Center for Integrative Medicine

12/17/2025

As we come to the closing of the office on December 20, 2005 for construction. All of us at Bend Regenerative Medicine and Center for Integrative Medicine want to send our Holiday Wishes to all of our patients, past and future.

May your holidays be filled with love, light, good company, family and friends. If you are struggling know our thoughts are with you.

The office will re-open on January 5, 2026 with Dr Flattery as a solo practitioner. Some information below on one of the modalities he will be offering. Sheila and I will be periodically checking voice mail while the office is closed. As a reminder for any urgent needs there are several urgent care clinics that are available in Bend. For emergencies please call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room.

Have a safe and Beautiful Holiday.

What is PRP Therapy?
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy is a non-surgical treatment that uses a patient’s own blood components to stimulate healing in damaged tissues. When you suffer an injury or tissue damage, your body recruit’s platelets and white blood cells from the blood to initiate a healing response. Under normal conditions, platelets attract numerous growth factors which are released in response to signals from the injured tissue.
Modern technology allows us to concentrate platelets and white blood cells from your blood and induce this growth factor release as the solution is injected directly into injured tissue, stimulating a more powerful healing response. By enhancing the body’s natural healing capacity, PRP can be a powerful surgical alternative, leading to a more rapid, efficient, and thorough restoration of the tissue to a healthy state.
What is HBOT Therapy?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, commonly referred to as HBOT, is the use of 100% oxygen, under increased pressure, to preserve, repair, and enhance cellular function. The combination of pressure and 100% oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber super-saturates the blood plasma with oxygen to levels 1,200% greater than can be achieved under normal conditions.
During an HBOT session, stem cells are released and activated from the bone marrow, traveling to areas of injury through the blood plasma. HBOT also decreases inflammation, reduces swelling, reverses hypoxia, stimulates the creation of new blood vessels, and optimizes all stages of wound healing.
Why Bring PRP Therapy and HBOT Together?
Each of these therapies alone stimulates healing, however, the combination of the two have a powerful synergistic effect. HBOT exponentially increases the number of stem cells in circulation while injected PRP attracts and delivers these stem cells to injured areas. This state-of-the-art combination of regenerative cellular therapies accelerates the healing response, leading to a more efficient and thorough restoration of tissue to a healthy state that is sustained for the long term. HBOT with PRP can also alleviate the achy or sore feeling that patients sometimes experience with PRP therapy.
By adding HBOT before and after each PRP injection, we increase the mobilization of stem cells and enhance the efficacy of the regenerative process.
What to Expect
Each patient receives a formal evaluation and diagnostic workup for both PRP and HBOT. In this process, an individual treatment plan is determined, and all risks and benefits are addressed with the patient. The protocol generally consists of 3 rounds of HBOT + PRP + HBOT but may vary based on injury or condition and its duration and severity.

12/01/2025

Last day to shop the sale 20% off Fullscript supplements

Today is the last day of my Whole for the Holidays Fullscript sale. The 20% discount ends at 3:59 PM today.

If you need to create an account you can do that here:Center for Integrative Medicine FullScript Online Ordering
20% OFF First Order
Fullscript Supplement Account Link:

https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/pflattery

Login to Your Fullscript™ Account
Fullscript™ is an online supplement dispensary that allows you to access thousands of high-quality
Supplements at fair prices, backed by features that help you stay on track with your wellness goals.

How Fullscript Works:
Copy and paste the link above into your browser to visit the CIM Fullscript portal.
Sign up on the Center for Integrative Medical Account with your email and name.
Once you have created an account:
You will be able to shop for all things healthy.
You will be able to order the supplements you need.You can also share the link with friends and family so everyone can start their wellness journey!

11/29/2025

CIM is now offering you the ability to order supplements from the convenience of your own home.You have direct access to our online dispensary through Fullscript. You will receive 20% off of your first online order. Fullscript is the Amazon of all things healthy, they carry supplements, body care, mouth care - toothpaste, all nontoxic, physician reviewed brands, grocery items from pumpkin seeds to Goji berries, herbal teas and homeopathic remedies.
For an additional 20% off of your order use code Bonus2025 now through December 1, 2025

Please click on the link to set up your Fullscript account:

11/28/2025

An Exciting Announcement from Dr. Payson Flattery

As of December 20, 2025 The Center for Integrative Medicine/Bend Regenerative Medicine will be shifting from
Primary Care to Regenerative Medicine. This was a difficult decision both personally and professionally. I have
loved being a primary care provider, and creating a team of top-notch medical personnel to meet all of your
health and wellbeing needs. Life is short, I want to spend the remaining years of my career focusing on the
area of medicine where I am able to be of the greatest service for my patients. Regenerative Medicine feeds
my soul. As a member of the Bend community for over 25 years enjoying the great outdoors personally and
with my family, I want to help others with orthopedic injuries, pain reversal and pain management. I am
committed to support healing and allowing my patients the ability to maintain an active lifestyle. In an attempt
to offer the highest quality of care, I will no longer be accepting insurance.

