Words of Wellness with Shelly

Revolutionizing Healthcare and Empowering Patients: Dr. Suresh Khirwadkar's Inspiring Journey from the NHS to Holistic Wellness Advocacy

• Shelly Jefferis • Season 1 • Episode 60

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Dr. Suresh, a distinguished lifestyle physician from Brisbane, Australia, joins us to reveal the transformative power of preventative care. Discover the Primal Fusion Diet and its potential to revolutionize how we approach chronic diseases, as Dr. Suresh recounts his inspiring journey from the NHS in the UK to a more fulfilling practice Down Under. His firsthand experiences shed light on the systemic pressures of medication-driven healthcare and the urgent need for a shift towards holistic wellness, offering listeners a fresh perspective on managing health.

We dive into the nuances of patient empowerment and the importance of self-advocacy in healthcare. With healthcare often skewed towards treating symptoms rather than causes, we challenge the status quo and explore the pitfalls of a system that rewards numbers over well-being. Dr. Suresh shares compelling stories illustrating the need for a healthcare paradigm that truly prioritizes wellness, and encourages patients to question and understand medical advice while advocating for their own personal health.

Exploring the gaps in medical education, we address the startling lack of nutritional training for doctors and the persistence of outdated dietary guidelines. Dr. Suresh shares his insights on the transformative power of lifestyle changes, particularly in combating conditions like fatty liver disease in young patients. This episode is a call to action, urging listeners to embrace personal responsibility for their health, recognize the limitations of quick fixes, and seek long-lasting, proactive health measures. Together, we envision a world where individuals reclaim their power in navigating their health journey. 


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Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless!
And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!

In Health,
Shelly Jefferis

Speaker 1:

and so I am seeing that shift, which is really nice, but I think I think that's where it needs to come from is is that ground up movement. I think we need people to say I'm not going to tolerate it anymore. I'm not going to just be in that system where I just get sick and die. I want to actually be healthy and and I think that's what we need to drive this change, to get back to people just being healthy on the whole.

Speaker 2:

Do you get confused by all of the information that bombard us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or should not be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone, I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more to share tips, education and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you, to bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will. We all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives, full of energy, happiness and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today.

Speaker 2:

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Words of Wellness. I am really excited to introduce our guest today. He is a specialist general practitioner, a board-certified lifestyle physician, and he specializes in preventing and treating chronic diseases preventing and treating chronic diseases and he focuses a lot on diet, nutrition and other lifestyle choices that we can make to help our overall health, and so we're going to focus a lot on nutrition today, which is right up my alley and he has created the Primal Fusion Diet. Cannot wait to hear about that. So, dr Suresh, welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here today.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, shelley, excited to be here.

Speaker 2:

This is so great that this worked out. Tell me again and tell our listeners where do you live?

Speaker 1:

So I currently live in Australia, brisbane, australia. That's where I live, that's where I work, and grew up in England, hence the accent. Dad was Indian, hence the name, and so I'm a little bit of all over the place really, but currently, yeah, in Australia, in Brisbane.

Speaker 2:

I love it. Well, I know it was tricky not too too tricky but we were able to make it happen and I know your kids were a little bit under the weather so we almost had rescheduled. So I'm glad that they they are feeling better so that we could fit this in today. I'm really grateful.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. Yeah, touch and go, but that seemed to be a little bit better today.

Speaker 2:

Good, very good. So how long have you been in Australia?

Speaker 1:

So we've been in Australia now for about six years. We came over at the start of 2018. New Year's Eve we flew. We had some champagne on the airplane Champagne it was economy on a long haul flight. I mean it was the least champagne ever, but we had a tiny little toast. But yeah, six years now and we like it here, we love it here.

Speaker 1:

And a big driver really really and I guess this, this will lead into what I do now a big driver actually was really like the push factor from England. So I, I trained, I'm a doctor, of course, as you introduced me, I've been a doctor for, you know, 15 years now in the medical system, for over 20. And, um, you know, the UK, the NHS, it's basically falling apart. It was falling apart when I left. That was six years ago and it's even worse now to this day. And, you know, really, like a lot of healthcare systems, it's designed to really treat illness rather than prevent illness. Preventative care is very poor really across the world. This is not just the NHS. Australia is really just as bad, if not worse, and the nhs was actually originally designed to, basically with a goal in mind, to treat all the disease that was there and then nobody will need us anymore, and then actually close it down, which which is a very lofty goal but of course, was never going to happen, ever in a million years. And of course, every year they just found they had to keep increasing the budget, increasing the budget and so on. And so that was actually the original goal of the NHS treat all of the illness and then we don't need it anymore, which sounds great. Unfortunately, of course, life doesn't work like that. So I was basically staring down the barrel of a lifelong career in medicine, really doing what I didn't want to do, which was just prescribing medications, dealing with things after the fact, uh, trying to band-aid everybody, uh, fix things up, rather than actually preventing anything.

