In this blog, I want to share my thoughts on health. I want to dive deeper into topics I am confronted with every day. But mostly, this blog is for you. I want to empower you and your family to get the most out of the health care system. I want to help you explore the failings and victories of modern medicine. I want you to know how to ask your doctor questions, how to get what you really need out of your experience with your physician. I want you to understand the magic and danger of modern technology and it’s intersection with health. I love feedback, please help me answer the right questions for you.
A bit on my training and professional development. I started out getting a degree in Bioengineering from the University of California, San Diego. I then headed out to the Bronx for medical school at the Albert Einstein, College of Medicine. My first day in the Bronx, I stood in my high rise, bare bones student housing, looking over the urban desert and cried. But, those eight years in New York were gold; affronting bitter cold, electric excitement, 9/11, life changing fancy cheese and wine, death, suicide, love, despair, the truest and best friendships of my life, learning that I could be that person that yelled in the street at someone honking relentlessly at 6am, “shut the f*** up, people are sleeping you a**hole”.
In my last year of residency, I had the honor of being selected to participate in an Integrative Medicine Fellowship. This program was a game changer. I was the youngest in the program. Most of the participants were already in practice and coming to this for another perspective on medicine. I was green, so I listened to the experiences of those who had been in the game for a while. The theme over and over was, don’t get the big house and fancy car, give yourself a chance to live and love what you do. I found my chi. I learned to meditate. I learned to eat real food. I actually started pooping every day at the same time. I studied more about the connection between mind and body. I took an intro course on hypnosis in New York, a fascinating experience with an eclectic group of people. I tried acupuncture, got chiropractic adjustments, saw a therapeutic touch healer, started a program at an underserved high school teaching yoga, nutrition, and meditation, and developed an herbal education program for the doctors in training.