Frank Lipman, MD
For Dr. Frank Lipman, health is more than just the absence of disease: it is a total state of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellbeing. Dr. Lipman is a widely recognized trailblazer and leader in functional and integrative medicine, and he is a New York Times best-selling author of seven books, How To Be Well, The New Health Rules, 10 Reasons You Feel Old and Get Fat, Revive, Total Renewal, The New Rules of Aging Well, and his newest book, Better Sleep, Better You.
After his initial medical training in his native South Africa, Dr. Lipman spent 18 months working at clinics in the bush. He became familiar with the local traditional healers, called sangomas, which kindled his interest in non-Western healing modalities.
In 1984, Dr. Lipman immigrated to the United States, where he became the chief medical resident at Lincoln Hospital in Bronx, NY. While there, he became fascinated by the hospital’s addiction clinic, which used acupuncture and Chinese medicine to treat people suffering from heroin and crack addiction. Seeing the way these patients responded so positively to acupuncture made him even more aware of the potential of implementing non- Western medicine to promote holistic wellbeing. As a medical student, he was taught to focus on the disease rather than the patient, and now as a doctor he found himself treating symptoms rather than the root causes of illness. Frustrated by the constraints of his training, and the limitations in helping his patients regain true health, he began a journey of discovery to search for the path to meaningful long-term health and wellness.
To that end, Dr. Lipman began studying nutrition, acupuncture, Chinese medicine, herbal medicine, functional medicine, biofeedback, meditation, and yoga. He founded the Eleven Eleven Wellness Center in 1992, where he combines the best of Western medicine and cutting edge nutritional science with age-old healing techniques from the East. As his patient chef Seamus Mullen told The New York Times, “If antibiotics are right, he’ll try it. If it’s an anti-inflammatory diet, he’ll do that. He’s looking at the body as a system rather than looking at isolated things.”
Over the years Dr. Lipman has had the opportunity to support various health related projects. Currently, Dr. Lipman is the Chief Medical Officer for Hearty, a digital clinic offering a tailor-made health program providing in-depth health insights through in-home testing and monitoring. Members receive an Individually tailored program available through the Hearty app. He is also a member of the Clinical Advisory Board for Salvo Health, a virtual health clinic focusing on specialty care for chronic conditions, starting with GI/Gastro issues.
