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RICHARD CASDORPH, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P

BOARD MEMBER INTROSPECTIVE:
RICHARD CASDORPH, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P.

by Scott C. Tips

Born and reared in West Virginia, H. Richard Casdorph was not even one-year old when the New York stock market crashed in 1929. The Great Depression followed on its heels and then along came the Second World War. Yet Richard not only lived through those tough years, he prospered, graduating with High Honors (Phi Beta Kappa) from West Virginia University in only three years when almost everyone else took the standard four years to obtain their degrees.

Medicine in his Blood

Since medicine was all he wanted to do since he was 12 years old, it was natural that Richard had focused on pre-med while at the University and then continued on with studies at a medical school. In this case, since his parents had moved to Indianapolis, Richard chose Indiana University Medical School as the place to study medicine. The Medical School had then, and still has today, an excellent reputation as both a school and a research institution. When he graduated in June 1953, Richard once again departed with scholastic honors.

During the year after medical school, Richard interned at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis. He describes his year there as "fun and exhausting," having gone through all of the medical specialties and with practical training that included wild ambulance rides through ghetto neighborhoods.

After internship follows residency, and Richard's was in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. It was there that his Fellowship was interrupted by the Korean War and the U.S. government's imposition of a "doctor's draft."

Join the Military and See the World

With the doctor's draft breathing down his neck, and wanting to be more the master of his destiny than the victim of government capriciousness, Richard jumped into the cauldron by enlisting as a Flight Surgeon for the U.S. Air Force. Stationed at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey, Richard was ordered first to attend the School of Aviation Medicine in San Antonio, Texas. Driving from snow-encased New Jersey to warm Texas, with its grapefruits and other fruits ripening in the sun, was enough at that time to plant the seed for a later move to a warmer climate.

Soon enough, though, it was back to New Jersey and, from there, Richard traveled the World as a Captain in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps for more than two years. Europe was a frequent destination, and he became very familiar with the beauty and liveliness of the continent. In September 1957, he was honorably discharged and returned to his civilian pursuits.

Back to the Future

Once out of the military, Richard was able to resume his Fellowship at the Mayo Clinic as Assistant to Staff in Cardiovascular Disease. In fact, his work there was so valued that Richard received a Research Fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health. Not one to laze around in the grass, Richard conducted research into cardiovascular diseases that also led to a Ph.D. degree at the University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis in 1961.

At the same time as Richard was pursuing his Fellowship he began his prolific writing career, which to date has yielded more than 80 published or presented pieces, most of which concern heart disease and its prevention and treatment, a Dr. Casdorph specialty. His published books have included such titles as the medical textbook Treatment of the Hyperlipidemic States and the more-popular-oriented Toxic Metal Syndrome and Real Miracles. From literally Singapore and London to Bishop, California, Richard's written and spoken words on heart disease have been read and heard, many in very prestigious professional journals.

And the Future is in the West

With warm weather still in his thoughts from his earlier stay in Texas, Richard ended his Fellowship in Minnesota and looked westward. So, in 1961, he moved to Southern California and joined a private medical clinic in Beverly Hills, California. But an invitation to become the Director of Medical Education at St. Mary's Hospital in Long Beach, California soon motivated him to pick up stakes and move a bit further south to that city - where he has lived ever since.

However, after three years as Director at St. Mary's and with a restriction still in place that prevented him from seeing patients, Richard decided to go back into private practice so that he could more directly help the sick and ill.

In 1966, he started his own solo practice in Long Beach at a location that he occupies to this very day. His office has specialized in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases, with a strong emphasis on alternative medicine and chelation therapy.

Alternative Medicine Is the Key

Being a "thinking man's" doctor, Richard had been drawn inexorably towards alternative medicine as a way to more quickly and effectively cure patients. Given his vast existing knowledge in the field of cardiovascular diseases and hyperlipidemia, he found chelation therapy particularly appealing. But Richard did not accept chelation therapy upon faith, rather he conducted his own research and investigation into the merits of the therapy before blending it into his practice.

As most Health Freedom News readers know, chelation therapy uses an intravenous chelating agent (EDTA) to clear clogged arteries and to remove toxic metals. Challenged in court by medical practitioners stuck in the past, chelation therapy has been proven time and again to be a cost-effective means improving circulation and heart health.

In fact, as Richard has observed, "Most of the patients who have come to me have had serious heart disease, claudication, and other similar problems, yet they feel much better after the chelation treatments. They respond very positively. A thirty-treatment series is the standard, followed by a maintenance program of two treatments a month."

"Moreover," he said, "we can actually measure the amount of plaque in our patients' arteries using a heart scan at Harbor UCLA [affiliated with Harbor Hospital and run by UCLA Medical School]. This test measures calcium and gives a score. Typically, patients' scores drop as much as 30% in a year and this is very significant because arteriosclerosis usually does not go away without some form of intervention."

Richard's practice, though, is more than just chelation therapy. It covers a very wide range of treatment modalities, including the use of Swedish growth hormone. His patients must think he is doing something right because they keep coming.

Life In the Fast Lane

With a thriving and active practice still going after 40 years, and holding three medical licenses, Richard still makes time for professional and other activities. The list is a long one.

And perhaps it begins foremost with Richard's substantial teaching credentials. Not only was Richard the Director of Medical Education at St. Mary's Hospital, but he also was a Clinical Instructor at the UCLA Medical School (1962-1965) and for fifteen years the Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine College of Medicine (1971-1986).

At the same time, Richard was involved in other positions of influence. For ten years he held the position of Director of the Lipid Research Foundation (1969-1979). And from 1972 to the present he has been a Consultant for the National Heart and Lung Institute, while for two years (1974-1976) he was the Chief of the Department of Internal Medicine at Long Beach Community Hospital.

As if that were not enough, our intrepid physician is a member of numerous professional associations and societies, including but not limited to the Minnesota State Medical Association, the California Medical association, the World Medical Association, the American Diabetes Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the Order of St. Luke the Physician, the Society of Nuclear Medicine, and the Long Beach Heart Association. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Angiology and the American College of Physicians.

An early member of the American Association of Medical Preventics - now known as the American College of Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) - Richard became its president in 1987, a position he held for one two-year term. ACAM is a nonprofit, professional membership society dedicated to educating physicians on the latest findings and emerging procedures in the field of Preventive and Therapeutic Medicine. And it was through ACAM that Richard first made the acquaintance of Dr. Ross Gordon, a co-founder of ACAM and also a member of the Board of Governors of the National Health Federation (NHF), as well as Dr. Gordon's wife, Maureen Kennedy Salaman.

Through those two latter connections, and based upon his substantial credentials and matching integrity, Richard joined the NHF Board of Governors, at Maureen's specific request, in January 2000. He has served on the NHF Board ever since - most recently for three years as the Chairman of the Board.

But It's Not All Work

With all that he has done and is still doing, it would not seem possible that Richard Casdorph could have time for anything else but sleep. However, with seven children and eleven grandchildren through two marriages, he is quite active in arenas other than medicine and health.

Still a world traveler, Richard thrives in water-oriented areas, whether the water is frozen or liquid. Equally at home rocketing down the ski slopes or wake-jumping on water skis behind a fast-moving power boat, or even below the water with scuba gear strapped on his shoulders, this man of action never relents. He is always in the thick of life, whether it is experiencing its wonders himself or helping others to continue to live in good health so that they may have the same pleasures of life.