A native of Southern California, Dr. Marco Zahedi could hardly wait to return to his home state following medical school. A graduate of California State University, Dr. Zahedi earned a BS with honors in Biochemistry and Medical Psychology and then continued his education at Chicago Medical School completing his MD training.
After med school, he returned to California where he completed a residency at the University of Southern California and Huntington Memorial Hospital and then went on to obtain post-residency training in Dermatology and Aesthetic Medicine as well as a Master’s in Public Health.
“I opened my private practice in 2015 in Santa Ana and began specializing in integrative medicine and dermatology,” said Zahedi. “Now I’m fortunate to have three locations in Southern California where I’m able to offer IV vitamin therapies, bioidentical hormone therapies and now integrative cellular therapy.”
Throughout the last several years, Dr. Zahedi has been doing exhaustive research on stem cells, the FDA regulations, risks and benefits and sharing what he has learned with others.
“There is a lot to learn where stem cell therapy is concerned,” said Zahedi. “Right now, we are in a window of time where the FDA is being pretty hands off because we are in a research phase but at the end of 2019 it will all be heavily regulated and all clinics will be required to comply. So, my goal is to learn as much as I can and pass that on to others.”
As an integrative practitioner Dr. Zahedi enjoys the opportunity to work in tandem with his patients allowing them to feel comfortable coming to him with ideas about bloodwork, tests or therapies they might like to try.
“Integrative medicine has a lot more patient input and we embrace various modalities outside of traditional medicine,” said Zahedi. “These days patients have more information than ever available to them through the internet. When they come in to see me they’ve very often done extensive research and it’s pretty impressive what they know and understand about their health. As an integrative practitioner, we tend to listen to them and let them make suggestions as to the route we take in their health journey.”
The down side of integrative medicine, according to Dr. Zahedi, is the lack of scientific evidence available to back up many of the modalities used with non-traditional medicine. Without this evidence, it is often difficult to convince clients to trust that the therapies will work.
“There’s a considerable amount of money that goes in to placing articles on the internet that attempt to disprove any type of non-traditional therapy,” said Zahedi. “So, we fight the battle of talking to patients about a treatment plan but then they leave and do research and decide our plan has no merit and feel that we are just trying to take their money. It can be very frustrating to say the least.”
Dr. Zahedi chooses to overcome those obstacles by staying at the forefront of research and helping his patients to understand the benefits of the therapies he offers. Many patients come to him at the end of their rope, having tried every traditional approach available to them. Dr. Zahedi helps them see that they have nothing to lose by giving the integrative approaches a try.
When not in the office, Dr. Zahedi admits he has a hard time pulling himself away from studying and research but he does enjoy spending time playing basketball, surfing, traveling or attending sports events. A Los Angeles Rams season ticket holder, you will often find him in the stadium enjoying a game. Dr. Zahedi is engaged to be married and is excited to settle down with his wife to be in Irvine, California.
To learn more about the work that Dr. Zahedi is involved in and his expertise on stem cell therapy, join us for his upcoming ACIM webinar on Saturday, January 26th.