Category: Business

At Zhoy Vitality Center, you can expect a different sort of doctor-patient relationship and experience. Board-certifieD Obstetrician/Gynecologist (OB-GYN) Areej Salem, M.D., believes in a whole-body approach to rejuvenation and revitalization to help everyone look and feel their best. From incontinence and medical weight loss solutions to sexual dysfunctions and even vaginal rejuvenation, Dr. Salem provides not only a safe place to talk but an office that is on the forefront of technology and technique.

“Lots of patients are looking for alternative ways to treat the whole person,” says Dr. Salem. “Just because you don’t have a label put on you doesn’t mean you are healthy. I look at treating the whole person from the inside out.”

Located just off the Ancient Oaks Blvd. roundabout in the Seven Oaks Professional Park off S.R. 56, Zhoy Vitality Center (which draws its name from the first initials of Dr. Salem’s four children) has been in existence since 2012. From a young age, Dr. Salem says she has always been drawn to altruistic, healing paths.

“I always wanted to give back,” she says. “I love to listen to people and talk with and help them.”

Dr. Salem received her Medical Doctor (M.D.) degree from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, in 2002.

She also completed a residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Christiana Care Health System in Newark, NJ, in 2007, and went on to complete fellowships in Anti-Aging, Regenerative and Functional Medicine as well as Aesthetics with the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. She is Board-certified by the American Board of Obstetrics & Gynecology and the American Board of Integrative & Holistic Medicine.

At Zhoy Vitality Center, Dr. Salem offers patients a plethora of anti-aging and restorative options. Although the largest number of her patients are women between 40 and 60, she says she also sees men and both younger and older patients. Three major areas for which patients consult her are for antiaging hormone therapy, aesthetics and vaginal rejuvenation.

“It’s a unique practice,” says Dr. Salem. “There’s no one in the area who does what I do. I combine treatments and modalities to give maximal results, whether it’s for aesthetics or sexual health or satisfaction.”

Hormonal Therapies

Dr. Salem says that hormone replacement therapy for men and women is one of her most popular treatments. She explains that hormone production decreases as we age, resulting in a variety of possible problems: women get night sweats, mood swings, fatigue, weight gain, thinning hair and vaginal dryness. Hormonal reduction in men causes erectile dysfunction, loss of muscle bulk and loss of libido.

To combat these problems, one of Dr. Salem’s offerings is “pellet therapy,” where bio-identical hormones are inserted, often under the skin just above the buttocks, in order to dissolve over time and replicate the effects of the original hormones that the body used to make in large quantities before.

Dr. Salem acknowledges that “traditional doctors” sometimes have a bias against hormonal therapy, but as long as these treatments are conducted safely under her care, she says she is confident she can and will create the proper balance in her patients.

For most, a slim and fit body is harder to maintain as we age, but it’s also an area in which Dr. Salem can assist, with medical weight loss and nutrition plans that include specialized testing, pharmaceutical-grade supplements, nutrition counseling and nutritional detoxification. One specific plan she offers is called Metabolic Balance, which is a specialized meal plan based on lab work and a person’s history.

All of the patient’s lab results and medical history info are compiled and sent to the Metabolic Balance headquarters in Germany, from where a specific plan for nutrition is sent back for each patient to follow under Dr. Salem’s guidance. The aimed-for result is improved health; but Dr. Salem says, “the weight loss tends to be a happy side effect.”

Feeling good often starts from the outside, which is why Dr. Salem offers an array of aesthetic options. Stem cell “facelifts” involve harvesting your own stem cells and processing them onsite, and then injecting them back in the same day to return natural volume.

Other services include fillers such as Botox and Dysport; sclerotherapy to reduce or eliminate spider and varicose veins; AccelaFuze oxygen hydra-infused facials; DermaFrac microchanneling that inserts peptides between layers of skin for a “lift” without the downtime; Exilis skin tightening and body contouring, which involves heating and cooling body fat without burning your skin; laser peels and resurfacing; and BBL (broad band light) therapy for treating several problems including acne and hair reduction.

