Health Optimization Specialist

Medical Education & Qualifications

Dr. Bereliani earned his bachelor's degree in science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1993. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude before moving on to the Finch University of Health Sciences in Chicago, where he completed his medical degree. He was ranked as the number one graduate in a graduation class of 192 students, and he received numerous awards and honors while completing his degree. One of the most impressive was being invited to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honors society, which was achieved by only about 10% of medical students in the country.

In the year 2000, Dr. Bereliani completed both his internal medicine internship and residency program at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, which is ranked as the number one hospital in the state of California and on the entire West Coast. During that same year, he also completed his cardiology fellowship at UCLA, finishing his medical education. His clinical research and interests in medical school were chiefly focused on nuclear cardiology and cardiac imaging, which he continues to pursue to this day as a healthcare optimization California specialist. As a clinical instructor and evaluator, he largely assists medical students through their own residency programs. He also frequently gets referrals from his peers for some of the most complex cases in cardiology.

Health Optimization Q & A

What is health optimization?

According to the most recent statistics from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), life expectancy in our country is 78.8 years. Not only could that number be higher with proper preventive medicine, more importantly, the quality of life for most can also remain optimal into their senior years. Thanks to the technology, research, and experience of today’s cutting-edge medicine and clinical trials, most individuals should be able to live a top quality of life well into advanced age.

At the Beverly Hills Institute of Cardiology & Preventive Medicine, enabling patients to enjoy the best possible life at every age has been Dr. Bereliani’s career-long passion. Many of the most prevalent age-related liabilities, including fatigue, decreased libido, heart disease, high blood pressure, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes, can often be prevented through early diagnosis of risk factors and customized prevention plans. It's not uncommon for older patients who have experienced menopause or andropause to start developing faster heart rates and additional risk factors for heart disease. While hormone optimization or hormone replacement therapy for an unusual hormone imbalance may help with other health conditions, it's important to point out that too much testosterone or estrogen in the system can actually increase the risk for heart disease.

What is Dr. Bereliani’s approach to Health Optimization?

Dr. Bereliani gets to know each patient incredibly well, inside and out, from taking a complete medical history, conducting a thorough physical examination, and utilizing the latest diagnostic tests to identify genetic and other biomarker risk factors for a wide array of common diseases and conditions. From this detailed blueprint of each patient’s physical and emotional health, Dr. Bereliani designs customized prevention plans.

In doing so, he draws on his own expertise, as well as that of his hand-picked colleagues, who include a certified dietician, fitness trainer, psychotherapist, and hypnotherapist therapist. Whether your plan calls for medical-grade nutritional supplements or help in quitting smoking, the Beverly Hills Institute for Cardiology & Preventive Medicine is uniquely equipped to ensure that you succeed.

What makes Dr. Bereliani uniquely qualified to help patients achieve optimal health?

As a top-rated physician with over 15 years of research and clinical experience, Dr. Bereliani is among a small group of traditionally-trained cardiologists worldwide who also possess the unique combination of expertise in functional medicine and orthomolecular medicine, a practice that seeks to maintain health through the aid of nutritional supplementation, to uphold the best practices in the field.

His passion for health optimization and preventive medicine began early on. During his residency at the UCLA Medical Center, Dr. Bereliani focused on cardiac imaging and nuclear cardiology, where he won the prestigious "Top Physician" award for three straight years. In his clinical practice, every patient who has followed Dr. Bereliani’s recommendations has benefitted from improved health and wellness. Dr. Bereliani believes that, under the guidance and care of the right physician, and given the technology and our current knowledge about cardiovascular disease, no one should suffer a heart attack or stroke up until at least their 100th birthday!

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What misconceptions about heart disease should patients know?

There are plenty of these, but one of the most troubling in modern times is the idea that passing a cholesterol check or an EKG-treadmill test (stress test) with "good numbers" means that you aren't at risk for a heart attack. This is just untrue, and a national study conducted by UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine found that 75% of all patients hospitalized for a heart attack had cholesterol levels that, based on current national guidelines, indicated that they were not at high risk for a cardiovascular event.

Additionally, an EKG-treadmill test only detects artery blockages that are greater than 70%, and the sensitivity of this test is only about 60 to 70%! In reality, the majority of heart attack patients have one or more smaller blockages that are huge risk factors for vascular disease. Despite this well-known information, standard cholesterol panels and stress tests remain the most used diagnostic tools for assessing heart attack risk. Dr. Bereliani uses much more advanced cholesterol testing (types, subtypes, etc.), along with other substances that can equally affect heart health.

New research is also beginning to show that the most important cause, or the most important underlying cause, of coronary artery disease could actually be an insulin-resistance state (not necessarily diabetes). Naturally, it's still important to consider the roles of hypertension and other risk factors in causing chest pain and increasing the risks of cardiovascular disease.