Ive been seeing Dr Kaiser for 6-8 months now and wanted to give a little update.
Initially I recommended him but I wouldn’t anymore after more time to evaluate.
He isn’t particularly cheap - less than some and more than others but more than a lot of the docs that Ive seen. Ive got a high expectation for all the physicians I see and even more so the cash pay docs whether or not that’s fair.
Ive had an extensive number of appointments with him and at this point I wish I could get my money back because he never ended up adding much to my care. My experience is that most of our appointment time is spent reviewing symptoms, changes in symptoms, lab work, or other pertinent items and then he throws in his thoughts the last 10min of the call, almost always seeming rushed to get on with the next patient. I ended up coming up with solutions that increased my health the majority of the time on my own.
I, like many people here, have a very complex case and I expect him to synthesize my symptoms and lab work into better thoughts in terms of causes and treatments. A lot of the recommendations he has made (which I can list some of below) are things that are pretty easily found online and things I already had done or heard of. The one good thing he did do was turn me on to the Geneva stool test but otherwise I think he doesn’t utilize lab work to even 1/10 of the amount he should.
Also unlike most docs I see (even my PCP who has a HUGE patient load) he won’t follow up with anything between appointments with you. All the other cash pay docs Ive seen will spend 15min exchanging weekly or biweekly emails regarding changes in symptoms, meds, labs, etc and he won’t do that which is really what got me. I expect a lot from my docs and I expect more from him with how much I’ve paid him. Ive got the cell phone numbers and emails of a number of other physicians I see and not one of them has ever told me I can’t contact them or should contact them less - I do try to be very respectful of their time though.
This tells me that he has taken on way too many patients as is per the norm with docs these days. One or two 15min email follow ups a month between appointments isn’t unreasonable in my opinion, especially for what he is getting paid, and that’s the primary thing that got me with him.
Most of his treatments or recommendations in my experience were
- rest/pacing
- 1 hour lie down pure rest periods per day to balance autonomic function
- meditation
- micronutrient supplementation
- huge focus on sleep which was very good
- use of some pharmaceuticals (although I was seriously surprised at his lack of knowledge with some) - stuff like mirtazapine, trazodone, seroquel, and low dose stimulants for appropriate patients (not me)
- hydrogen peroxide nebulization
Ive found much more benefit from treatments I did on my own like ozone therapy, FMT (understand he can’t recommend), and other things too numerous to list.
He is a very, very conservative doc and won’t push the envelope with hard cases unfortunately.
The other thing I didn’t love is that he pushes his KPAX supplements which are an overall multivitamin, micronutrient, multi mineral. A bottle runs $70 and he will advise a dose that runs you through 1-2 bottles a month when Life Extension has an identical product for $18 a bottle and an even more comprehensive product for $50 a bottle.
Overall I think he means well but I definitely expected a LOT more than what I got based on my experiences with numerous other physicians.
Initially I recommended him but I wouldn’t anymore after more time to evaluate.
He isn’t particularly cheap - less than some and more than others but more than a lot of the docs that Ive seen. Ive got a high expectation for all the physicians I see and even more so the cash pay docs whether or not that’s fair.
Ive had an extensive number of appointments with him and at this point I wish I could get my money back because he never ended up adding much to my care. My experience is that most of our appointment time is spent reviewing symptoms, changes in symptoms, lab work, or other pertinent items and then he throws in his thoughts the last 10min of the call, almost always seeming rushed to get on with the next patient. I ended up coming up with solutions that increased my health the majority of the time on my own.
I, like many people here, have a very complex case and I expect him to synthesize my symptoms and lab work into better thoughts in terms of causes and treatments. A lot of the recommendations he has made (which I can list some of below) are things that are pretty easily found online and things I already had done or heard of. The one good thing he did do was turn me on to the Geneva stool test but otherwise I think he doesn’t utilize lab work to even 1/10 of the amount he should.
Also unlike most docs I see (even my PCP who has a HUGE patient load) he won’t follow up with anything between appointments with you. All the other cash pay docs Ive seen will spend 15min exchanging weekly or biweekly emails regarding changes in symptoms, meds, labs, etc and he won’t do that which is really what got me. I expect a lot from my docs and I expect more from him with how much I’ve paid him. Ive got the cell phone numbers and emails of a number of other physicians I see and not one of them has ever told me I can’t contact them or should contact them less - I do try to be very respectful of their time though.
This tells me that he has taken on way too many patients as is per the norm with docs these days. One or two 15min email follow ups a month between appointments isn’t unreasonable in my opinion, especially for what he is getting paid, and that’s the primary thing that got me with him.
Most of his treatments or recommendations in my experience were
- rest/pacing
- 1 hour lie down pure rest periods per day to balance autonomic function
- meditation
- micronutrient supplementation
- huge focus on sleep which was very good
- use of some pharmaceuticals (although I was seriously surprised at his lack of knowledge with some) - stuff like mirtazapine, trazodone, seroquel, and low dose stimulants for appropriate patients (not me)
- hydrogen peroxide nebulization
Ive found much more benefit from treatments I did on my own like ozone therapy, FMT (understand he can’t recommend), and other things too numerous to list.
He is a very, very conservative doc and won’t push the envelope with hard cases unfortunately.
The other thing I didn’t love is that he pushes his KPAX supplements which are an overall multivitamin, micronutrient, multi mineral. A bottle runs $70 and he will advise a dose that runs you through 1-2 bottles a month when Life Extension has an identical product for $18 a bottle and an even more comprehensive product for $50 a bottle.
Overall I think he means well but I definitely expected a LOT more than what I got based on my experiences with numerous other physicians.