JEFFREY R. GLADDEN, MD, FACC

Dr. Jeffrey Gladden is a Board certified interventional cardiologist and the founder of Gladden Longevity, Human Performance & Longevity Optimization. He did his undergraduate work at Wheaton College and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree with Honors from Temple University in 1982. He has specialized in many areas of cardiology, including interventional, diagnostic, preventative and programmatic.

Dr. Gladden is currently the Director of Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention and Cardiac Rehabilitation at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano, which he co-founded in 2004. He is CEO Board Chair, Principle and CMO for Product Development at Scientia Cardio Access and a board member at Scientia Vascular. He is currently licensed in three states, his work is published in multiple medical journals, and he is a consultant for multiple cardiovascular projects, programs and medical device development.

During his mid-fifties, things took a turn for the worse for Dr. Gladden, personally and professionally. Despite eating what he thought was a healthy diet and exercising regularly, he became very fatigued, to the point that he could hardly get out of bed. Stress and anxiety led to bouts of depression. He was getting burned out on traditional medicine, as it became more and more scripted, focused on compliance, and less about exploring creative and resourceful means of caring for patients. Much of his time and energy was spent fighting insurance companies for coverage for his patients instead of engaging with them for care. Politics between hospitals and competing doctors become cutthroat. At the time, Dr. Gladden had also worked in a catheterization lab for a long time and felt he had “received more than enough radiation for one lifetime.”

He was frustrated and discouraged but still wanted to help patients and build better programs to bring services to those who didn’t live close to a large hospital. He never lost sight of the bigger picture of democratizing access to healthcare and helping people overcome health challenges.

Though practicing interventional cardiology had been his calling and livelihood for the last quarter century, Dr. Gladden knew he needed a change for the sake of his own health and that of his family. He threw himself into learning everything he could about functional medicine, bio-identical hormone replacement and age management medicine. This led to diagnosing his own subclinical hypothyroidism. He also did a deep dive into which foods worked best for his body based on genetic, nutrigenomic, food sensitivity, gut biome and gut integrity data, becoming more selective in the quality and sources of his food. By eating properly and replacing hormone levels, he began to feel more youthful again.

However, Dr. Gladden knew he could achieve more for himself by asking questions about how fit, strong, agile and sharp he was capable of being. The medical system was not a health care system but a sick care system. Insurance only provides help if you’re sick, and that is simply not good enough to keep you healthy and achieving maximum performance. This shift in focus – and asking the right kind of questions – has meant a total change in his life. Born in 1954, Gladden is more active than ever. He runs, surfs, mountain bikes, hikes, plays guitar and has plans for even more. He’s fast, agile and strong and capable – and every aspect of his life is fuller and more engaged because of it.

Through this process of extending his health span, Dr. Gladden is ready to tackle mankind’s greatest challenges as he ages chronologically but remains youthful physiologically – while becoming spiritually wiser. Now he wants to share his knowledge and experience with you.