Speaker 1:

And you know, here in australia we talk about six minute medicine. That's because of the medicare rebates and things. But, um, you know, in england the consultations would be pretty much about five, six minutes long. Technically there would be 10 minutes, but the reality is it'd actually be about five minutes, maybe six. My lunch break used to be an hour, but I would usually get less than negative five minutes. You know, actually, because the lunch break would be taken up out of three home visits, I'd usually have a lunchtime meeting as well, and then hundreds of scripts and paperwork, letters and things to go through, and you know, I was basically staring down the barrel of this for the rest of my life and I was just like I can't do this, like this is not what I signed up for as a doctor. And so we left.

Speaker 1:

We came to Australia seeking a better quality of work life and more of that preventative care. Unfortunately, that still didn't quite happen. You know, here in australia the system is different, but it's still basically the same and it's just again the same thing. It's all just focused on treating after the fact, never prevention, never anything about. You know, what can we actually do to make people healthy? It was just no, no, like you've got this problem, let's, let's try and give you medications to try and fix it, which is never really what I wanted to do.

Speaker 1:

So I suppose really ever since kind of the start of working as a doctor, I've been trying to get towards that point where it's actually much more focusing on before the disease starts and the preventative care rather than the Band-Aid fix afterwards. And very often these medications you know they are band-aid fixes and you know things like high blood pressure is a very good example. You can treat the blood pressure, you can treat the number, you can make the number look good and you can tick that box. And particularly back in the UK, it was literally a box to tick. It was something called QOF Quality Outcome Framework and you know, basically they say points mean prizes and you'd get points for every patient that you kind of ticked this box for, for every box that you ticked, and you'd lose points if you didn't tick the boxes. And, yeah, at the end of the year points mean prizes.

Speaker 2:

You know, the more boxes you tick, the more money you get as a, as a practice, which you're just shaking your head like I know, when you talk about picking the box, does that mean you checked it whether or not they have high blood pressure, or you're checking off that you're giving them medication, treating, treating so well.

Speaker 1:

The thing is it would kind of work in both ways, because you wouldn't get a point for if they had high blood pressure, but you also wouldn't get a point if they didn't have high blood pressure. So there's almost this perverse incentive to not prevent because then you can treat and then you get the point, which is just totally perverse. But that's again the system. So, yeah, so, shelley, we were talking about, obviously, you know box ticking and just the way that this culture is basically set up. And, um, you know, the medicare system here in australia is again set up. They literally say in the handbook you know, we do not pay for preventative care, like it's, it's, it's just you couldn't even make it up honestly, it's, it's an absolute joke.

Speaker 1:

And so really, what I've tried to do from early on in my career to now, and what I always try and do, is try and get patients off medications, try and get them to the point where they don't need those medications in the first place, try and get them healthy rather than just treating the actual number and I started mentioning blood pressure was a good example.

Speaker 1:

You can treat that number and get that blood pressure down and everyone's it looks good and everyone's happy, but they've still got almost certainly the underlying metabolic syndrome which you're not treating because all you're treating really is the number. And metabolic syndrome is, you know, really the driver for most people's high blood pressure, and then it's also drives things like diabetes, heart disease, cancer. So you're still at risk of these other things. But you pat yourself on the back and the patient's like, yeah, great, because my blood pressure is fine and is fine, and actually all the while they're, they're just slowly getting worse under the surface, and then no one's addressing it. And then, oh well, you know, you come in two years later and now you've got diabetes. Oh, we don't know why that happened. Like well, actually we do, because two years ago was the time to intervene, but nobody bothered.

Speaker 2:

This is so interesting. You've got the issue. Exactly exactly what happened with my dad. That's why I'm like this is exactly he. First it was blood pressure, diabetes, fatty liver disease, I mean it, and I mean he lost his life. He was 77 and but he at the end he just had all of this culmination, all the metabolic dysfunction, all the medical metabolic diseases, that he finally took his life. But I feel like this is such important information that, even though I've been in the field of wellness for so many years decades really I am just myself realizing how much of this we need to start monitoring so much earlier on and then also realize, like you're saying, it's connected connected all these different illnesses and it spreads out to all these different illnesses and less we come to the root of the problem, which is what you are working on doing, it sounds like in your practice now, is that correct?

Speaker 1:

trying to. Yeah, I mean some people. They really take it on board. They really want to be healthy, um, and they understand what health is. They understand it's not just those numbers, um, they want to feel great, they want to prevent illness, they want to live a long, happy, healthy life and they don't want to end up with all these medical conditions taking. I've got, you know some patients. I've seen 35 medications. You know 35. 35 it's just unbelievable, I mean, they're literally a pharmacy.