Other treatments include laser hair reduction, microlaser peels, ProFractional laser therapy to treat scars and visible signs of ageing, ThermiTight and ThermiSmooth treatments that use radiofrequencies to tighten and smooth your skin, and even ThermiDry treatments to reduce sweating.

Dr. Salem describes the Forever Young light treatment as the, “Ferrari of light treatments” in the way it can recapture youth in skin by boosting your body’s own collagen production. If you want a more all-encompassing treatment than choosing from a menu of individual options, Dr. Salem can design a Zhoy Ultimate Radiance package for you that is customized based on your needs and amount of downtime you’re willing to go through.

Looking your best is no superficial aim, Dr. Salem maintains. Rather, it is a way to have the person on the outside reflect how they feel inside, despite the ravages of age.

“We help you get the best effects of who you are on the inside,” she says. “When you feel like you look your best, your confidence shows in the way you walk, the way you interact with people. It affects your overall well-being and your self-esteem.”

Vaginal Rejuvenation

One aspect of women’s health that is often swept under the table is sexuality. Not only does Dr. Salem have the kind of personality and easygoing bedside manner that allow people to talk about their most intimate concerns without embarrassment, she also can offer her expertise in many different surgical and non-surgical ways to treat these issues. Sexual dysfunction is not often dealt with honestly in traditional practices, Dr. Salem says. Patients are either embarrassed to talk about issues with their doctors, or feel like their problems are “in their heads” and that they, “just need to get over it.”

“It’s a huge thing to have that void or deficiency in your intimate relationships,” says Dr. Salem. “So many women feel like they’re alone.”

She offers a treatment called ThermiVa that uses gentle radioactive frequency to tighten vaginal tissue non-surgically. ThermiVa can be done by itself or as part of a package called Intimate Radiance, which includes an O-shot, which delivers platelet-rich plasma from the patient’s own blood into the vaginal tissue to rejuvenate the area. If necessary, Dr. Salem also can perform surgical procedures to tighten muscles.

The office accepts some forms of medical insurance, but in-house financing also is available.

For more information about Dr. Salem and the Zhoy Vitality Center, or to see a comprehensive list of the procedures offered, visit ZhoyVitalityCenter.com. Zhoy Vitality Center is located at 2306 Ashley Oaks Cir., Suite 101. To make an appointment, call 994-0266.

Often overlooked, usually mistreated and rarely pampered, your feet are the unsung workhorses of your body.

But, undetected problems with your feet can often lead to larger problems that can affect your back, your gait, your lifestyle, and your general health. In the Wesley Chapel offices of New Tampa Foot & Ankle, longtime New Tampa resident Stephen Levin, D.P.M., helps anyone from age 0 to 100 fix those issues before they get out of control. And, with the latest in laser technology and a new shock wave therapy (see below), he is able to treat some of the most common and painful conditions with noninvasive, highly effective in-office methods.

A native of Baltimore, MD, Dr. Levin got his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in Urban Studies from the University of Maryland in College Park in 1992. He then obtained his Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (D.P.M.) degree from the Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia in 1996. He completed a two-year medical and surgical residency at Montgomery Hospital Medical Center in Norristown, PA, in 1998, and then moved to Tampa, working in private practice until he opened New Tampa Foot & Ankle in 2002.

Dr. Levin moved his New Tampa location to its current location off of S.R. 56 in Wesley Chapel in 2007, then opened a South Tampa location in 2012. 

Dr. Levin is Board-certified in foot surgery by the American Board of Podiatric Surgery and also is on staff at both Florida Hospital Tampa and Wesley Chapel, St. Joseph’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s North, Tampa General Hospital, the New Tampa Surgery Center and the Ambulatory Surgery Center on E. Fletcher Ave. He has operating room privileges at Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel, St. Joseph’s North and the New Tampa Surgery Center.

Until recently, Dr. Levin was the president of the Hillsborough County Podiatric Medical Association for 10 years, and in 2005, was selected as the Young Practitioner of the Year by the Florida Podiatric Medical Association.

