or the day-to-day issues a family physician handles. We ask that you keep your primary care physician while you work with us.

The two roles fit together. Your primary care physician looks after your general health, while we concentrate on the metabolic markers that drive heart disease, in a level of detail a short annual visit cannot reach. We are glad to share our findings with your physician so that everyone is working from the same numbers.

We do not publish a single price, because care is not one size. What you need depends on where your metabolic health is now, what testing makes sense, and how much ongoing support you want. Someone working to reverse type 2 diabetes and someone who wants their numbers watched closely are not buying the same thing.

So we start with an introductory phone call. You tell us what is going on, we explain how we work and what it would cost in your situation, and you decide whether to go further. If you do, the next steps are a consult with the right member of our team, and then choosing the care plan that fits.

Book a time at ifixhearts.com/talk, or call us at (503) 782-9633 to arrange it over the phone.

No. We are a cash-pay practice, so we do not bill insurance and we are not in network with any plan.

That is deliberate. When an insurance company sits in the middle, it decides which tests get approved, how long an appointment can run, and which treatments are covered. Those rules are built around managing disease, not reversing it. Paying directly keeps those decisions between you and your physician.

It also means you know what your care costs before you begin, with no claims, no denials, and no surprise bill months later.

If you belong to a health sharing ministry, you may still be able to submit for reimbursement. See the next question.

Yes. Many of our patients belong to Medi-Share, Samaritan Ministries or Christian Healthcare Ministries, and some use newer alternatives such as CrowdHealth*.

Because these are not insurance, nothing is billed on your behalf. You pay us directly and then submit the invoice to your sharing organization yourself. We provide whatever documentation they ask for, including an itemized receipt with the diagnosis and procedure codes most of them require.

Whether a particular visit is shared is decided by your organization under its own guidelines, so it is worth checking your membership terms before you begin. Tell our office which ministry you belong to and we will make sure the paperwork arrives in the format they prefer.

The principle behind these groups is close to our own: the member chooses the care and the group supports it, rather than an insurer approving it in advance.

*For transparency: Dr. Ovadia serves on CrowdHealth's medical advisory board.