Mohammed Bakdash, MD

Dr. M.M. Bakdash has been diagnosing and treating Diabetes and other disorders of the endocrine system for nearly 40 years. He is board-­certified in Internal Medicine and subspecialty board­-certified in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases and is a member of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists and Fellow of the American College of Endocrinology. Dr. Bakdash completed his Internal Medicine residency in Ohio before completing a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Texas at Houston’s M.D. Anderson Hospital. Long before he was diagnosing and helping people manage Type 1 and 2 Diabetes, Dr. Bakdash watched his own mother deal with her diabetes. He says he wanted to be a doctor since he was a young boy. In addition to Diabetes, Dr. Bakdash also specializes in treating a diverse spectrum of endocrine disorders and diseases of the adrenal, pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas and gonadal glands. He says it’s all quite challenging, but “you have to love the field if you are going to actually succeed in it.” Dr. Bakdash says the world of Diabetes has changed drastically in the last decade or so. “My practice was boring 15 years ago, very boring, because at that time we had nothing to offer the patients, a few medications, a few kinds of insulin. Now, we have plethora of technology, medications, advances in the treatment of diabetes,” says Dr. Bakdash. The U.S. obesity rate has also changed drastically with a majority of Americans either overweight or obese. Dr. Bakdash blames the weight gain on the increase of more eating out, lack of exercise, and the invention of the internet. “There is no such thing as diabetic diet, it’s just called healthy eating. You can eat what you want, but you really have to eat healthy, which means extra lean meat, white meat, high fibers, high complex carbohydrates, and cut back on the fat. Portion control is also very important,” says Dr. Bakdash. Dr. Bakdash says he enjoys educating his patients about not only their condition, but how to manage it as well. “Once you have educated patients, it is the most gratifying things you can have because that patient, you know that he is going to do well, she or he, they are going to have a good life when you educate.” When it comes to caring for his patients, Dr. Bakdash says nothing makes him happier than to see a happy patient. “I love the challenge, kind of come to conclusion, treatment, solve the issue, get them to feel better. When my patient leaves the exam room, his/her blood sugars are down, the average blood sugar “hemoglobin A1C” is better, lost weight, is happy, I am happy.” The Centers for Disease Control says 29.1 million Americans have Diabetes. Dr. Bakdash stresses this is why annual testing is important. He says Grace Health System® offers the convenience to people coming in to have blood work done. “I call it one­-stop shop, you come to Grace, you have your blood drawn, you get the result within about less than an hour, sometimes two hours. The patient goes to lab first, come back after one hour or so, and you have most of or all the lab in front of you in the computer, one click, this to me is absolutely makes my life to practice medicine much easier and with better quality of care.”