Blue Oak Clinic - Naturopathic Family Medicine

12/17/2022

Greetings from Blue Oak Clinic -

10/15/2020

08/17/2020

Edit: Oh! I was a week early!
The last day for voting for the top finalists is through midnight on Monday, Aug. 24!
~~~~~
In case you are like us and want to vote, but just did not get around to it till today. Today's the last day for voting!

The lost treasures of Tucson are spoken of in hushed whispers. Who knows what happened to these legendary talismans after they vanished more than a century ago? Did they really have magical powers? And where are they today? Tucson Weekly is on the hunt for these long-lost treasures—and we need you...

08/08/2020

Guess what!!
We are nominated for ‘Best of Tucson’ ❣️❣️❣️
Voting closes Aug 24.
We’re grateful to our outstanding team of Providers and staff.
Without Dr Luevano, Dr Damon Sage, Kenneth, Marina, Nicole, and Mingda, we would not be the clinic we have become.
We pride ourself on excellent customer service and patient-centered healthcare. Our job is to help take care of YOU!
Blue Oak Clinic *is* our amazing group of people and the community we serve. We're so thankful for our team and to all of you who trust us with your healthcare.
Stephanie Stark, NMD & Ardeschir Mehrabani, NMD Blue Oak Clinic Owners

The lost treasures of Tucson are spoken of in hushed whispers. Who knows what happened to these legendary talismans after they vanished more than a century ago? Did they really have magical powers? And where are they today? Tucson Weekly is on the hunt for these long-lost treasures—and we need you...

08/05/2020

Testing: Real talk & New swab testing ANNOUNCEMENT
I'll be blunt. The best tests we have are not covered by insurance. So frustrating.
'How can we trust the tests out there?!' We echo your frustration!
Swabs are for a new/active infection; whereas, antibody tests show your immune system's response to a new illness (IgM) and a past illness (IgG).
We have YET to see a positive antibody test from Sonora Quest or LabCorp (over 50 performed). Approximately 8% of the Vibrant America antibody tests have shown positive for IgM/IgG or mixed.

Here is information re this out of pocket testing antibody we have been doing since the get-go. This is written by people from this lab. They now offer a new swab for new/recent COVID infection detection.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.20085068v1
Vibrant America IgM & IgG testing is $119. If the mobile phlebotomist comes out, that's $35 to Vestra Labs and $119 to Vibrant America. If you are drawn in our office we charge a $25 processing fee on top of the $119 test price.

ANNOUNCEMENT:
HUGE!! New (accurate) PCR swabs! We are now offering more sensitive and specific swabs with a 36 hour turnaround!
If we believe you may have active/new COVID we will always suggest this test.
It is really too bad that the best test is out of pocket $99. However, we have seen a lot of negative swabs and know with the 30-40% false negative rate that a 'negative' cannot always be trusted.
As long as a proper sample is collected, these have a 100% sensitivity & specificity.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lq9triiv51tzyxg/VA-COV-003%20CovidPCR%20Analytical%20and%20Clinical%20Studies%20Report%20FDA%20Rev%201%20%281%29.pdf?dl=0

If someone is acutely ill they would make a phone/virtual appointment with one of our Providers, and initiate the home testing via our office. We will let Vestra Labs know your information and a mobile phlebotomist will come to your home to draw and or swab you.For swab and Antibodies together, Vibrant America charges $198 (plus draw fee)

Antibody Rapid testing- in office
We do offer rapid testing for $65. It does require a blood draw. IgM (new/recent infection) has a 1 in 10 false negative rate, and the IgG is approx 5 in 100 false negative. These are excellent stats for rapid testing, in terms of what is available.

ABSTRACT Background: Antibody diagnostics play an important role in disease detection and can potentially aid in monitoring of the immune responses to see if an individual has developed immunity. Developing high throughput diagnostics which does not involve handling of infectious material becomes im...

08/05/2020

'What if I get COVID?' - Answering your questions re testing/appts/treatment

If someone thinks they could be ill with COVID - do NOT come into the clinic.
Call 322-WELL (9355).
All established patients will be taken care of to the best of our ability, and as soon as possible.
1.Schedule a minimum 15 min virtual/phone appt with Dr Mehrabani, Stark, or Luevano.
2.Schedule a self-collect nasal or throat swab with Nicole (insurance method). We will send a video that explains this basic technique. Mystery turnaround time (ie 4-10 days).
3.OR better, we will ask Vestra Phlebotomist to come to your home to swab you (out of pocket). 36 hour turnaround time. $99 to lab and $35 to phlebotomist. (See next post re why we suggest this lab).
4.We get back to you ASAP re results.
5.If you are ill and insurance swab test results are negative, assume they are positive. 30-40% of those swabs are falsely negative! Many folks are not positive on their first swab.
6.Follow the treatment plan given during the appointment, stay home and rest up and keep your follow up appointment so your Doc can check up on you.

08/05/2020

Hi everyone!
Sorry it’s been a while.
Some of you asked to be put on our email list. If you did not get an email from us within the last hour, you’re not on it.
Please do this: email us at info@blueoakclinic.com and put in the subject: Add me to email list.
I will post most of the current one to this page.
Hope you’re all staying well!

06/23/2020

Sharing this valuable resource from our open-minded and stellar colleagues at UA Integrative Psychiatry Dept.
Thank you to Dr Noshene Ranjbar, a trailblazer!!

The Integrative Psychiatry Program at the University of Arizona is dedicated to educating physicians-in-training to provide a holistic approach to mental hea...

06/12/2020

UPDATE:
Most COVID information will now only be spread via our email list-serve, due to the FTC penalizing anyone discussing viral/immune system/COVID along with the mention of something natural or otherwise that may be able to help them stay strong or treat illness.
We know there are unscrupulous folks out there, but this is happening to people like us who are *not* just trying to make a buck off of COVID. Many of our colleagues spreading info (MDs, NDs, LAcs, DCs, you name it) have had warnings sent to them from the FTC.
We understand this is not occurring in Canada.
If we send updates in the future we may be careful and not mention the word COVID, virus, immune system and try to keep it super basic.

06/11/2020

Some of our patients should stay inside and limit their time outdoors. At the least, skip your evening walk for today. The smoke will be worse at 6-8:00 pm.
‘.. Children, older adults and those with heart or lung disease to be cautious and understand that if they can smell smoke, they are breathing smoke. These at-risk individuals are encouraged to reduce their level of exertion and avoid outside activities to decrease the amount of air pollution they breathe into their lungs.‘

Smoke from Bighorn Fire is encroaching on Tucson neighborhoods

06/06/2020

Head’s up, Type A folks.
We will have a new email coming out Monday with more new info.

Geneticists have turned up intriguing links between DNA and the disease. Patients with Type A blood, for example, seem to be at greater risk.

05/17/2020

We'll have a new email coming out tomorrow.
We are still learning about this virus. It is unpredictable and that makes us cautious. If we are hunkering down in vain, so be it. We are waiting longer to see how things pan out.
Our job is taking care of our Blue Oak folks as best as we can.
This is not meant to spread fear, just a 'check' in that we do not know what the future holds.
Hope everyone reading this is staying well. Please reach out for an appointment if you need help.

Philadelphia was ill-prepared; Seattle responded quickly. The results offer a stark lesson, says Nancy K Bristow, a professor of history at the University of Puget Sound