CIM is now offering you the ability to order supplements from the convenience of your own home. We will still
provide supplements in the office and are happy to continue taking your orders. You have direct access to our
online dispensary through Fullscript. You will receive 20% off of your first online order. Please reach out to our
registered nurse Caren Raisin, RN (caren@centerforintegrativemed.com) if you need help with ordering or navigating the site. Fullscript is the Amazon of all things healthy, they carry supplements, body care, mouth
care - toothpaste, all nontoxic, physician reviewed brands, grocery items from pumpkin seeds to Goji berries,
herbal teas and homeopathic remedies. Please click on the link to set up your Fullscript account:
https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/pflattery/store-start

Debrah Harding, ND, FABNO and Sarah Conneely, NP will continue to offer their services at Shift Functional
Medicine. This practice does not accept Medicare.
https://shiftfunctionalmed.com. Keith Bell, PA-C, CMT will be starting his own practice BodyFix & Function LLC,
you will be able to schedule with him at Bend Health and Performance https://bendhealthandperformance.com/
Dr. Mary Ellen Coulter will be retiring from medicine; she will be
assisting me during the transition.

Sheila and Caren will be available to support you and answer any questions. CIM will no longer be offering IV
Therapy or in office lab services, however, the Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers will continue to be available for
treatment. These are big changes and I apologize for any disruption in care. All my best to you and your health
moving forward.

Sincerely,
Payson
Payson Flattery, ND, DC, DAAPM
BEND REGENERATIVE MEDICINE
CENTER FOR INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
Payson Flattery, ND, DC, DAAPM, PC
464 NE Norton Avenue
Bend, Oregon
541-323-3358
http://www.centerforintegratedmed.com/
http://bendregenerativemedicine.com/

09/06/2025

Highlights in Holistic Health. New Food for Thought

Can Low Doses of Lithium Improve Mood, Protect the Brain, and Extend Life?

Lithium, a soft alkali metal, is naturally found in certain minerals and brine deposits across the globe. While lithium is best known today for powering rechargeable batteries, this element also boasts a fascinating history as a medicinal agent.

In the early 20th century, “lithia water” and lithium-containing tablets were widely promoted as tonics for various common ailments. For instance, in Ashland, Oregon, visitors have flocked to the renowned Lithia Springs since the early 1900s, attracted by its mineral-rich waters believed to provide energizing and mood-enhancing benefits.

In contemporary medicine, lithium’s most established role is as a prescription mood stabilizer for bipolar disorder. While highly effective, the high doses required for this use come with significant side effects, necessitating careful laboratory monitoring to avoid lithium toxicity.

For many years, it was assumed that we fully understood lithium’s health effects. However, recent decades have seen a surge of research exploring the therapeutic potential of very low doses of lithium, taken over long periods—often similar to the trace amounts naturally present in drinking water in certain regions.

Surprising Evidence of Benefits in Drinking Water Studies

The studies of lithium enriched drinking water show numerous benefits, especially in mental health and longevity. Some have been surprising. Consider the following:

· Numerous ecological studies in South America, North America, Europe, and Asia consistently show that communities with elevated lithium concentrations tend to have lower su***de rates.

· A large Japanese study involving over 1.2 million people across 18 municipalities found that higher lithium levels in drinking water correlated with lower all-cause mortality.

· Denmark studies (some, not all) have suggested reduced dementia risk in regions with higher lithium water levels

· Across North America, for example, Texas studies found that higher lithium in tap water was associated with reduced su***de, homicide, and overall mortality rates.

Although not all studies are uniformly positive, the breadth of global evidence has led some researchers to propose a “lithiumization” of drinking water as a potential public health intervention to improve mental health and longevity.