Speaker 1:

Uh, we used to say, you know, in medicine, three medications or more was called, was called polypharmacy, so there was a name for that because it was dangerous. Essentially it was, it was a risk and there was a problem with the patient. You know three medications and now we have this term called hyper poly pharmacy, which is 10 or more. Like what the hell is 35? Like? It's not even a word for it, it's just, it's just crazy and people just accept it though. That's, that's the problem.

Speaker 1:

So we have this kind of dichotomy, really, where I think a lot of people are so broken by the system and this is really the only way of putting it it's not their fault, they're just, they're so broken, they're so gaslit by the medical system that they are told you're sick because you just, you have to be sick, like that's what happens to people you get old, you get sick, and then you die and we have these medications and you're sick because you don't have these medications. Your sickness is an absence, a deficiency of these medications, so we'll just give you those medications and you'll be healthy. And so that's what the system kind of tells people the government, these organizations, doctors, you know everybody really in that system. And so patients believe that, people believe that and they start to believe the lie that they they're sick because they're not taking these medications, they're sick because they don't go to the doctor enough.

Speaker 1:

And that's really the lie, but they're believing it. And so they, they stop taking control of their own health, they stay, they give up that responsibility to somebody else. They give up that responsibility to somebody else, they give up their power to the doctor, to the pharmaceutical company, to the government, all these health organizations, because they think that they've got the best interests at heart. And actually they don't realize that if they actually just kept control, kept that power, kept that responsibility, they could actually make a difference for themselves. But they believe this kind of lie because they're just, they're naive, they're gullible and they want to do right, but they just don't remember a time where people weren't on 35 medications. They can't imagine that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that's the thing that's so crazy, and I think the important point here is that I share that there's a time and place for medicine, right, there's definitely. It's definitely necessary, for sure, and I know you know that. And it's like you're saying, though, that we've just been trained to just take the doctors tell us as that's the Bible, and it's a hard no pun intended, but a hard pill to swallow to go, okay, my doctor doesn't know they're not all knowing Right, and we respect them and they're you know we respect people like you and we listen to people like you, and it's, I think that's just a hard concept for so many people to go okay, maybe they are not all knowing they're human. It's very hard.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there's an inherent power imbalance in that doctor-patient consultation and, again, the system's kind of been trained in that way and so it's very hard for people to say, to stand up to their doctor, you know, in essence, and challenge them and say, but is what you're saying right? There's just that inherent power imbalance and so people will ultimately just agree and then walk out the room and say, but I don't know, but they won't ask the doctor, they won't challenge the doctor, so they don't, they don't learn. And you know, the medical system system is very, very good at creating this environment and it, in a way, wants to probably keep that environment. You know as well, I don't believe in conspiracies or anything, but the system is just set up in that way to create that power imbalance and so the doctor kind of has the power over the patient, and it should really be the other way around actually, in my opinion.

Speaker 1:

But, um, but the medical system is very good at kind of creating this environment where only the doctor can save you, only the pill can save you. You can't save yourself and don't worry about whatever happens to you. There will always be something down the line to save you a pill or a surgery, don't bother taking any responsibility for yourself. It's fine and actually it's just not true. We can't save people, and the best thing that people really can do is actually prevent that disease, but that message just never comes across both being ill is that for me personally.

Speaker 2:

I want to do everything I can to prevent that from happening to me, so my kids don't have to see me go through it, and so I really am such a huge proponent of prevention. Take steps now. Don't wait till you get that diagnosis right, don't wait till it's too late. And I just did an interview with my friend Rory on the podcast and he he had a very dangerous, almost lost his life in it, because he kept putting off going to the doctor, thinking he just had a cold or put it, you know, thought it was allergies and he had a very, very severe case of pneumonia. And so you know, that's the other part of this too, that we just push and push and kind of ignore the symptoms, ignore the signs, or I'll get to it tomorrow or I'm fine. And and that's the other part of this too that we just push and push and kind of ignore the symptoms, ignore the signs, or I'll get to it tomorrow or I'm fine. And that's a whole other piece of this puzzle too. Right, it's so interesting too when you talk about nobody really standing up to the doctor. I mean, it's one of those where we have to learn to advocate for ourselves, and it just brought back a couple of memories for me where I wish I would have done that with my youngest son, our youngest son.

Speaker 2:

There were a couple of instances with doctors, that one of which was he has an issue with hearing in one of his ears, and I'll never forget.

