FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE OF NY Frequently Asked Questions

Important Note to All Patients

All patients are welcome to contact our Patient Services Representatives during regular working hours to have their questions answered. If unable to answer, your call will be transferred to the appropriate staff. For your convenience, we have listed here many of the questions we receive most often with our responses, please feel free to contact us.

Treatment Frequently Asked Questions

  • What is Insulin Potentiation Therapy (IPT)?

    Insulin Potentiation Therapy is a protocol for administering traditional chemotherapeutic drugs using Insulin to transport the chemotherapeutic drugs across the cell membrane preferentially into the cancer cells. A much lower dose of the highly toxic drugs is required, because IPT treatment targets primarily the cancer cells, sparing the good cells. The cancer cells get most of the chemotherapeutic drugs, not the normal cells. Therefore, the patient does not suffer the severe side effects so common with conventional chemotherapy – no hair loss, vomiting, or fevers. The quality of life remains high during treatment. We use the time gained with the IPT to focus on rebuilding the immune system and reconstituting an immune response.

  • What Cancers Respond to IPT?

    IPT treatment has been reported to work well for many different types of cancers. There are also reports of IPT bringing responses and remissions to patients with some very difficult cancers, even cancers in late stages. Of course, each patient is evaluated anew, depending upon the type of cancer, the virulence of the individual cancer cells and the stage of development of the cancer when the patient first comes for treatment.

  • Why Is IPT Needed?

    Over time, regular chemotherapy dosages may so compromise the patient’s blood counts, immune system, and organ function as to preclude further treatment or even cause organ damage resulting in the patient’s death. IPT eliminates the “lesser of two evils” decision all cancer patients face when diagnosed. Patients fare well as they experience a gentle and effective answer to cancer.

  • What Are The Dangers of Regular/conventional Chemotherapy?

    Cancer cells are voracious in fighting for the life-sustaining glucose found in the blood stream. With 16 times the number of insulin and insulin-like receptors of a healthy cell, cancer cells steal any and all essential nutrients from the blood stream before the good cells can get any. This is why, in advanced stages of cancer, the tumor continues to grow while the patient becomes emaciated and simply wastes away. Added to this, because of the cancer cell’s amazing internal protection against toxins, standard administered chemotherapy must be in large enough quantities to force its penetration into the cancer cells. This results in the indiscriminate penetration and killing of healthy cells as well, frequently leaving the patient with fever, nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and. Potentially, many other side effects and a substantially diminished quality of life.

  • Are There Any Side Effects of IPT Treatment?

    Side effects are generally dependent on the chemotherapeutic agent given, as well as the overall health of the patient but generally side effects are mild. There may be occasional constipation, which is easily controlled by supplements, fiber, and colon hydrotherapy. Some mild nausea may be occasionally encountered for a few hours after the first couple of treatments, but this is also easily managed. A reduction in blood counts may be seen with IPT treatment but are generally less common and less severe than conventional treatment. There may also be some hair loss. Of course, unexpected side effects of any treatment can emerge but in our experience these are usually very mild and are easily controlled.

  • What Are the Benefits of IPT Treatment?

    IPT can be very tough against tumors while being gentler for the patient, who continues to live a normal, vital lifestyle while being treated. If there is a chemotherapy drug that works against a particular type of tumor, it is believed to work better with IPT. The insulin employed enables the physician to direct most of the chemotherapeutic agents to the cancer cells only, bypassing the normal cells and thereby sparing the patient the typical side effects of conventional chemotherapy. Therefore, only approximately 10% of the customary dosage of conventional chemotherapy is required. And as a result of this low dosage, with far less toxicity, novel combinations of up to four different chemotherapeutic agents can be administered at each bi-weekly treatment. Treatments are between 2 and 3 per week and are administered in the physician’s office. High dose Vitamin C therapy is included in most patients’ protocols.

  • Treatment Costs Are Significantly Less when Compared to Standard Protocol.

    The number and frequency of treatments vary with each patient. Patients start with a two day per week protocol for 4-8 weeks. Depending on tumor response, the schedule is reduced to once per week until maintenance schedule is achieved.

Antigen Immunotherapy FAQs

  • What Is in The Different Colored Vials?

    The vials contain proteins that stimulate the immune system, called antigens, and are a key part of the Immuno-therapy that we do.

  • What Is Immuno-Therapy?

    Immuno-therapy is a treatment given to either selectively stimulate or suppress specific aspects of the immune response. The therapies may include the use of antigens, nutritional IV’s, dietary changes, supplements and Homeopathic medicines.

  • What Is Immuno-Therapy Used For?

