Eric R. Braverman, MD

Dr. Eric Braverman is the Director of The Place for Achieving Total Health (PATH Medical), with locations in New York, NY, Penndel, PA (metro-Philadelphia), and a national network of affiliated medical professionals.  Dr. Braverman received his B.A. Summa Cum Laude from Brandeis University and his M.D. with honors from New York University Medical School, after which he performed post-graduate work in Internal Medicine with a Yale Medical School affiliate in Greenwich, CT.   Dr. Braverman is a recipient of the American Medical Association’s Physician’s Recognition Award. In addition to private practice at PATH Medical, Dr. Braverman maintains Directorship of The PATH Foundation, a nonprofit research organization established to collect and analyze information concerning the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of all aspects of brain biochemical disorders, with specific focus on the impact of brain illness on overall health.  PATH Foundation projects, conducted with affiliated associates, have yielded revolutionary research documenting that brain disease or genetic weaknesses significantly contribute to psychiatric disorders.  The PATH Foundation also has been intensely involved in the development of both clinic-use and at-home therapies dedicated to improving the health of the brain.Dr. Braverman has published over one hundred research papers and has participated in collaborative efforts with internationally recognized researchers.  He also has published several books for the health-conscious readership:

The PATH Wellness Manual:  This is a user's guide for the body, covering ailments from
A to Z and alternatives to drug approaches for most.  A comprehensive medical encyclopedia that should be part of every household's and medical professional's reference library.Hypertension and Nutrition:  How to relieve yourself of medications for high blood pressure by using diet and nutritional supplementation.  Construct a customized program by following the easy-to-use instructions.  In addition to using the delicious and well-balanced recipes, you will be able to dine out!The Edge Effect: Explains brain chemistry and how to achieve the Edge Effect. Explains how proper balancing of the four primary neurotransmitters can lead you to the path of health and wellness. Offers advice on honing your edge through The Rainbow Diet, exercise, hormones, vitamins, medications and lifestyle based on individual brain temperament. This book helps determine the dominant biochemical in an individual’s brain which can be the key to health self-discovery. Addresses specific ailments and how they can be treated or slowed down in terms of basic brain health.How to Lower Blood Pressure and Reverse Heart Disease Naturally:  An excellent companion to Hypertension and Nutrition, this book reviews the medical research behind
Dr. Braverman's all-natural approach to combating high blood pressure and heart disease.  Get control of your overall health without resorting to medications that pose a potential health threat. Obesity is the number one cause of hypertension.The Healing Nutrients Within, 2nd and 3rd  Ed., with Drs. Pfeiffer, Blum, and Smayda:  Find out how amino acids can be a key to restoring optimal health. Twenty-nine pre-proteins are essential to neurotransmission, brain function, immune response, hormone release, stabilization of blood pressure and blood sugar, detoxification, and wound healing, among many other functions. Male Sexual Fitness:  Why libido can decline in men over the age of 30, and how to get it back.  Obesity contributes greatly to sexual dysfunction.

Zinc and Other Micro-Nutrients, by Dr. Carl Pfeiffer with Dr. Eric Braverman:  The definitive guide to how minerals have the potential to heal illness.  Explains why some minerals are bad for you and how to rid your body of them.

Hormones and the Brain
Cognitive decline and development of dementia is now recognized to be multi-factorial. The presence of medical illnesses can damage cognition i.e. atrial fibrillation, diabetes, thyroid disease, heart failure, inflammation, high blood pressure, smoking and other illicit drug use, elevated cholesterol and any cardiac disease or vascular risk factors have all been linked to progression of dementia, which takes at least 10-20 years to develop. There are at least five stages of cognitive decline prior to dementia with numerous variations. Typically dementia begins with the following order of losses:  brain processing speed, memory, attention, personality and temperament change, IQ changes, and ultimately dementia.

Furthermore, numerous studies have linked hormone supplementation as protective in the development of dementia regardless of whether or not these hormones are deficient but more so when they are deficient. Hormonal deficiencies that are linked are: Growth hormone beginning from age 30 in both men and women, estrogen lossbeginning at age 40in women, testosterone loss beginning at age 40 in men and DHEA loss beginning in both men and women at age 50. The loss of luteinizing and sex binding globulin hormones may also be associated with the development of dementia with age.

A wide range of medical and psychiatric illnesses including depression are contributing to the progression of dementia which occurs in most Americans between the ages of 50 and 80 such that 50% of all Americans are fully demented by age 80. Dr. Braverman has identified the marker of the stages of cognitive decline as well as hormonal cornerstone abnormalities associated with most forms of dementia.

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Leptin Imbalances and Aging - The Secret of Obesity Science
Leptin, a protein produced by neurological tissue, primarily the hypothalamus, brain stem, and adipose tissue, acts as a peripheral metabolic signal to the brain.  It reaches the brain, crosses the blood-brain barrier, and accumulates in neuronal cell bodies expressing leptin receptors.  This protein reduces body weight by inhibiting feeding behavior and increasing fuel expenditure.  It is thus an integral component of energy homeostasis and regulation of body weight.   Although it is thought that these effects are mediated by the direct action of leptin on hypothalamic neurons, recent studies have found close interactions between leptin and the D2 receptors and serotonergic system.  During the aging process, there is a decline in the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems that are both activated by leptins.  There is also greater adiposity despite high serum leptin levels, in part due to a reduction in the number of leptin receptors in these areas of the brain.

Aging is associated with a gradual loss of physiological functions and a decline in plasma concentrations of several steroid hormones. There is a correlation between declining estrogen and testosterone levels and low leptin levels.  Aging-associated alterations in body composition, which include increased fat mass, loss in muscle size and strength, and loss of bone, are at least in part related to specific endocrine changes.  In particular, individuals with elevated leptin levels develop osteoporosis, hyperlipidemia, and obesity.  Extremely low leptin levels may be associated long term with oligomenorrhea, anorexia, too much thinness, and dementia.  Therefore, it would be beneficial to maintain leptin levels in a middle or low range so that individuals may stay thin as they treat their brain chemistry. 

Leptin is of particular importance in obesity.  Although the body mass index (BMI) is commonly used as a measurement of obesity, we have found it to be an inaccurate measure of body fat.  When compared to a direct measure of adiposity, the dual X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scan, we found that BMI misclassified nearly 40% of our patient population.  We found that individuals who fell into a normal weight obesity category, with normal BMI but obesity level body fat percentage, had elevated leptin.   By incorporating additional parameters such as gender and age in addition to leptin levels into the BMI formula, we found that the sensitivity and specificity of the equation were improved.  Testing for leptin is a relatively inexpensive lab test that can help to predict obesity for those individuals who appear to be fit but are actually at risk for this condition. In addition, genetically low leptin patients have reduced body fat relative to BMI while genetically elevated leptin patients have elevated body fat relative to BMI.

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