Speaker 2:

I was at the time going to a hearing doctor and I remember she said, specifically told me that he was going to have issues in school, that he should be brought into the doctor, he needs to get a hearing aid, all of these things. And that was when he was, I think, in third grade, and never did he have an issue, never did he have a hearing aid an amazing student, you know. So I just think I wish I left that feeling like, well, that wasn't. I just felt like she was assuming that he's going to do terrible right, because he has this issue. And and I wished, looking back, I would have stood up to that back then and said, no, I think that you are wrong and he's going to be fine, and if we need to have that hearing aid, if we need to cross that bridge, we will. But she was so like adamant that this is what was going to happen and how it was going to go for him, and it wasn't that way at all.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but that's that's because the medical system is kind of taught that doctor that that's. That's the case and that's what we taught in medical school is. You know, you, you have a problem, you take a pill or surgery and then that fixes the problem and without that intervention you just get worse. But that's not necessarily always the case, and so it's.

Speaker 1:

I think it's just about people, and I often get asked this you know, how do we change this system? You know, and I think the best thing really is just for people listening to this, watching this, to just try and kind of learn how to advocate for themselves, and just not necessarily to stand up to the doctor and certainly not to argue with them, but just to say is what you're saying right? You know, what is the basis of what you're saying, what is the evidence? You know? Show me where I can read about it some more and question, just question what you're being told. And any doctor worth a salt is going to say look, okay, fine, yes, great, go and read about it. Here's where you can read about it. They shouldn't be offended, and if they are offended, it probably means they actually don't really know what they're talking about and they're getting angry because you're challenging them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I love this point because it makes me think too and this is a no disrespect to doctors whatsoever, it's just we've gone so so over to one end of the spectrum, right when we just take everything, what what they're saying, to be true and most of it is. But we have to kind of get back and balance it out a little bit. Right where we're, we're coming back and okay, well, this doesn't seem quite right but, like you're saying, being able to advocate for ourselves, do a little research and maybe question a couple things with, and it's not any, it's not in any offense to the doctor, it's just a lot of times we do know our bodies better, but we we're, we've gotten so away from being in tune with that I feel like right, and so really it's in no disrespect and it's not. And maybe it comes to the point where you go oh, they're absolutely right. But we also want to come to that conclusion sometimes for ourselves and make sure we're doing what's in the best interest of our our, for our health, in our body.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely right and any, any doctor worth their soul is is not going to be offended if you ask for the evidence and you ask for the research and you ask for the guidelines. You know in in what they're doing. If a doctor gets offended by that, then they probably don't actually really know what they're doing and so they're then, you know, getting defensive. Any doctor with a soul is going to say, yeah, look, here's the evidence or here's where you can read about it. Go and read about it, make a decision, come back and see me in a couple weeks. We can talk about it some more. That's certainly what I do with my patients. If they're questioning it, I love them questioning it.

Speaker 2:

Right, right. And so I just curious to you had mentioned and I had shared about when I was introducing you, about the nutrition aspect. It's so interesting because I was just sharing today on social media about the fact that doctors aren't required Many of them aren't required to take nutrition classes, and it's something that I've known for a while and I've shared for quite some time and it seems like that's just now getting shared more and more, helping people understand. Again, it's not in any disrespect, that's not their fault, that's just not part of the requirement and I think, again, we have been led to believe that they're all knowing and it's just not always the case. So I think it's fascinating to know that, and there are some that are definitely trained in nutrition and they've gone the extra mile to learn and to be able to help their patients in that area. So I'm really curious what led you into the area of nutrition, knowing that doctors don't have a lot of that education when they go through schooling? And you have created your own program for your patients, correct?

Speaker 1:

That's right. So I'm calling it the Primal Fusion Diet because it's based on ancestral principles of what I think human beings are very likely to have eaten. And the idea is, what we've done you know evolutionary over the last two, three million years, you know four really million years of evolution, human evolution. You know it's likely to be what's best for us ultimately as a diet, because that's how evolution works. What you've been doing is what you should be doing, and so making a deviation from that is likely to cause you issues, and it's a fusion of both. You know, diet and lifestyle principles. So it's not just a diet, it's not just what to eat, it's also talking about. You know, basically the fundamental thing is natural living, you know, is we are, as human beings, so divorced from a natural existence that we are basically just breaking is just the best way to put it, I think. And you know human beings, for four and a half million years really, we've been, you know, sleeping out under the stars. We have been sitting around campfires and talking and singing songs and hugging. We've been going to sleep properly. You know, sundown to sunup, we've been physically active, we've been connecting to the planet. You know, sundown to sun up. Uh, we've been physically active. We've been connecting to the planet, you know, with with just bare feet or maybe leather-soled shoes, you know, now it's all rubber, we're insulated from the planet. Now we've been eating a proper natural diet that's available in nature, no processed food, all of these things. And when you look at all these things individually, actually this is actually what helps people get healthy and there's very good science behind all of these things individually. But nobody's really looked at this and said, well, hang on, this is this is all just a natural life and all these biohacking and things that people are coming up with, these amazing biohacks to get healthy, it's actually all just natural life and and it's it's actually really very simple. And so that's really what my Primal Fusion Diet is about. It's about primarily diet, but it's really just about getting back to a natural life.

