12/16/2024    Robert Kornfeld, DPM

“I Have Built a Monument More Lasting than Bronze…” (Rod Tomczak, DPM, MD, EdD)

There is no question, and I have been a witness to
this for well over 40 years, that we are supremely
well trained in recognizing and treating foot and
ankle pathology, but we have literally no
training, outside of biomechanics, to understand
the underlying mechanisms of pathology. If we had
this training, this comprehensive understanding of
the human body, we would have much better
acceptance by our MD/DO colleagues and we would be
much better physicians. Functional medicine
provides this in-depth understanding of why a
patient has crossed the morbidity threshold and is
sitting in your office. As doctors, it is our job
to manage the causes prior to treating the
symptoms. Even if your patient improves from what
you did, the unaddressed mechanisms will lead to
new pathology in the future.

If we continue to function as we have, trained in
the foot and ankle but not in the whole body, this
profession will certainly not survive into the
future. But a comprehensive understanding of body
systems, immune burdens, epigenetics, SNPs and
other genetic markers as they relate to the
patient's medical history and review of systems
gives you the information you need to address
these issues.

I have been asked if it is out of our scope to do
this. The answer is definitely no, since they
relate directly to why a patient cannot repair
cellular injury in a timely way or undergo
degeneration in the foot and ankle. Let us not
forget we are licensed to suppress the immune
system (NSAIDS, steroids, etc...), we are licensed
to affect changes in the CNS (narcotic analgesics,
SSRIs, SNRIs, etc.) and all of our prescriptions
involve systemic treatment. They do not go only to
the foot. Case in point, even with a local steroid
injection, blood sugar elevates. So why not
support the patient back to improved health, lift
the immune burdens and then, with a more efficient
immune system, you can apply natural therapies and
regenerative medicines to heal the presenting
symptoms.

I have been practicing functional medicine and
regenerative medicine for decades and I can tell
you after treating thousands of patients this way
that it is true healing. And I would rather be a
healer than a "provider of service" that is
relegated by insurance companies to address the
presenting symptoms and nothing else.

Let's be all we are capable of being. IT'S TIME
FOR A CHANGE OR TIME WILL RUN OUT!

Robert Kornfeld, DPM, NY, NY

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