Rye Brook doctor blends medicine, nutrition
Practice shows how to cook, eat healthy

Written by Leah Rae for LoHud.com/The Journal News

RYE BROOK — The scented, spa-like waiting room for Dr. Susan Blum, chronic disease specialist, makes clear that this is no ordinary medical practice.

Next to the reception window is a display of Blum’s new book, “The Immune System Recovery Plan,” and her line of nutritional supplements and organic takeout food. Next to that is the kitchen, where visitors, not just patients, learn the pleasure and practice of healthy cooking – including the science behind eating “gluten-free.” The cabinets help people move from a white-bread diet to the world of spelt and sea vegetables.

She opened the Blum Center for Health two years ago in Rye Ridge Shopping Center to fill what she sees as a big gap in modern medicine. Patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and high cholesterol, are typically advised to eat healthy and avoid stress. But they’re rarely shown how.

Her center is designed to provide hands-on experience with a healthy lifestyle, where food is regarded as a fundamental component of medical care. All patients meet with a nutritionist and learn to make connections between how they feel and what they eat. Related cooking classes, lectures, “detox” diet programs and relaxation classes are open to the community.

“We’ve become a real community center. It was always my dream, that part of it,” Blum said.

Blum’s book, published by Simon & Schuster, focuses on protecting the immune system through diet. The key is preventing inflammation, which is common to a range of autoimmune diseases.

At an open house last month, Marlene Denowitz Velez was picking up 25 copies of Blum’s book, primarily for colleagues at Saunders Trades & Technical High School in Yonkers.

“She’s the fountain of youth,” Denowitz Velez said. The 50-something math teacher visited the center on the insistence of a friend. The center does not take insurance, but assists with out-of-network coverage.

Diabetes, high cholesterol and arthritis, and long-term use of antibiotics had left Denowitz Velez devoid of energy.

“I was acting like I was in my 80s,” she said. After taking fish oil and other supplements, going gluten-free and getting acquainted with chard and kale, she said, “I went from 50-something to 30-something.”