About Me

A BRIEF WELCOME AND HISTORY OF HOWARD SACHS, MD, PhD

contact: howardsachs@rocketmail.com

I’m among the millions of senior Americans living alone. I have a small apartment in a retirement community in Massachusetts, which I do not name in any of my articles, as I want to write frankly, but also don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or open myself up to libel charges.

The range of age here is around 78 to 98, mostly retired professionals from everywhere in the United States, stemming largely from middle class or upper middle class background. This is a category from which I feel excluded, despite those two degrees after my name, as my parents were both illiterate, my father employed as a factory worker in the garment industry in NYC. So what about those two advanced degrees after my name, how did this happen? Certainly none of the degrees are from Harvard or Yale, in contrast to many of my neighbors, though I did get my PhD from Columbia University. Obviously the G.I. Bill made it all possible, but believe me, I earned it.

Upon graduation from Stuyvesant HS in NYC, a math and science school requiring an entrance exam, at age 18 I joined the Army and was assigned to the 96th Combat Infantry Division and fought on Okinawa during World War II. I served on many other South Pacific Islands. Came home with nightmares, hepatitis B and a taste and desire to see and experience the remainder of this planet.

Fortunately my older brother Bill, a scholar encouraged me to use my G.I. Bill benefits towards a college education, rather than joining my father’s union and working in a garment factory. Thus after earning a BS in Chemistry from Brooklyn college, I went on for a PhD in biochemistry from Columbia University, followed 25 years later by entrance to medical school at age 49, to earn an MD in neurology at UCLA.

The original purpose of this late career change was to prepare myself for work in Third World medicine. Pursuit of this second career did not lead to monetary enrichment, never my goal, but to a fantastic life of rewarding enriching experiences. Usually after working in some third world facility as a clinician or teacher, I would change my gear to a backpack and proceed to explore the region by bus, train or on foot.

These ventures led to some of the most remote and remarkable parts of the world and some remarkable experiences. For example, once I got to Nepal, I launched on a seven-day trek alone in the Himalayas, in the foothill region of Mt. Everest. From Sherpa hut to Sherpa hut, stupidly defying the first and most important rule of mountain trekking – “You Never do This Alone”. Likewise after working as a teacher at the Higher Institute of Health in Beijing, I went by train to Mongolia to view the ancient cave art there.

After a clerkship during medical school in Sri Lanka, I bussed to Peshawar in Pakistan and then flew in a Cessna to the land of the Hunza, reported as Hilton’s inspiration for Shangri La a and also the land where people live to be 120 years old. I had to see – what do they look like, what do they eat, what does it feel like to be in Shangri La?

Having been at the roof of the world, many years later, after suffering a stroke, I turned my attention to the “foot” and traveled to Antarctica with an Elder Hostel group. I will describe some of my adventures and I will also comment on the value or worth, if any, of my contribution too the health of the people in the third world, living without infrastructure or medicines.

I can be reached by email: howardsachs@rocketmail.com