How Lithium Supports Brain Health

What mechanisms might explain lithium’s impressive brain benefits? Preclinical research suggests multiple pathways. Lithium inhibits glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3), an enzyme integral to neuronal function, inflammation, and cell death. Overactivity of GSK-3 is implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s. Moreover, lithium elevates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels—a protein essential for neuron growth and resilience. In Alzheimer’s disease models, lithium reduces the accumulation of harmful amyloid plaques and tau protein tangles, hallmark features of the condition. It also diminishes neuroinflammation and oxidative stress, both major contributors to cognitive decline and mood disorders.

In an especially timely study from Harvard Medical School published as this article was written, researchers found that mice deprived of lithium exhibited accelerated brain aging and Alzheimer’s-like pathology. Remarkably, supplementing lithium in their drinking water reversed these effects, improving memory and reducing brain damage.

Dose Matters

What doses yield these benefits while minimizing toxicity? Natural lithium levels in drinking water generally range between 2 to 5 micrograms per liter—roughly 100,000 times lower than the prescription doses used in psychiatry. These trace amounts are considered nontoxic and potentially beneficial.

Some over-the-counter lithium supplements, such as lithium orotate, provide milligram doses—typically between 1 and 20 milligrams daily. Though lower than pharmaceutical doses, these amounts remain much higher than lithium levels supplied by water in the studies showing health benefits.

While there is some research with supplementation levels of lower dose lithium, more research is needed to clarify benefits and optimal dosing. Clinically, my experience with low-dose lithium supplements has been largely positive. While not a cure-all, low-dose lithium appears to help conditions like depression, mild cognitive impairment, and anxiety in many patients.

In research relating to over-the-counter lithium usage, some mild side effects have been documented, as well as the possibility of withdrawal symptoms upon abrupt cessation. For this reason, prior to initiating any supplements, I advise consulting with a healthcare provider experienced with lithium supplementation to develop an individualized and safely monitored plan.

Emerging research positions lithium at the forefront of brain health science, with promising potential for not only mood stabilization but also neuroprotection and healthy aging. With careful dosing, individualized planning, and ongoing monitoring, low-dose lithium could become a valuable addition to comprehensive, holistic strategies for supporting long-term brain vitality.

08/27/2025

Integrative medicine includes a large variety of treatments and therapies that enhance the body’s ability to boost its immune system and harness its strong healing responses. Our physicians embrace medical philosophies that focus on wellness and healing, backed by sound research and science.

Patients at CIM enjoy holistic healthcare management with primary medical care and supportive, integrative therapies. Our specialties include healing orthopedic injury, reversing the damage of degenerative conditions, and utilizing anti-aging treatments.

08/24/2025

What is PRP Therapy?
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) therapy is a non-surgical treatment that uses a patient’s own blood components to stimulate healing in damaged tissues. When you suffer an injury or tissue damage, your body recruit’s platelets and white blood cells from the blood to initiate a healing response. Under normal conditions, platelets attract numerous growth factors which are released in response to signals from the injured tissue.
Modern technology allows us to concentrate platelets and white blood cells from your blood and induce this growth factor release as the solution is injected directly into injured tissue, stimulating a more powerful healing response. By enhancing the body’s natural healing capacity, PRP can be a powerful surgical alternative, leading to a more rapid, efficient, and thorough restoration of the tissue to a healthy state.
What is HBOT Therapy?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, commonly referred to as HBOT, is the use of 100% oxygen, under increased pressure, to preserve, repair, and enhance cellular function. The combination of pressure and 100% oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber super-saturates the blood plasma with oxygen to levels 1,200% greater than can be achieved under normal conditions.
During an HBOT session, stem cells are released and activated from the bone marrow, traveling to areas of injury through the blood plasma. HBOT also decreases inflammation, reduces swelling, reverses hypoxia, stimulates the creation of new blood vessels, and optimizes all stages of wound healing.
Why Bring PRP Therapy and HBOT Together?
Each of these therapies alone stimulates healing, however, the combination of the two have a powerful synergistic effect. HBOT exponentially increases the number of stem cells in circulation while injected PRP attracts and delivers these stem cells to injured areas. This state-of-the-art combination of regenerative cellular therapies accelerates the healing response, leading to a more efficient and thorough restoration of tissue to a healthy state that is sustained for the long term. HBOT with PRP can also alleviate the achy or sore feeling that patients sometimes experience with PRP therapy.
By adding HBOT before and after each PRP injection, we increase the mobilization of stem cells and enhance the efficacy of the regenerative process.
What to Expect
Each patient receives a formal evaluation and diagnostic workup for both PRP and HBOT. In this process, an individual treatment plan is determined, and all risks and benefits are addressed with the patient. The protocol generally consists of 3 rounds of HBOT + PRP + HBOT but may vary based on injury or condition and its duration and severity.