Speaker 1:

And I suppose you also asked me, you know how I got into this. You know nutrition space, and I think a big part of it was my own health journey. You know I'd been unhealthy, struggling with weight on and off my whole life, 40 odd years, and I've just turned 40, and so, you know, morbidly obese most of my life and nothing ever stuck with me. I've done low carb, keto. I now do a carnivore diet. That has stuck, so that's worked well. I've done, you know, vegetarian that didn't last very long. Vegan, I think lasted one meal. It was horrible, um and uh. You know, really it's.

Speaker 1:

I've always struggled with my own health and my own weight as well, and and so that led me, of course, down this, down this pathway, and everyone that I know doctor wise or healthcare professional wise really this in this kind of field that wants to actually be better they've always got their own health, personal health story, whether it's them or a family member.

Speaker 1:

It's usually them, sometimes a family member and they've seen the diet usually make the difference. And then they go back to what they were taught at medical school, which is, you know, basically nothing. And then they start to think, well, hang on, like why are we not teaching people how to be healthy? Like how can we possibly help people to be healthy when we don't even know ourselves? And it horrifies people. It horrifies people to learn how little nutrition teaching doctors actually get. And yet we are trying to tell people how to be healthy with nutrition. And you know, I tell people. I went to a good medical school in England. I went to a good medical school and my nutrition training was carbohydrates have four calories, protein has four calories and fat has nine calories.

Speaker 2:

And that was it.

Speaker 1:

That was literally the extent of my nutritional training and then it was just, and then otherwise. You, you know basically south asians, because I was in leicester and his big south asian population south asians are basically really unhealthy and they just eat crap and you know they get all these problems. And that was basically my extent of nutritional training, not actually how to be healthy or what's a proper diet or anything at that point. And so as a doctor, then really all you're telling people is what you think you know as as you've learned just through your own life, which is no better than what anyone else knows, which usually is what you've just been told, which ultimately is almost always wrong because otherwise people wouldn't be unhealthy. And so you're really just continuing and perpetuating that, that that paradigm of just things like eat less, move more. You know this is how you lose weight.

Speaker 1:

Or just go and eat your grains, do the food pyramid, you know, go and look at the tufts food compass and eat lucky charms for breakfast, because this, this, apparently, is good, because that's what I'm told you know, and don't eat. Don't eat steak and eggs for breakfast, because it's it's red on the tufts chart, so it's it's really bad for you and it's just like it's just such garbage. But that's the extent of our nutritional training as doctors typically, unless you've done extra nutritional training after the fact, which, which I have and a lot of people have. But again, you know, patients, I think, should be able to ask their doctor well, what training do you have?

Speaker 1:

you know, and a doctor should be able to tell them I have this training or I actually don't have any training. And if they don't have any extra training, I would question okay, why are we listening to them If they actually are just telling the same thing? That ultimately doesn't work.

Speaker 2:

Well, and every person is so individualized as well, right, and I think that that's another point to consider. It's fascinating to me that you experienced having an issue yourself with your own personal health and you notice a lot of doctors having the same, which is probably why many of them get involved in the profession I'm guessing right and which is fascinating because we would think, oh, they're healthy and they're in good condition, that's why they're a doctor, right, and you know it's not because you know. It reminds me, quite frankly, when I was in high school. I'll never forget this, looking in and seeing one of the PE teachers sitting at a desk and we would be out at PE, but she would not be out there teaching and she wasn't active and she didn't look like a healthy PE teacher. And I'll never forget thinking that same kind of thing Wait, you're supposed to be a PE teacher, why aren't you out here with us and why aren't you being active with us? And that always stuck with me.

Speaker 2:

And, ironically enough, I went on to get my degree in kinesiology and teach health and physical education and it's always been so huge to walk the walk, walk the talk, in what you're doing and being that example. So that's fascinating, but it makes sense. I think that's what for many people. That's why they get involved in their profession, because especially doctors are in the health profession and whatever it might be, they've experienced something themselves personally and they want to help others and that's yeah wonderful and that makes so much sense yeah, and I think you know I kind of I'm horrified when I look back at photos of what I look like and you could see like I clearly wasn't healthy.

Speaker 1:

You can see that you know from the way I looked. But I'm horrified to think what patients would have thought of me. Um, but doctors are very often actually the some of the most unhealthy people out there. And yet we're and patients are being given the advice from people who are basically unhealthy themselves and at some point, you know, you do start to think well, hang on, if you know what to do to be healthy, why are you not healthy? And, yeah, I mean, someone can get cancer. You can't always prevent that. You know something happens, they get run over by a truck and, okay, you know accidents happen. But you know, I know what a doctor I know is basically very soon going to have a quadruple bypass.

