I have mixed feelings about Dr. Ali. She was not the right match for me, and I have some serious…read moreissues with her approach to testing, however I do think she would be a good doctor for someone who is relatively healthy and is interested in holistic and Ayurvedic medicine. The office was very clean and modern, and the staff were friendly and efficient.
I originally decided to visit her because of her holistic approach to medicine; I have had unexplained chronic health issues for several years that traditional doctors were unresponsive to (recently diagnosed as Chronic Lyme by another doctor), and was hoping she could help me figure out the root cause. Dr. Ali prescribed some herbal medicines and recommended some dietary changes based on Ayurvedic medicine, which I liked. However, after seeing her several times, she would not carry out tests that I felt were important, and it became clear that she was not the right doctor for me; to be fair, she had an honest conversation about this with me, and we mutually decided that it would be best if I switched to a new PCP that would undertake the testing that I requested.
If you are like me and have chronic unexplained health issues, I would caution you that Dr. Ali may not be the right doctor to help you uncover the underlying issues, based on the reasons below:
I had a lot of debilitating health problems when I initially saw Dr. Ali, and asked her to do some specific tests to rule out some of my symptoms. Dr. Ali wouldn't do the tests, and told me that she does not believe in unnecessary testing because it is wasteful. I agree with this principle, however, I don't think it is wasteful to do a test if someone has specific symptoms! Since moving to Visions Healthcare, which practices Functional Medicine, I have been diagnosed with Lyme Disease, SIBO, multiple food allergies and severe B12 deficiency, which were all completely missed while I was at Zanjabee, due to lack of testing.
I was concerned that I had Celiac Disease. Rather than testing me for Celiacs, Dr. Ali recommended that eat a gluten free diet, and after a couple weeks of the new diet, I was feeling better. However, I again expressed my concern that I should get tested for Celiacs, as it is an autoimmune disease which can lead to a host of other health issues. Dr. Ali wouldn't do the test and said I should just eat GF for the rest of my life. After doing research on Celiacs and Gluten Sensitivity, I learned that it is essential to test for Celiacs BEFORE going on a gluten free diet, because once you stop eating gluten, you will get false negative test results. If I had symptoms of Celiacs, I should have been tested for it prior to being prescribed a GF diet.
I also have chronic fatigue and a family history of hypothyroidism, and because of this, I asked Dr. Ali to do a full thyroid panel. She told me that TSH was the only important item to test and wouldn't do any other thyroid testing. I believe it is incredibly important to find a doctor that will do a full Thyroid panel and fully understands the relationship between all the thyroid hormones, especially in order to diagnose hyper/othyroidism and Hashimotos - so that was a red flag for me. If you share my opinion on this, I would recommend finding another doctor.