My name is Steve Mattoon. I live in Napa. I’ve had a disease since I was a teenager. It’s an autoimmune disease, Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS). And what it does over time is fuses your tendons, your ligaments, makes it really difficult to move, and it makes you super exhausted.

Then when I was in my early 40s, I almost had to close my business because I was so tired and in so much pain. I could barely function. My hips had fused. I couldn’t really turn my head to the left. There was accumulated damage.

One of the things, which is interesting, is I didn’t know how bad my body was. Because you get used to your infirmities, I guess. I knew, because of the HLA-B27 gene, that it was genetic and that something turned that gene on to cause my disease, my autoimmune disease. So, I started looking around for decades for doctors who could help and, you know, I follow all the doctors Perlmutter, Hyman, you name it, I read them all and studied them all and tried…but nothing got me beyond not eating grains.

My Search for Functional Health Doctors

I kept looking for doctors, Functional Health doctors in particular, and I would go see them and they were useless, frankly. Most doctors just assume, you’re on Enbrel, you’re doing well, pat me on the head and say, “nothing I can do for you”.

Dr. Mercola is one of the doctors I read about. He mentioned Anatara in an article last summer and said it was in San Francisco, and I almost fell off my chair.

I have been looking for Anatara or somebody like Anatara. So, I called up like 10 minutes after seeing the name and came rushing down here.

It was August of last year, early August of last year. And it’s been the most productive, incredible experience for my physical well-being.

It’s just been unbelievable.

The technology that is here, the knowledge, the expertise is absolutely mind blowing to me. It is so cutting edge that nobody, nobody does this stuff.

Nerve Hydrodissections

I had some Nerve Hydrodissections done here and they put me on the table, and they asked me to do certain things so they could see what was working and not.

One of the things they said was, my shirt was off, they said, shrug your shoulders. And so, I did, and didn’t think anything of it. And then the doctor came around, he goes, you know, your right shoulder does not move, your right shoulder blade does not move. Your left moves perfectly, like, they should go in, right. My right shoulder did not move, and I had no idea. He has it on videotape. I looked, I said, yep, not moving. I couldn’t feel it.

I couldn’t turn left, couldn’t turn my head left without hiking my left shoulder. And with the ultrasound they can see where the ligaments and tendons are not working properly. I mean, you just see it, it’s really interesting.

They gave me the Nerve Hydrodissection.

I’m driving home that day and I turn my head like this in the car, because that’s what you do, and I automatically lifted my shoulder. And the second I lifted, I realized you didn’t need to lift your shoulder. So, I tried it again without lifting my shoulder. And I was like a kid in a candy store like, oh my God, this is so exciting. The whole way home, I kept looking to the left and go, no, it still works. It still works.

I used to play a lot of tennis, but now I can’t lift my right arm up very well to serve a tennis ball. I can swing and I can hit, but serving, it’s like, I can’t do it. So, they got the ultrasound machine out again. They start taking a look and they go, okay, we got it.

They gave me the same Nerve Hydrodissection. I can serve a tennis ball again. It was like instant. And it still works.

So, it is, I mean, that’s the most overt improvement. And I didn’t know there was such a thing.

Ankylosing Spondylitis

But anyway, when I came in here, I talked to Dr. Herskowitz and the others and I said, I’m here because I want help to see if we can turn the gene off. I want to get rid of Ankylosing Spondylitis.

I’ve searched for 20 years for Anatara and for somebody qualified to help me try to figure out how do I turn it off. And maybe it’s impossible, I don’t expect anyone to say, yep, we can turn that gene off. But after talking to him and Tristin and everyone else, it was like, I’m in the right place. Let’s see what we can figure out.

I had like, a pile of data, medical data that I brought in. I gave it to my regular doctor in Napa, he barely looked at any of it, more like a regular doctor. He scanned it, but it didn’t, he just said, you’re doing well. What do you mean I’m doing well, I’m on Enbrel.

The doctors here, they read everything, and they came up with things which I hadn’t noticed. I had some exosomes injected last week in my hips, which is like the final frontier for Ankylosing Spondylitis. That’s what, it fuses my hips, which I’ve known I’ve had fused hips.

So, I went out yesterday, actually, for the first time to do some workouts and tennis because I was trying to figure out, how I am going to see if the exosomes are working, because it does take time, but it has some immediate help, theoretically.

So, I started hitting a tennis ball. I have a tennis ball machine, so I was hitting a tennis ball against the machine, and what I realized almost instantly is how much quicker I was getting to the ball. Because before, and I thought it was just getting older, my brain would say, run over there to get the ball, and you could like feel your body’s not really, it would take a second for the body to go where the brain was telling you. Yesterday, playing tennis, I had no pause. My brain did this, my brain said that, my body did exactly, instantly. And it was it was like, my goodness. And the exosomes, all of a sudden, I feel like light on my feet. It was so exciting.

I’ve had more attention from doctors in here on an ongoing basis, that I’ve ever had in my life. They are so on top of things.

Mold Treatment

They gave me some mold tests. It turns out I was full of mold. I’d never had a mold test before. It never occurred to me to have a mold test. But that’s what you need somebody to say, well, look at all my data, but you’re missing a couple of pieces that I never would have thought to do. Turns out I’m overwhelmed with mold. If I hadn’t come here, the odds of me ever finding out I was full of mold, and some of those are cancerous, they’re carcinogenic, I never would have known. And so, we made a lot of progress.

My wife happens to have pancreatic cancer. They’ve helped me with the stress level. Sleep was, has been so difficult because you can’t, even when you’re sleeping, your mind is stressed out. Because you could see it on the cortisol tests that they were sky high.

Anatara Medical Clinic

Anatara has been a godsend. From the second I walk in the front door to when I get taken to a, to a room for whatever we’re doing that day is just incredibly friendly, nice, and knowledgeable.

The doctors here really listen. I mean, it’s amazing. There’s no arrogance, they’re just kind.

They want to know, they sincerely want to help me.

It’s made profound changes in my physical body, my mental body, my mental capacity, certainly my stress.

Every time I’m here, a doctor comes in and we talk about what we’re doing, how it’s going, how do I feel…

I’m always excited to come here every week, because every time I come here, I walk out a little bit better. And all the IVs that I get with all the nutrients, NAD, and all that kind of stuff, it is, I love it all. I mean, it’s just I’m getting better and better.

And I hope I can be encouraging to people, not to give up looking. There is no other Anatara in Northern California. Given my experience, this is truly the best place, easily.