Speaker 1:

You know for for cardiac disease, and you're like, well, hang on, if you are so good at preventing cardiac disease, like why are you not doing it yourself? And and why should patients trust you with their health when you can't be healthy yourself? And uh, you know like other people, like dino endocrinologists with diabetes, and you're like, well, hang on, like this is your specialty, like how people like I know endocrinologists with diabetes and you're like, well, hang on, like this is your specialty, like how can you like, why should people trust you? I think it's a genuine question and I don't mean that really in any disrespectful way, but I think at some point, we have to start asking ourselves these things as as patients, as the general public. If my diabetes specialist can't prevent diabetes, why am I listening to them? You know and I don't know. I just I think that is something that we are really bad as as doctors is actually being healthy.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that crazy to think, though, but I think, but it's true, and I and I think a whole other topic that we'll have to save for another episode is is the stress factor that you're that we'll have to save for another episode, is the stress factor that many of them are in?

Speaker 2:

That's another whole topic to really dive into, because I'm reading the book Good Energy by Dr Kate Beans, and boy, she just talks about her whole experience and she says to your point, exactly that many of the doctors now are caught in this system.

Speaker 2:

They're caught in this system and they don't really know how to kind of get out of it. And it's that system and that's in that routine of seeing the patients giving the medication you know and, and knowing to some degree that it's, they're going to just have to come back for more medication where we're not really treating the root cause, and that's gotta be, that's gotta hold a lot of stress for many, because knowing that wait, there's something more going on here, but we don't even have, we don't have the time. Going back to what you mentioned in the very beginning taking time with patients and being able to understand their lifestyle, understand where maybe they're deficient with their nutrition and understand what maybe is causing the issues in the first place and being able to come back to that and treat that rather than just giving a prescription rather than just giving a prescription.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean I'm, I'm lucky. I haven't read her book, but I did catch her on Paul Saladino's podcast. It's a long episode so I've listened to about half of it. But and she, she talks about just being trapped in the system and she was almost finished her surgical training and then she just up and left you know cause. She just couldn't face the idea of being a surgeon in that system. Just not really ever actually kind of helping people ultimately, not never preventing the issues and just fixing them up afterwards.

Speaker 1:

But I'm lucky, I think, in the sense that I, whilst I'm still kind of somewhat trapped in that system I think all doctors are I'm lucky in the sense of my financial status allows me to kind of extricate myself a little bit from that. And this is a big part of this. The problem actually again, because you know I like to do longer appointments, I like to take more time and be more thorough, but that comes at a financial cost actually to me, because people don't want to pay as much and I work in a pretty actually impoverished area. I actually work in a pretty low AC area and so most of my patients struggle even to pay their bills. You know it's not unusual for someone to say I couldn't come and see you, because I either come and see you or I buy food, you know, and so that obviously weighs on you.

Speaker 1:

You're trying to do longer appointments, be more thorough. It costs more money or I just have to pay out my own pocket essentially. But that self-management, that self-care as well, I've dropped to three days a week now, um, from five, and I'm really lucky in my financial situation that I can do that. A lot of doctors can't and so they do get stuck in that system of I really want to be better but I can't because I can't afford to, and and and that, I think for a lot of doctors, is actually quite soul destroying and it's very stressful and it just it can make people very bitter and very burnt out at the end of the day. And then what happens is they end up just becoming what they don't want to become, which is just that kind of pill pusher, and they end up just basically going to that five minute medicine because they just, I don't know, they can't deal with it anymore.

Speaker 2:

You know they feel stuck, yeah, and they don't see a way out. And I and I have to think to some degree to be hopeful, hopeful this day and age, of some things. Maybe they've come to a head, you know, and maybe things are going to start to change and shift a little bit. I would hope, you know, for for medical care just in general, and doctors and just the whole profession, and you know, coming more from that perspective of prevention and and knowing full well what a huge role nutrition plays and exercise, and then we didn't even get into talking about toxins before other episodes that I like to talk about and share on.

Speaker 2:

But there's so many things that we can do to help us and it's it's wonderful to hear that you're doing that and you're you're taking that approach with your patients and and I, you know, I want to be hopeful that we're kind of turning, maybe turning the corner a little bit. So, going back a little bit to to what you're doing, and you're approaching it from a standpoint of helping people with their health, with their nutrition, and you have to be the person really to take the initiative, and I guess this goes back to advocating, you know, for ourselves and our health. But you were just starting to talk a little bit about how people come in and they'll talk about how their grandparents are living to a certain age and then they end up going into a home and that sort of thing. And you know there's definitely the population that's living in their well, into their 90s and even into their hundreds. I mean, it definitely is happening. However, maybe it can happen even more if we make some adjustments along the way, right?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. And so, yeah, I mean I apologize, there's obviously been some issues on my end with static and stuff, but basically I am seeing more and more people slowly coming in saying but I want to be like my grandparents, I want to be 90, 95, even 100. And you know, not having all these medications, I don't want to have the joint pain and be riddled with arthritis. Why does that have to happen? Does it have to happen and if not, what can I do about it? And so I've.

