When he went into practice as a retinal surgeon nearly 19 years ago, Brad Priester, MD, had no idea it would turn into a crusade to change the way people eat. Seeing first-hand the effects preventable conditions such as diabetes and obesity have on the eye, Priester made it a mission to educate people on healthy eating. From encouraging his staff and his patients to adopt healthy eating habits to his website, mouthplague.com, Priester wants to help decrease the incidence of diseases that can be prevented or reduced through dietary changes and a healthier lifestyle.
A native of Memphis, Priester knew early on he would be a doctor. “My grandfather was a general surgeon, my uncle an internist, and my dad is a dentist,” he said. “They were three great role models taking great care of people and watching them is what shaped me.”
While at Rhodes College working on a degree in biochemistry, Priester served as the student coordinator for the Kinney Community Service Program where he arranged volunteer activities with different organizations in Memphis such as United Cerebral Palsy. “I also worked in the ER at St. Joseph’s and was a patient transporter at St. Francis,” said Priester. “But, I cannot imagine having an education that would prepare you any better to be a doctor than Rhodes. In addition to a phenomenal and rigorous science curriculum, I loved every moment of “Man,” a two year course surveying history and religion, as well as all of my other non-science courses. It was transformational for someone who had not really applied himself in high school.”
Priester was accepted to several medical schools but chose to defer his admission for a year to be a ski bum in Aspen. “While in Colorado, my parents cut me off financially, even my health insurance. Their idea was to make sure I didn’t waver from my original plan,” he said. “It was a great life lesson. I shattered my collarbone on the first day of ski season and had $2000 in medical bills. Everything I saved during the summer season went right out the window to cover those bills.”
His love for the mountains was still strong, so rather than starting at Emory School of Medicine, he remained in Colorado and started medical school at the University of Colorado in 1987. He transferred to the University of Tennessee College of Medicine after his first year. “I started dating Joanna, who eventually became my wife.” he said. “She was in her senior year at Rhodes and did not want to be a mountain girl.”
In his fourth year of medical school, Priester decided it was time to not only get married but to also decide what he wanted to do. While he initially considered neurosurgery, it was his grandfather and father who encouraged him to look at ophthalmology. “My grandfather had an amazing experience with his cataract surgery and told me to give it a try. My dad was taking care of several ophthalmologists and was preaching the same sermon. I chose to do ophthalmology first followed by neurosurgery, but never made it to neurosurgery. I saw my first retinal surgery and had an epiphany. The moment the surgeon freed a piece of scar tissue from a retinal blood vessel, I was hooked. I substituted another month of ophthalmology for neurosurgery. Retinal surgery is like being on a research submarine. You work on the ‘seabed’ or retina by extending your instruments through the ‘sub portals’ or scleral incisions. It is just the coolest aquatic environment.”
After completing his transitional internship year at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Priester completed his general ophthalmology residency through UT Health Science Center. During his second year, he and Joanna welcomed a daughter, Halle, to the family. He completed a two-year retinal surgery fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Priester began his professional career as a retinal surgeon in Jackson in 1997 and a year later he joined Mid-South Retina Associates and welcomed Sunny Khamapirad, MD, to the Jackson practice in 2003. Priester and Khamapirad are the only two retinal surgeons residing between Memphis and Nashville. Two additional surgeons are needed to handle the workload, but young surgeons prefer the big cities with less call and more entertainment options.
Over his 18 years in practice, Priester found himself in the middle of a horrible epidemic. “It is as though we are engulfed in a huge tsunami of disease. It is devastating because the eye is so sensitive to dietary and environmental toxins,” he said. “Our patient referral area ranks number one in the United States in diabetes and every day we treat preventable retinal disease, such as diabetic retinopathy and retinal vein occlusions.”
This tsunami of disease so profoundly affected Priester that he started a website, mouthplague.com, to address what he feels is the leading cause of the problem – heavy consumption of fast food and processed food. “Since the advent of farming and mass-produced chemicals, the consumption of unhealthy foods has become an integral part of our culture. It is not a complicated equation. The more fast food and processed food a person eats, the earlier they will encounter disease in their life. We see the evidence daily. The worst disease in the epidemic is diabetes. Uncontrolled diabetes damages retinal blood vessels and once the vessels are damaged, there is no way to repair them. We spend a great deal of time every day injecting medications into the eye just to try to slow down the progression of a preventable disease.”
Priester is a huge proponent of eating healthy. “I am an avid supporter of local organic farmers,” he said. “If you don’t think you can afford to eat organically, then just eliminate white foods from your diet such as flour, rice, potatoes and sugar. That will knock out about 99 percent of processed and fast foods.”
Besides his passion for educating people on the benefits of healthy eating, Priester is an “after hours” inventor. He holds two patents in ophthalmology and nine in the robotics field of altered task dynamics with one patent pending and more in the works. Google “Whirley by Brad Priester” to see an animation of Priester’s robotics journey.
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