BACKGROUND
Growing up in Mumbai, India, I was exposed to a seamless blend of allopathic (Western) medicine and diverse complementary treatments. These included Ayurveda, homeopathy, and natural remedies based on a plant-based, home-cooked, and minimally processed diet. Acute conditions were often treated with Western medicine, while low-grade chronic illnesses were addressed with holistic practices.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from T.N. Medical College/Nair Hospital in Mumbai, I moved to New York City, where I received a Master’s of Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. It was in New York that I first realized how far apart–even unrelated—the collaborative approach to health I had grown up with seemed to most Americans.
During my residency in internal medicine at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai St. Luke’s), my attending physician introduced me to the postdoctoral fellowship program at the University of Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (UACIM), which was founded and is directed by Andrew Weil, MD. Dr. Weil is credited with introducing many Americans to a more holistic, integrative approach to health and wellness.
The Center’s philosophy appealed to me, and I completed an integrative medicine fellowship there, where the focus is on preventive medicine. This was followed by a more traditional endocrinology fellowship at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York. There I received comprehensive training in clinical endocrinology, and gained expertise in performing thyroid ultrasounds and biopsies.
For the next five years, I was an assistant professor in the Department of Endocrinology at Mount Sinai West hospital in New York City, until I left to set up my own medical practice.
Experience has shown me that while patients sometimes want to try complementary treatments, many western medical providers aren’t educated about these modalities, and are reluctant to recommend them. I’ve also seen some patients who’ve been medically mismanaged by unscrupulous complementary practitioners. But safe and effective complementary therapies are available—and I can help you integrate appropriate options into your treatment plan.