Speaker 1:

I've really interestingly actually seen a shift in in my um kind of practice actually over the last couple years, and even a couple years ago. You know I would be really proactively addressing this with patients, and of course I still do. But I now get more people coming in to see me saying, as a new patient, like I want to do this, I want to be healthy. And you might think, well, hang on, but that's because that's what I'm doing. They know that's what I do. But no, actually a lot of them don't know that's what I do. They just come in as a as a new patient, I've moved to the area I need a doctor, whatever. And I start to talk about this and like, oh great, like you do this. They don't even know.

Speaker 1:

But they're now coming in saying but I don't want all those medications, I want to be healthy. I want you to help me, as a doctor, to be healthy. I want to prevent, and so I am seeing that shift, which is really nice, but I think that's where it needs to come from. Is that ground up movement. I think we need people to say I'm not going to tolerate it anymore. I'm not going to just be in that system where I just get sick and die. I want to actually be healthy and I think that's what we need to drive this change, to get back to people just being healthy on the whole.

Speaker 2:

I love that and that's I, just, yeah, that's so good. I think that and we've come to the point where, like you're saying, we live our lives, we get sick and we die. It's like we just kind of accept that, and I feel like that's something that makes me sad many times if someone just, oh, this is just how it's supposed to be, or I'm old, or thinking that's just how their life is supposed to go, and I say no, like we're meant to feel good and have vitality and longevity. But unfortunately, there has been some buildup of things that have not been, that have not been good for our health over the years and and like you had mentioned earlier, obviously what we've been doing for the last 30, 40, 50 years is not working. It's just flat out not working. And so for people to think it is well, no, it's not.

Speaker 1:

No, it's not you can, you can clearly see it's not. I mean, you just look at the charts of chronic disease cancer, diabetes, heart disease, everything is just skyrocketing it's happening in children.

Speaker 2:

that's what breaks my heart. Like I, I worked at the elementary school in taught PE for a while and then I also just knowing back from the days when I was a young girl in school, I don't ever remember anyone having diabetes or any major health issues. And now you, we have fatty liver disease in young children. I mean this should not be happening and this is, I think, is. I mean I would hope it's a huge wake up call for for doctors, for parents, for just everyone in general.

Speaker 1:

It is for some, but I mean things like fatty liver.

Speaker 1:

Again, often it's it's not because, unfortunately, people don't understand how dangerous these things are and often, unfortunately, again, the system you know a lot of doctors, I've seen it written in unfortunately, people don't understand how dangerous these things are and often, unfortunately, again, the system you know a lot of doctors, I've seen it written in notes and things you know where they've basically told the, told the patient uh, you know, don't worry, it's not that bad and it'll get better with time, they'll grow out of it. And so they're kind of, on one hand, diagnosing something and then on the other hand saying, ah, but don't worry about it, it's not that bad, it'll probably go away. And because they don't understand that fatty liver is essentially a pre-diabetic condition and that patient, you know, if they're like six, seven years old with fatty liver, like they're basically guaranteed to get dementia and heart disease and cancer and all those other horrible things and they're going to have their life expectancy dramatically shortened. But they're not. They're not telling them that because either they don't know or they don't want to offend.

Speaker 2:

And the hard part is that they can adjust, that they can change, they can make a change Right. And I mean, I know for my dad it was too, it was too far into it and he became too ill. But I was just hearing a story the other day from another doctor friend about how his wife was diagnosed and once she changed her nutrition within months it was it was, she was cleared. So that's exciting, like we. We know we can make changes and it it doesn't have to be, it can just be little things and change our food, change our nutrition, you know, change our, our exercise routine. So many little things and change our food, change our nutrition, you know, change our, our exercise routine. So many little things we can do along the way that can, can have huge benefits absolutely.

Speaker 1:

I mean I I recently saw a patient who I think they were 13 years old with fatty liver and you can, you can see, I mean this.

Speaker 1:

This child is obese as well and they have other issues like anxiety and other things going on as well, and I basically spoke to them about it and I laid this out all on the line and because I'm I'm pretty honest with my patients you know I'm not rude, but I'm pretty honest and say, look, if you don't address these things, you are going to get these problems down the line. It's up to you, but I can help you with it, but you are going to get these issues if you do nothing. And thankfully, this patient and their parents actually took this on board and basically, you know, literally, I think it was six weeks I put them on a basically low carb diet get off all the junk food, everything and they just went to eating like breaking an egg for breakfast, a steak for dinner, you know, and just getting rid of all that junk food and their fatty liver is completely gone, their anxiety has gone away, they've lost loads of weight and they feel great.

