BY CURTIS CHASTAIN, M.D.

MICKEY MANTLE ONCE said, “If I had known I was gonna live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.”  

Health and Longevity—it’s what we all want, but is something we rarely make time for. We are all playing a game called “Let’s Live as long as we can,” except that the current state of health care delivery makes it very difficult to access the information we need to play the game.

The truth is—avoiding serious disease is easier than you might think. All it requires is an investment in one’s own health by focusing on disease prevention.

As an internal medicine doctor, I was trained to take care of sick people—patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer and many other life-threatening medical problems. Then as my career took off, I began taking care of patients with heart attacks, strokes, infections and blood clots. You name it, I took care of it, and I loved doing it, and in fact, I was great at it.  

Then all of a sudden, after 10 years of practicing medicine, it hit me—taking care of sick people didn’t make sense to me anymore; I wanted to help prevent them from getting sick in the first place.

One day, I was called to see a young man in the ER having a heart attack. A quick glance at his chart confirmed that he was 55 years old, had multiple risk factors for CVD—high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cigarettes, and a family history. Unfortunately, he had never had any of these problems addressed in the previous 10 years.  

When I met with his family to update them on his condition, his wife asked me the dreaded question: “How could this happen?” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that anybody could have seen this coming a mile away, and that I felt certain his heart attack could have been prevented if he had taken better care of himself earlier on.

That day was a turning point in my career. I made the decision to begin searching for the person who is “supposed” to have a heart attack or die from cancer, and then never let it happen.  

The first step was to figure out why people don’t go to the doctor for preventive care. After listing all the steps involved in getting a physical, the answer was very clear: it’s just very difficult! To make matters worse, many of the tests that are needed to definitively exclude risk of disease are not covered by insurance.

In 2002, I developed the Our Lady of the Lake Executive Wellness program to solve both of these issues for men and women. It is based off of the content of the world-famous Cooper Clinic in Dallas which has catered to the needs of busy executives for years. The visit includes multiple diagnostic tests in addition to a comprehensive medical evaluation. The focus of the visit is on answering the questions: How is my health today, and what might be threatening my longevity?

One morning is all it takes to complete the entire exam. The testing is individualized according to prior medical history, and can be customized to address any specific health issues that clients may have. There is ample time to summarize health issues uncovered during the exam and to develop an individualized health plan to address those issues.

Because the exam is not governed by insurance, it enables me to perform testing that would otherwise not be available under the traditional insurance setting. These tests take the traditional preventive wellness exam to a much deeper level and make it easier to identify or exclude diseases like blockage in the carotid artery, or cancer in the kidney. Using our diagnostic tools, I have successfully identified many occult cancers of the thyroid, kidney, prostate, and colon—problems which probably would not have been identified in a standard office visit.  

Our comprehensive labwork and X-rays take less than one hour to be processed and returned. I have discovered countless clients with previously undiagnosed diabetes, prostate cancer, and lipid disorders which, if untreated may have otherwise led to premature illness or even death.  

Our cardiac testing equipment has identified numerous clients who had undiagnosed coronary artery disease, many of which required heart bypass or stent placement. In three very specific cases that I remember, finding these abnormalities prevented an inevitable heart attack like the young man I wrote about earlier.

And because I have hours not minutes to spend with clients, I am able to listen—one of the most important skills a physician has to identify illness based on the symptoms that are discussed. I remember a client who was scheduled to have his colonoscopy, but had chronic symptoms of acid reflux that had never been really been evaluated. Hearing this, I requested an additional test that looks into the esophagus to exclude damage. Imagine my surprise when the GI doctor performing the procedure called me to tell me my patient had cancer of the esophagus! Miraculously, we had caught it early, and he is alive today—almost eight years later—as a result.

And for those clients to want to extend this level of care even deeper, the Platinum Executive Wellness program is an option. The Platinum option gives our clients unlimited access—this means care that is available 24/7, in their home, their office, our office or even online. In addition to receiving the annual executive exam, services under Platinum also include direct referrals to specialists, emergency room access and same-day or next business day appointments.  

I cannot adequately express the happiness and excitement that I have practicing medicine in this model. Over the past several years, it has become more difficult for patients and doctors to achieve satisfaction in the clinical setting. For patients, the average wait time to see a physician for preventive care is approximately 14 days. By the time a patient finally gets to the appointment, he or she spends 12 minutes per visit on average. This hardly gives a patient time to adequately discuss health care problems.

For physicians, a recent survey of over 13,000 physicians by Merritt Hawkins found that doctors are unhappy. Sadly, 58% of physicians surveyed reported that they would not recommend medicine as a career for their children, and fully one-third would not choose medicine if they had their careers to do over. Finally, 50% plan to cut back, work part-time, retire, or otherwise take steps to reduce patient access.

With an estimated reduction of 20,000 physicians by the year 2020, along with the introduction of 30 million newly insured under the Affordable Care Act, there is a perfect storm brewing in health care. There will inevitably be a reduction in the medical resources that it takes to prevent and treat disease.

The Executive Wellness program enables me to continue to live my dream and passion of being a physician. It gives me the tools, the process, and most importantly the time that it takes to help clients prevent treatable illness.  

For more information about the Executive Wellness Program, call 765-7696 or log on to ololphysiciangroup.com/executivewellness. 

Dr. Curtis Chastain
Dr. Curtis Chastain, a native of Baton Rouge, received his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in 1983 after graduating from Catholic High School in 1979.

He received his medical degree from Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport in 1987. He subsequently completed his residency in internal medicine at Ochsner Foundation Hospital in New Orleans in 1990, received his board certification from the American College of Physicians in internal medicine in September 1991, and achieved recertification in 2001 and again in 2011.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a member of the American College of Physician Executives.

Dr. Chastain is the director of the Our Lady of the Lake Men’s Health Center, a traditional primary care practice focused on medical care of the adult male.

He is also the director of the Our Lady of the Lake Executive Wellness Program, a clinical program that offers a comprehensive clinical exam, full diagnostic testing and summary consultation for the busy executive—all in one half day.

Dr. Chastain also serves as president of Our Lady of the Lake Physician Group, a multispecialty group of over 300 physicians located in 19 unique offices throughout metro Baton Rouge and surrounding communities.

Dr. Chastain/Executive Wellness Center  |  225.765.7696  | www.ololphysiciangroup.com/

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