At his Wesley Chapel office, Dr. Levin uses state-of-the-art technology to fix some of the most common foot problems, including heel pain and fungal infections.

A Wide Variety Of Services

Among the many services offered at New Tampa Foot & Ankle is Extracorporeal Pulse Activation Technology (EPAT), the method by which Dr. Levin treats heel pain. Developed in Europe and FDA-approved in the U.S., the technology consists of a console and a wand-like attachment that emits shockwaves on the area of pain.

Heel pain (such as plantar fasciitis) can be caused when certain ligaments are irritated, causing thickening, swelling and subsequently, pain. Traditional treatments have called for anti-inflammatory injections or home therapy, such as physical therapy, ice and wearing orthotic inserts. EPAT uses acoustic shock waves to stimulate or signal the body to increase circulation, says Dr. Levin, allowing the area to heal itself more quickly and effectively. While he says some patients feel sensitivity after their initial treatments, they usually acclimate to the feeling (which he describes as a rapid pulsing) as the treatments continue, generally weekly for three to five months.

“The technology has been around for one or two decades, but it has become more amenable to an office setting,” says Dr. Levin. “There’s no downtime, no medications and no infections.”

In addition to heel pain, toenail fungus is a major concern of Dr. Levin’s patients. “It’s unsightly; it’s embarrassing,” he says, adding that the fungus can be caused by trauma and even by pedicures in unsanitary conditions.

To treat toenail fungus without oral medications or topical creams, Dr. Levin uses a treatment called NovoNail, a laser that works painlessly by running over the infected nail. This creates enough heat to kill the fungus that causes the infection. Dr. Levin says three or four 20-minute treatments over the course of a year is enough to cure most cases.

In severe cases, Dr. Levin can use the laser to remove the toenail, make a tiny incision for the laser to clean and resurface the nail bed and file down any underlying bone spur, and then stitch up the incision. Within a year, he says the new toenail has usually grown in over a clean nailbed.

Heel pain and fungal infections affect a large number of patients. However, Dr. Levin handles many other issues affecting your feet and ankles, such as Achilles tendon problems, ankle instability, flat feet, arthritic foot and ankle care, bunions and corns, geriatric foot care, and warts. He also treats feet when crushed by injury and the feet of diabetics, who have poor circulation and nerve damage so they cannot feel blisters or sores and need special shoes with more room and protection. He also treats children for problems such as Severs Disease, a growth pain-related irritation of the heel, as well as ingrown toenails, warts and flat feet.

Some problems can be solved by wearing the right kind of shoes and to this end, Dr. Levin carries a plethora of foot-related products for patients to buy at reasonable prices. You can be sure they work well, because Dr. Levin says that either he, a staff member or a member of their families have tested or tried them out, such as Vionic flip-flops (Dr. Levin says those flat flip-flops Floridians tend to wear everywhere don’t do our feet any favors) and custom and semi-custom orthotic shoe inserts. Also available is a line of hypoallergenic creams and lotions, as well as tools such as pumice stones, plus compression hose and shoes for diabetic patients.

The office accepts many forms of insurance and also offers in-house financing options.

Clearly, Dr. Levin’s services are in high demand. Since he started his own practice, it has grown to include a staff of seven, and he says he will add a new doctor at the end of this summer. He also says he currently sees an average of 150-200 patients a week in his Wesley Chapel office, while his colleague, Dr. Martin Port, sees patients in the South Tampa location at 3704 Euclid Ave.

Dr. Levin knew that Wesley Chapel would be the ideal place for his practice, as he had been keeping an eye on the projected growth of this area since moving to Florida 18 years ago. He met his wife, Diane Pellegrino Levin, when he was at the (then) University Community Hospital (now Florida Hospital Tampa) and she was an Emergency Room nurse there. The couple and their three children, David, 18; Sam, 11; and Sarah, 9, are active in the community, gymnastics and soccer.

New Tampa Foot & Ankle is open Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and is located at 26827 Foggy Creek Rd., Suite 104, off S.R. 56. For more information, call 973-3535 or visit NewTampaFootandAnkle.com.