Dr. Mohammed Elamir

Aviv Clinics, The World Leader in Healthy Aging.

It’s no secret how residents of The Villages approach aging. They participate in softball, pickleball, golf, bowling, dancing, and a slew of other activities. Their main concern is not their lifespan, but rather their health span: how many years they remain active and healthy.

The Aviv Medical Program offered at Aviv Clinics perfectly complements the active lifestyle that retirees in The Villages desire. The clinic focuses on optimizing their clients’ quality of life in their later years through increased mental and physical performance.

“When our company was looking for sites to open our first clinic, we initially thought of big cities like New York,” says Dr. Mohammed Elamir, who operated a primary and internal medicine practice in New Jersey before moving to Florida to join the Aviv Clinics team. “Then we realized The Villages has the biggest concentration of healthy aging individuals and knew this would be an ideal location.”

Clients enroll in a three-month program that begins with a thorough evaluation of their cognitive, biological, genetic, and physical functions.

Cognitive evaluations test a client’s memory process, while anatomical imaging of the brain allows physicians to see the damage that has occurred throughout life. The physical evaluation measures body composition, athletic performance, cardiovascular performance, and hand-eye coordination. Metabolic evaluations provide a DNA analysis and help physicians assess dietary and nutritional needs.

A molecular evaluation tests the clients’ telomeres, which are the protective caps on the ends of the strands of DNA called chromosomes. They shorten as people age, causing the cell to stop dividing or die.

“We take all that evaluation to see how the aging process has unfolded over time and now we have a patient’s baseline,” says Dr. Elamir. “We use that as a way to individualize and fine-tune a client’s treatment program.”

With a baseline understanding of the client’s physical and mental composition, the clinical team goes to work creating a bespoke treatment plan for each individual. Clients undergo 60 hyperbaric oxygen treatments (five days a week for 12 weeks) in addition to mental and physical training programs designed by a team of physicians.

The human brain requires oxygen to perform its best. However, as people age, their bodies become less efficient at channeling oxygen. During hyperbaric oxygen treatment, the body is flushed with oxygen and stem cells are mobilized. While inside the chamber, Aviv clients undergo brain exercises focusing on working memory, reaction time, and attention to detail. The exercises mobilize blood flow and stem cells to the damaged areas of the brain.

“Through our innovative protocol, we increase the amount of stem cells to help build new brain cells, new blood vessels, new cardiac tissue, and new muscle cells,” Dr. Elamir explains. “Thus, we help reverse the aging process by building and regenerating cells in the body.

A final assessment at the end of 12 weeks determines how much a patient has improved cognitively and physically.

“I’ve witnessed a lot of amazing things in our clients who undergo the program,” Dr. Elamir says. “I’ve seen some people increase their telomeres by 55 percent, their cognitive scores by 20 percent, their blood perfusion to the brain by 38 percent, and an improvement in cardiovascular performance by 20 percent. And that’s just a healthy aging individual with no major medical problem. On the flip side, I’ve had stroke patients come in using a wheelchair and come out using a cane.”

Dr. Elamir has witnessed other promising results.

“I have 82 -year-old people who want to improve their tennis game because they don’t want to decline. In the middle of the program, they approach me and talk about how others are noticing their tennis game has improved. They’re faster, more accurate, and have more endurance. That’s the mantra of who we are and what we do.”

Some clients have seen improvement in symptoms that they associate as long-term side effects of early dementia, traumatic brain injury, fibromyalgia, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), changes in brain chemistry, and Lyme disease. 

Aviv truly cares

You could call the medical team at Aviv Clinics lots of things. They’re caretakers, warriors of wellness, life-changers, and even life savers.

However, in the past year, they’ve earned a new moniker. They’re stewards of the community.

In an effort to give back to the community and share the revolutionary benefits of its healthy aging program, the team at Aviv launched Aviv Cares. During the next five years, Aviv will donate up to 100 treatment packages at a greatly reduced cost to patients who normally could not afford to pay for the program.

“Our goal from the very beginning was to be an integral part of the community, and Aviv Cares is an important part of that,” Dr. Elamir says. “This will allow us to care for even more people so they can remain healthy and vibrant as they age.”

Aviv Clinics 

352.488.2848 / 2955 Brownwood Blvd. Suite 100 in The Villages / aviv-clinics.com