08/17/2025

Integrative Medicine Physician-Family Practice looking for a Bend MD/ND/DO/NP specializing in the area of Family Practice.
Job description: Center For Integrative Medicine is looking for a Bend MD/ND/DO/NP specializing in the area of Family Practice. CIM offers an alternative to the high stress, high volume and production-based practice. Care is delivered in a professional yet fun, team-oriented and collaborative environment. We have been providing personalized and compassionate healthcare in a private practice setting for over 20 years. Care is delivered in a professional yet fun, team-oriented and collaborative environment. Applicant must be striving towards excellence and motivated to work in an integrative setting offering both alternative and complimentary therapies in addition to conventional medicine. If you are looking to work in a non-corporate, healthy, lower stress environment delivering high-level healthcare consider CIM.
Full Time or Part Time Position
Please send resume to: Caren Raisin, RN Caren@centerforintegrativemed.com

This picture is Sarah Conneely, NP enjoying the good life working at CIM - come join us! Please feel free to post this and share on your Facebook

Bend Oregon's most trusted Naturopathic Doctors and Integrative Medical Clinic | Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy HBOT | Prolotherapy | PRP

08/11/2025

Integrative Medicine Physician-Family Practice looking for a Bend MD/ND/DO/NP specializing in the area of Family Practice.

Job description: Center For Integrative Medicine is looking for a Bend MD/ND/DO/NP specializing in the area of Family Practice. CIM offers an alternative to the high stress, high volume and production-based practice. Care is delivered in a professional yet fun, team-oriented and collaborative environment. We have been providing personalized and compassionate healthcare in a private practice setting for over 20 years. Care is delivered in a professional yet fun, team-oriented and collaborative environment. Applicant must be striving towards excellence and motivated to work in an integrative setting offering both alternative and complimentary therapies in addition to conventional medicine. If you are looking to work in a non-corporate, healthy, lower stress environment delivering high-level healthcare consider CIM.

Full Time or Part Time Position

Please send resume to: Caren Raisin, RN Caren@centerforintegrativemed.com

07/07/2025

What is HBO Therapy (HBOT)?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, commonly referred to as HBOT, is the use of 100% oxygen, under increased pressure, to preserve, repair, and enhance cellular function. The combination of pressure and 100% oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber super-saturates the blood plasma with oxygen to levels 1,200% greater than can be achieved under normal conditions.
During an HBOT session, stem cells are released and activated from the bone marrow, travelling to areas of injury through the blood plasma. HBOT also decreases inflammation, reduces swelling, reverses hypoxia, stimulates the creation of new blood vessels, and optimizes all stages of wound healing.

Why Bring PRP Therapy and HBOT Together?
Each of these therapies alone stimulates healing, however, the combination of the two have a powerful synergistic effect. HBOT exponentially increases the number of stem cells in circulation while injected PRP attracts and delivers these stem cells to injured areas. This state-of-the-art combination of regenerative cellular therapies accelerates the healing response, leading to a more efficient and thorough restoration of tissue to a healthy state that is sustained for the long term. HBOT with PRP can also alleviate the achy or sore feeling that patients sometimes experience with PRP therapy.

By adding HBOT before and after each PRP injection, we increase the mobilization of stem cells and enhance the efficacy of the regenerative process.

07/04/2025

Dr Harding's full article will be in the Bend Source July 10th

Through Chronic Healing Plateaus: Tools for Getting Unstuck
by Deb Harding, ND, FABNO
After 25 years in naturopathic medicine, I’ve seen it countless times: a patient who eats well, takes supplements, prioritizes movement and mindfulness—but still feels stuck. Despite all their efforts, a particular chronic issue simply won’t budge. As a new transplant to Bend, I’ve been inspired by the depth of self-care knowledge in the community—people here are proactive, educated, and often experienced with integrative modalities. Yet, even in a place so wellness-savvy, healing can hit a plateau. This is where deeper, more tailored interventions become essential...

Feeling Stuck? Make an appointment with Dr Harding