    Immuno-Therapy is commonly used to treat allergy symptoms whether they are contact, inhalant or food allergies.

  • What Is an Allergy?

    An allergic reaction is defined as a hyper-reactivity towards things that your immune system, normally, should not be reacting against.

  • What Are Common Allergy Symptoms?

    Symptoms of an allergic reaction include any, some, or many of these: 

    • Skin: EZCEMA redness, itching, swelling, blistering, weeping, crusting, rash, eruptions, or hives (itchy bumps or welts) 
    • Lungs: ASTHMA, wheezing, tightness, cough, or shortness of breath
    • Head: swelling of the face, eyelids, lips, tongue, or throat; headache 
    • Nose: stuffy nose, runny nose (clear, thin discharge), sneezing 
    • Mouth: Oral Allergy Syndrome; itchy, burning mouth and/or lips 
    • Eyes: red (bloodshot), itchy, swollen, or watery
    • Stomach: IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME; pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or bloody diarrhea Mood or behavioral change

  • What Else Can Immuno-Therapy Be Used For?

    Immuno-Therapy is commonly used to treat allergy symptoms whether they are contact, inhalant or food allergies.

  • How Is the Testing Done to Determine What Antigens I Need?

    Sometimes blood tests are done to determine what you are allergic to but the tests that are available in New York State are not the most accurate so usually we will use intra-dermal skin testing. After taking a careful history of the pattern of your symptoms, the most likely antigens will be tested by injecting a small amount of them into the outer layers of your skin and then watching for a reaction. A positive reaction will usually look and feel like a mosquito bite. Based in the size of the reaction an appropriate dose of the antigen is calculated for your treatment.

  • Can Skin Testing Diagnose a Non-Allergic Medical Condition?

    No, due to the varied responses of the immune system and the cross reactivity of the antigens, skin testing can only demonstrate an immune response.

  • How Do I Take the Antigen Immuno-Therapy?

    You take the antigens twice a day by putting 2 drops under your tongue and holding it there for several seconds. Don’t eat or drink anything +/- 15 minutes of taking the antigens. This is often referred to as SubLingual Immuno Therapy, SLIT.

  • How Long Does It Take for The Antigen Therapy to Start Working?

    It takes about 10 minutes for the antigens to bind to special antigen processing cells of the immune system, called Dendritic Cells, and signal an immune response. Symptomatically, some patients begin to feel relief in just a few hours after starting the antigen therapy, other patients may not start to feel relief for 3-4 weeks, occasionally longer. Many factors contribute to the immune response including what medications you are taking, your nutritional status, other medical problems that you may have and even the amount of stress that you are under.

  • How Do I Know if The Antigen Therapy Is Working?

    When the antigens have reached a critical level of immune activity, your symptoms will start to shift. Depending upon your medical problems, some people experience a few days of a temporary worsening of their symptoms. These people often then experience the most dramatic improvements. Most people just notice a gradual and progressive improvement of their symptoms. Initially, a few people barely notice any change and it’s not until they get re-tested 4 weeks later that we see a decrease in their inflammatory reactivity and know that the antigens are working. When the allergic response decreases enough, symptom improvement quickly occurs.

  • Are There Any Side Effects?

    The antigens are all natural very small proteins, not drugs, that on their own, do not exert an effect on your body. It’s only when your immune system recognizes them and responds that something happens. Thus, they have no side effects and are safe for even very young babies.

  • Is This a Cure?

    The Immuno-therapy does not cure anything. What it does is to help rebalance and normalize your immune response so that your body no longer generates the abnormal allergic reactions. Studies have shown that, for most people, over an average 2-year course of treatment, Immuno-therapy can restore the balance of your immune system resulting in symptomatic relief that can last decades if not a lifetime.  

  • How Long Should I Take the Antigen Therapy?

    For the best long-term outcome of symptom relief you should stay on the antigen therapy until all of your skin re-tests are negative and you are back to consistently feeling well. The process of de-sensitizing your immune system can take from 6 months to 2 years.

  • When Do I Need to Be Re-Evaluated/ Re-Tested?

    Initially patients are re-evaluated after 4-6 weeks to evaluate the immune system’s response to the antigens. Periodic re-evaluation is necessary to adjust the strength of the antigens until a stable course of improvement, with predictable immune responses, has been established.

  • What If the Antigen Therapy Isn’t Helping My Allergies?

    If you are not improving symptomatically to the Immuno-therapy and your skin re-test reactions do not show a decreased reaction, specialized blood tests will be ordered to determine what is interfering with your immune response.

For additional information not covered in the FAQ section, contact us at (516) 759-4200.

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