Dr. Donald Ira Abrams, MD

Dr. Abrams has become a favorite of mine. His knowledge is invaluable, and his care of the whole individual is essential in healing anyone, yet alone individuals recovering from, and or living with a cancer diagnosis. His approach to healing I believe will become a standard in the not too distant future, or, so I hope. I can count on one hand the number of doctors in my fifty-four years that have asked about diet, and only one that has given comprehensive information, specific to my diagnosis. He has great follow-up - called me personally when a test required immediate attention. He is a pleasant, interesting human being as well and is willing to share some of himself in an environment that most would say is necessarily designed to be exclusively about the patient. I prefer a tad less myopic interaction - he is caring for me, after all and talking about oneself can be quite boring. Dr. Abrams is a brilliant, interesting man with much to teach us all. If you get an appointment… with him, keep it.I

From the beginning of the visit he made sure it was clear that he thought my own efforts to participate in my care were ludicrous at best. He lectures with earnestness about several nutritional ideas in cancer prevention and management from a slightly "alternative" perspective but does not come up with a comprehensive treatment plan, instead providing a packet of individual information items that one can find on the web, without discussing the fact that these are theoretical. He is essentially unwilling to think with you about other theories, or even the theories he is propounding (many of which stem from his training with Andrew Weil). Far from being truly integrative, he says from the beginning that he will not concern himself with "lymph nodes" and such, leaving that to the more "traditional" oncologist handling your case. Instead he will recommend nutritional concepts and certain "stress-reduction" adjuncts such as massage. He'll give a head nod to traditional Chinese medicine… also, however it's clear it's the toxic standard of care tools, i.e. chemo, radiation, surgery, that he really believes is the only "treatment" of cancer. He doesn't share any knowledge of experimental approaches or trials. He talks about "using all your tools" but he doesn't present as having truly emotionally integrated this notion himself.