Henry Ford Doc Offers High-End Vitamin Line
Dr. Michael D. Seidman thinks the human life span might eventually be extended to 130 to 150 years.
But even if you don't want to do everything that might be required to get that many years out of your life -- from constant exercise to keeping yourself unnaturally thin -- Seidman says his vitamins can put more life in your years.
Seidman is a head and neck surgeon by day, and also runs the wellness program at Henry Ford Health System's spectacular new hospital in West Bloomfield Township. (Technically, that's called Director of the Division of Otologic/Neurotologic Surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Chair of the Complementary/Integrative Medicine Program.)
But one of his many other projects is Body Language Vitamins Co., a line of high-end vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements that he's convinced can extend life and improve quality of life.
The Detroit native and Southfield Lathrup High School graduate said that when he got to the University of Michigan for medical studies, he quickly "realized that doctors know very little about nutrition and health. They know about disease. They provide sick care, not health care."
His aim overall is to refocus his entire industry on prevention and health care, rather than sick care. He said fully half of America's $2.2 trillion-a-year health care tab could be attributed to poor lifestyle habits -- obesity, smoking, excessive drinking, poor nutrition. His vitamins can help with the latter.
Seidman said he first started developing his vitamins as a student, recognizing that his own student diet -- which he described as "pizza, nacho cheese Doritos and Coca-Cola" -- fell short of the nutritional ideal. Also falling short, he said, were over-the-counter vitamins, which, when he was starting out in the 1980s, provided just enough vitamins to keep you from getting sick. (Seidman jokes about loving junk food, but he's thin as a rail, and on a recent visit, his lunch was a Ziploc bag full of nothing but vegetables. He said he wasn't particularly looking forward to it, but health is health.)
Seidman's vitamins are sold separately, but also as "daily packs" for men and women. The daily packs include an anti-aging and energy formula that's the subject of the first of Seidman's three patents, since it's been shown to actually change the rate of decay in DNA in the body's mitochondria, a key marker for aging. There's also an antioxidant formula; a general multivitamin and mineral formula; an essential oils formulation, full of stuff like omega 3 and omega 6 oils; and, in the women's pack, a healthy bone formula to ward off osteoporosis.
The packs retail for $135 for men and $145 for women for a month's supply. Seidman acknowledges that isn't cheap, joking that "we've all been programmed to go to Costco and buy the Kirkland brand for $9 for six years' supply." But unlike most inexpensive vitamins, Body Language vitamins are made in an FDA- and GMP- (good manufacturing practices) certified laboratory of all-natural ingredients. Seidman's research in creating the formulations has received wide attention in peer-reviewed international journals.
Seidman said 95 percent of his vitamin company's sales are online, at
www.bodylanguagevitamins.com, although a few health centers and physician practices sell them.
As a head and neck surgeon, Seidman is also an expert on preventing hearing loss. His book, "Save Your Hearing Now," combines common sense -- turn down those earbuds! -- with very specific nutraceutical supplement suggestions.
Seidman's other patents cover a genetic test to determine a patient's molecular age, given the number of mitochondrial DNA deletions, and a method of reconstructing the bones of the middle ear to maximize the benefits or ear surgery. He is also a past president of the Michigan Otolaryngology Society, co-editor for the International Tinnitus Journal and is on the editorial review board for seven major otolaryngology journals and the Journal for Traditional Chinese Medicine. (Of the latter, he said research has shown acupuncture is better for the hot flashes caused by chemotherapy in women than the Western drug of choice.) And he's about to become the first
surgeon in Michigan to surgically implant permanent hearing aids.
His charitable activities include an effort to use vitamins to ward off rickets in Bangladesh. (See http://secure.bodylanguagevitamin.com/bangladesh.pdf.)
As for the vitamin business, Seidman said, "my wife and I do this nights and weekends. We're very passionate about it because we really think the world should be healthier place. We're trying to figure out ways to make people healthier and make things easier for people."
