Pouya Shafipour, MD, is a board-certified family medicine specialist with subspecialty training in the field of obesity medicine. He incorporates safe and effective medications in conjunction with dietary, nutritional, behavioral, and exercise counseling to help patients improve their health, with a focus on managing excessive weight gain or loss.

Through extensive training by the American Society of Bariatric Physicians and the prestigious Harvard Blackburn Obesity Course, Dr. Shafipour has developed a program that focuses on healthy weight loss and a well-organized maintenance program. His program results in weight loss and maintenance of a healthy weight through a multi-level, personalized approach to dietary and lifestyle transformation.

Dr. Shafipour received his bachelor’s degree in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley, a master’s degree in physiology and biophysics from Georgetown University, and his MD from Loma Linda University School of Medicine. In addition, Dr. Shafipour completed his internship in general surgery at UC Irvine and residency in family medicine at UCLA.

He is passionate about incorporating a sustainable, healthy lifestyle into his practice of medicine.

Why I am passionate about treating patients with hypothyroidism:

Over the course of my career, I have noted that hypothyroidism and side-effects associated with it are extremely common. But as physicians, we are merely trained to look at TSH and treat treat the abnormal levels rather than look at the whole person. Patients frequently experience fatigue, weight gain, a depressed mood and various gastrointestinal symptoms. Interestingly, a fair percentage of my hypothyroid patients  do not feel more energetic when prescribed thyroid replacement hormone. This makes them seek non-traditional treatments such as supplements, naturopathic, homeopathic and chiropractic regimens many of which help improve their symptoms. Seeing this happen more and more often, especially in my overweight patients, I have a great passion in treating and educating these patients. I have educated myself further in this field to provide the most comprehensive care.

My approach to treating patients with hypothyroidism is:

My approach to hypothyroidism is not only to look at blood levels, but also at the metabolic picture, the whole person, dietary habits, sleep habits, exercise and the patient’s overall mental and physical health. I recommend a regimen which include lifestyle transformations to address the overall health and not just the TSH, which can be influenced by many things. This often includes utilization of dietary and behavioral modification, physical activity along with thyroid hormone replacement and supplements.