• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Holtorf Medical Group - Has anyone been?

CFS_Kristin

Senior Member
Messages
120
I’m thinking about going to the Holtorf Medical Group in El Segundo....

Has anyone been? Had a good or bad experience? They seem to treat CFS with hormones among other things.

I’ve tried so many other docs and centers, so want to see if anyone benefited or has been.

Thanks!
 

Misfit Toy

Senior Member
Messages
4,178
Location
USA
Lot of people on the thyroid boards have been and love them. I have one right here. The problem is...they are very expensive. At least the one that is here. you have to pay for everything out of pocket. A first visit is $600...they do not take most insurances and the one here insists you buy only their products. I am not a fan of that, but many with thyroid issues think they are the best.
 

Learner1

Senior Member
Messages
6,305
Location
Pacific Northwest
I haven't been but I found his model of treating CFS to be very useful - see the attached, which is from his website.

I have problems in all of the boxes in his diagram and my functional medicine doctor has been working his way through the model. I've improved a lot, and I think it would be difficult to get well without addressing each problem in a logical order.
 

Attachments

  • Holtorf_Treatment_of_CFS.pdf
    335.1 KB · Views: 48

Pink

Senior Member
Messages
574
Location
Tri state area
How do they compare treatment wise, success rates, cost wise to kaufman in california?
Holtorf has centers all over, so it might be easier to get to.
 

Learner1

Senior Member
Messages
6,305
Location
Pacific Northwest
I don't think you'll get a comparison of success rates from any of them.

My functional medicine doctor is excellent and has helped me improve in many areas. Dr. Kaufman is fabulous at immune system and infections and has helped me a lot, too.

This is incredibly complex and no doctor can know everything. I wouldn't have made as much progress if I weren't seeing both.
 

Gingergrrl

Senior Member
Messages
16,171
Thanks ginger I'm almost never on here but this thread came to my email & I figured if I can save someone heartache & $$$ I will reply.

That was nice of you to do that (and I have no experience with Holtorf Medical Group) but I think it is always helpful for people to get a variety of feedback and perspectives. I hope you are doing okay.
 

Lieselotte

Senior Member
Messages
250
Location
Orange County, CA
I went to Holtorf in California maybe 8 years ago. I wouldn't recommend it. I had gone for hypothyroidism and to look for a better approach than just being given pills, wanted to find a root cause, etc. I was hoping Holtorf was that.

However, I was just given a high dose of T3 (didn't work). There wasn't intensive investigation or anything like that. Doctors rotate through there pretty often - my first one left the clinic and I got another - seemed like that happened a lot.
A couple years later, through a true functional practitioner, I found out I was intolerant of gluten, grains, dairy, fixed my gut as best I could, worked on my liver, etc. None of this was explored at Holtorf. My functional practitioner actually told me several of his clients were from Holtorf and they were suing the group for making their condition worse. I wish I could have gone to the real functional guy first and maybe saved my body a little.

At Holtorf they also advertised Botox and fillers so you could get that done while working on your chronic disease! o_O

Also, MEAction decided not to put Holtorf on their list of providers as they have heard that there were issues with patients there (OMF stated they heard this too).
 

Learner1

Senior Member
Messages
6,305
Location
Pacific Northwest
Just wanted to clarify, I found Holtorf's diagram to be useful, but in the hands of competent doctors and as a tool for understanding and managing testing and care. It sounds unfortunate thst the staffs at those clinics aren't more informed or stable..