Off Grid Doc provides the personalized care you deserve By Jillian Chandler | Photo by Sara Grace Photography
Ramon Issa M.D. and his wife Celeste have called North Idaho home for nearly five years—Bonners Ferry for the past three. “We were looking for an area that supported homeschoolers, Christian values, hard-working families like our own, where we could be as self-sufficient as possible, in an area where others were doing the same,” the couple shares.
The Issas opened their practice—Off Grid Doc—and started accepting new patients in June of 2021. Offering direct primary care, medical weight-loss and metabolic health programs, and one-time medical or metabolic consultations, Off Grid Doc focuses on finding the root cause rather than masking symptoms.
What makes Off Grid Doc truly unique is that it is a membership-based practice. Patients pay an annual membership fee, then all of their visits, as well as their new patient labs, are included. “Because we do not accept insurance, we are able to spend as much time as necessary getting to the root of our patients’ medical problems,” Dr. Issa states. “We are not limited to a 10- to 15-minute office visit. Our new patient visit and medical or metabolic consultations are 90 minutes minimum.”
Their small practice, nestled in a home setting, allows Dr. Issa to spend as much time as needed with each one of his patients to give them the best quality of care, and Off Grid Doc is available 24/7 to members of their practice by phone, text and email. “Because of the nature of our practice, we do not require our patients to come into the office for every visit,” shares Celeste, who is the office manager for their practice. “When appropriate, our patients can take advantage of our telemedicine either by phone or a video visit, which allows them to stay in the comfort of their home when they are not feeling well, or weather does not cooperate. We also offer house calls when needed.”
The inspiration behind opening this unique practice was very personal to Dr. Issa. After his own father passed away from obesity, diabetes and other metabolic-related health problems, Dr. Issa looked at his own life and realized that if he didn't do something, he may not even live as long as his own father. Though Dr. Issa had once been fit, physically active and ate a healthy diet, he was devoting less time to his personal health. At the time of his father’s death, Dr. Issa weighed 308 pounds and had many health problems.
In May of 2017, he started thinking "outside the box" of medicine that he had practiced with his patients and started implementing in his own life—principles that changed the way he practiced medicine and managed his own health. There was no surgical procedure, special exotic supplement nor an expensive gym membership. “I knew that because I wasn't always overweight, and my body wasn't always sick, that my body could get better by changing my lifestyle and nutrition,” he affirms. Over the next 100 days, Dr. Issa lost 94 pounds and transformed his health and felt better than he had in years.
“Because of his natural love for teaching, Dr. Issa has developed a simple plan for his patients to follow that will change their life too,” smiles Celeste. “His general practice of medicine has changed as well, and he no longer looks for a drug to prescribe to fix your ailment but for why you have this ailment in the first place and what could you change about your diet or lifestyle that could actually fix it.”
“There are times when prescription medication may be necessary, but we would prefer to find the root cause of the problem, and it would be better than managing the symptoms with potentially lifelong medication use,” Dr. Issa adds.
When it comes to what Dr. Issa finds most rewarding about the work he does, it is “being able help our patients reverse medical conditions like insulin resistance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, fatty liver, high blood pressure and cholesterol, and help people reduce—or completely eliminate—the need for medications for metabolic conditions.”
Having healed his own body, Dr. Issa has a passion to empower his patients to reach their best health, and he continues to stay on top of the latest research to help his patients reach their goals.
If you’re looking to take back your health and heal your body through nutrition and lifestyle changes, all while receiving the personalized care you deserve, Off Grid Doc is ready to lead you on your journey to healing.
Off Grid Doc 514857 Highway 95 Bonners Ferry, Idaho 83805 208.217.3485 OffGridDoc.com