“Better living” is always a great idea, although it means different things to different people. However, at Better Life Carolinas, that two-word concept is at the heart of its mission to optimize wellness through healthy aging.The medical professionals and support staff at Better Life are committed to the goals of helping patients remain active as they age, never with a “one size fits all” approach but always recognizing and acknowledging each individual’s unique issues and roadblocks. The stated goal of this extraordinary practice is to “optimize wellness as manifested by better energy, mobility, focus, memory and sexual function.”
Founded by award-winning physician Dr. Michale “Mickey” Barber, who serves as its CEO and chief medical officer, Better Life Carolinas is more accurately an age-management and wellness center.
The newest member of the Better Life Carolinas medical team is Dr. Merrill Matschke, a successful Chicago urologist who left his private practice to bring his expertise to the Lowcountry. His only regret? Having to leave his beloved Cubs behind.
Better Life Carolinas offers him the opportunity he was seeking to focus on age management and “move into the kind of medicine where I feel true health promotion exists,” he said.
In Dr. Matschke’s view, “Today we have what is called a ‘sick care’ system. That is, doctors wait until their patients become ill, then treat them. By contrast, Dr. Barber has created a different model that is all about promoting good health and helping each patient become as healthy and vital as he or she can be.”
“It’s not about making patients live longer,” he said. “It’s about making the time they have here more vital and productive so that they are able to fully enjoy their lives through their years of aging.”
Toward that goal, Better Life Carolinas stresses the importance of diet, nutrition and overall fitness in bettering the aging experience.
“Ideally,” Dr. Matschke said, “we can help a healthy patient stay that way. Of course, some patients will come to us with chronic conditions. Then our job is to listen to them, re-educate them about wellness and work to make those illnesses of aging go away or at least be significantly improved.”
One key to Better Life Carolinas’ age-management approach is a thorough hormonal evaluation of each patient prior to beginning their treatment.
“That’s crucial,” Dr. Matschke noted. “Hormone assessment allows us to help each patient modulate his or her hormones to optimize their results from improved nutrition and better fitness.”
Side-by-side with the practice’s emphasis on improving general health while aging is a program of treatments targeted specifically to sexual issues. For female patients, this includes hormone replacement therapy, which is often very beneficial. For male patients, there is the Priapus shot and the groundbreaking GAINSWave non-invasive acoustic wave therapy.
“At Better Life,” Dr. Matschke stated, “each patient is treated as a unique individual, and each program of treatment is absolutely tailored to that individual’s laboratory profile and history of nutrition and fitness – in essence, to how he or she has lived their life.”
“I’m passionate about becoming a part of this team,” he said, “and helping people to stay healthy, remain active and do everything they want to do as they age.”
By Bill Farley
