Solving Healthcare’s Puzzle
The Missing Pieces
“A multitude of factors are outside of our control. I’ve chosen to channel my experience in trauma and critical care to address the things we CAN control—nutrition, weight, and healthy aging.” Dr. Nerissa Prieto
When tragedy cannot be avoided, preparation and medical science can minimize the loss. In March 2022, the driver of an SUV lost control and crashed through the front of a daycare.19 preschoolers were asleep on the floor where the vehicle came to an abrupt stop. A mass casualty alert was relayed to the local trauma center in Redding, California. Dr. Nerissa Prieto was one of the first doctors to arrive in the emergency room, where she and the ER physician on call planned the response to a complex problem: not only was this a mass casualty, an uncommon scenario that physicians may only see once in a lifetime, but this was a mass casualty of children—all different ages and different sizes, requiring different types of equipment, instruments, monitors. Dr. Prieto and her ER colleague coordinated the workflow in a crowded trauma bay, allowing nearly all the injured children to be treated simultaneously, by dozens of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and support staff. Thankfully, all the children survived.
During her 20-year career as an anesthesiologist and ICU physician, Dr. Prieto has learned to neatly classify patient conditions into two categories: a sudden unexpected change in health—as a result of an accident like the one at the daycare, for instance—versus the slow progression of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, neurologic decline, and heart disease.
“Bad things happen suddenly that no one can predict or prevent. But there are plenty of devastating health outcomes that we can predict and prevent, and we get better at that every year that goes by. We, as physicians, will someday do a great job of educating patients about how to ‘predict and prevent’ with customized resources and personalized approaches to stay healthier longer. This will redefine how we treat illness, and how we age.”
A native of Washington D.C., Dr. Prieto received her Bachelor of Science in Biology/Psychology from Wellesley College. She then spent several years as an investment banker on Wall Street. After receiving a Master’s degree in Neuroscience and Cell Biology from UCLA, she attended medical school and residency at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Her surgical rotations focused on pediatric reconstructive plastic surgery, but after one year of surgical residency, she pivoted into anesthesiology.
She explained that an anesthesiologist in the operating room must be able to treat a wide variety of conditions without consultation from other specialists, from high blood pressure, diabetes, and anxiety, all the way up to cardiac arrest, stroke, and respiratory failure. “So, in this one field, I really found a lot of satisfaction because of the breadth of expertise I needed to have across all areas of medicine,” Dr. Prieto said. She completed her medical training in 2007 with a critical care fellowship at Stanford and has been practicing in the North State ever since.
Dr. Prieto has spent her career treating patients in life-threatening situations. She now uses that perspective as a unique basis for patient care in a totally different setting—a wellness clinic. She opened Privvy Modern Health in 2021 as a place where she could apply her “predict and prevent” concept with a special emphasis on the use of IV vitamin supplementation. Her education in cell biology, experience with critically ill patients, and understanding of the latest medical and nutritional literature made her realize there was a place for aggressive vitamin supplementation in certain health conditions.
“Many IV therapy places are ‘hangover clinics’, but we can do so much more at Privvy. Dehydration from nausea and vomiting, poor appetite, surgery, or illness - these are just some of the many reasons people seek out IV fluids to feel better faster. Meanwhile, IV vitamins may be helpful for more complex patients, as chronic illness is frequently associated with nutritional deficiencies. Inflammation produces free radicals, unstable molecules that cause cell damage found in cancer, disease, and even normal aging. Think of Lyme disease, autoimmune conditions, and others - all associated with vitamin deficiencies as a result of chronic inflammation. What about patients who cannot absorb vitamins? They may have a food intolerance, have had gastric weight loss surgery, or may have more severe conditions like Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. These patients can feel better with the occasional IV vitamin boost to make up for years of malabsorption.”
Privvy had been helping people for just over a year with IV treatments when her patients started asking if there were any other treatments she could offer them along their health journey. Privvy began offering medical-grade weight loss treatments and counseling, paired with nutritional therapies, for a healthier way to lose weight while simultaneously improving nutritional status. It’s been a winning combination as she goes into her second year of offering a more holistic lifestyle, nutrition, and injectable therapy approach to weight loss, committing to long-term support of her patients, and more personalized regimens. Dr. Prieto’s success with improving her patients' well-being with her unique combination of IV nutrition and weight loss led her to create the next line of Privvy services: Regenerative aesthetics.
“I became aware of the frequent disconnect between how good people feel on the inside, and how they feel about their appearance - sometimes those things just don’t match up. They say 50 is the new 30 in terms of age, but maybe I just made that up to feel better about the fact that I’m getting close to 60,” she laughed. Breaking down the meaning of “Regenerative aesthetics” means understanding the principles of regenerative medicine and aesthetic medicine simultaneously.
Regenerative medicine focuses on restoring cell and organ function that has been lost. While the field is still considered on the fringe by some, it takes everything we know about genetics, aging, nutrition, and inflammation and combines it together with Western medicine. Dr. Prieto believes, “In many ways, regenerative medicine is an ideal place to stand and look over the landscape of both preventative and therapeutic medicine.” Regenerative techniques could lead to future success in reversing inflammation and may contribute to treating age-related diseases and cancer. Aesthetic medicine, meanwhile, focuses on improving appearance, treating the visible effects of aging, and, in turn, positively impacting confidence, satisfaction, and self-esteem. For instance, laser and light therapies stimulate the natural regeneration of collagen. Meanwhile, a growing body of scientific studies demonstrates that topical growth factors and peptides in new formulations lead to remarkable changes in skin structure and function.
She continued, “My patients are feeling healthier, and now they want to project that feeling outwardly. They want the outside world to see how healthy and vibrant they feel inside.” Regenerative aesthetics is her latest approach to providing solutions for healthy aging. The aesthetics team she’s assembled is fully on board with the concept of augmenting their use of Botox, facial fillers, and lasers with principles in regenerative medicine and nutrition to enhance the patient experience and quality of life.
While committed to the community in her role as a physician, she has also found an outlet to rekindle her interest in scientific research. FACTORFIVE is a Chico-based biotech company that specializes in medical-grade skincare products formulated from ethically derived human growth factors. Dr. Prieto works closely with FACTORFIVE to develop and conduct clinical research trials to support their patented formulations. This relationship keeps her squarely grounded in the science and research of aesthetic medicine
Through Privvy Modern Health, Dr. Prieto integrates traditional approaches to illness with emerging scientific findings. She wants to connect the dots between Western medicine, cell physiology, biochemistry, and current research to make a difference in how people feel. Dr. Prieto believes this inclusive and practical approach to healthcare should be widely available. “We all should be privy to information on how to live with health—that’s why we’re called Privvy Modern Health. We educate patients on how to ‘predict and prevent’ bad health outcomes wherever possible. We can’t control everything, but we absolutely should control the things we can. Everyone should feel free to stop by my clinic to ask questions and see how we can help. The door is open.”
Aging with health is what Privvy Modern Health is sharing with the community through IV nutritional therapy, medical-grade weight loss, and regenerative aesthetics. You can find Dr. Prieto on LinkedIn, or set up an appointment for a consultation and to see how Dr. Prieto and her team can offer you and open the door to your best self.