Speaker 2:

Isn't it amazing, how that happens?

Speaker 1:

But like so many people are just like, ah no, I can't do it, Like, yeah, it's just. You know, it's too hard, it's heartbreaking.

Speaker 2:

It is heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking to see that I just have someone recently who was starting on a nutrition program with me and then, literally just a couple of few weeks in, she decided, oh no, I'm going to go on one of the weight loss medications, which, again, if some cases, that's necessary for the person. But again, what's happening right now is it's being prescribed left and right and side effects, and here I have something that can help someone with their goals in a healthy manner. It's so hard for me to see that, but it's like you're saying, we want that quick fix. So many people don't want to take the time to be healthier. I mean, and we have to. Just where do you want to be? 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 years down the road? I just I, you know I'm again. I'm hopeful that things can turn around, but again there's so many people that want the quick fix and it's.

Speaker 1:

It's really it's, it's, it's getting better, I think, cause a lot of people see people going for that quick fix and then seeing that it's actually not really fixing anything, and this whole is epic generation. Now a lot of people are are seeing that it's actually just not really working. And, um, there's a lot of celebrities out there endorsing some of these things, but there's also celebrities, you know, saying that actually they don't work and they do cause problems, and so I think slowly people are waking up to this idea that it's actually their responsibility but it's also within their power to do to make that change.

Speaker 1:

It's not just it's their fault. That's not. What we're're saying is. They have the power to actually make the change and they're waking up to that. They are waking up to it slowly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think so. I think you're absolutely right on that.

Speaker 1:

I can actually just spend time with patients and just to charge accordingly, and they choose to pay that or not, whereas in England, you know, there's more and more of a private system now but, like the NHS for example, you can't do that. You can't spend an hour with the patient, because as a practice, as a doctor, I suppose essentially you get paid the same. If you spend a day with a patient or you spend 30 seconds with a patient, you know you get paid essentially the same. And so there's just again, this is the world over. Really, there's just churn and burn. You know you get paid on the number of people you see versus the number of people you help, which which actually is what it should be payment by results, really.

Speaker 1:

But I shock him. I mean, I was looking at a statistic the other day on average consultation length across the world and Australia, I think, came in at something like 12 minutes. My average consultation is about 25, but, um, england, uh, england was about uh eight or nine. I think america was doing pretty good. Actually, it was one of the best. It was like, I think, 20 minutes on average which is not not bad um bangladesh.

Speaker 1:

guess guess what bang? What Bangladesh was average 30 seconds, no kidding 30 seconds. That was the average consultation length in Bangladesh. I can't even say hello in 30 seconds.

Speaker 2:

Hello, my name is and your name is, Okay, bye.

Speaker 1:

It's just like oh my God, it reminds me of that episode of Scrubs. I mean, I'm showing my age a bit now with Scrubs, but you know where they do the. It's like 17 seconds per consultation in the hospital. It's just, it's shocking, isn't it? But there is this across the world. But even America's doing pretty good actually on the whole at 20 odd minutes, but even there, like 20 minutes, it's just it's not long enough. Right, you know, we need to spend more time with patients and patients need to spend more time with their doctors.

Speaker 1:

But most systems across the world. It's just, it's just not set up that way.

Speaker 2:

No no.

Speaker 1:

That's the problem.

Speaker 2:

Well, this has been so great to rush. I just I really have enjoyed talking with you and it's just fascinating and I know we could talk a lot longer and I so appreciate you sharing all of your insight and in this topic it's really, really fascinating and I know that we both have the hope that you know we'll be kind of on a different trajectory, hopefully very soon, with just helping people, just helping people feel better and have more energy and just to live a healthier way of life and, and you know, that's hopefully the direction that we are headed in, really, truly, how can people, if anyone wants to reach out to you or connect with you, how can they reach out to you?

Speaker 1:

Absolutely so. Social media I'm at the Meat Medic for all my social media really, and my website is wwwthemeatmediccom. M-e-a-t. Themeatmediccom. That's got all my socials information, coaching and consultations in Australia and so on, so that's probably the best place to find me in the work that I do.

Speaker 2:

Perfect, and I will add all of that in the show notes and I love your accent and so I don't. I mean I couldn't completely understand, but I will put everything in the show notes. And again, just you know, apology to our listeners. We've had a little bit of a staticky in and out, but I but it's been such a great conversation and you've had so much to share and I really really appreciate you taking the time and I really thank you for this.

Speaker 1:

You're welcome, Shelley. Thank you for inviting me on the show. It's been great to chat to you and I would just encourage people to just start taking ownership of their own health. I think that's really what it comes down to is stop putting you know, giving your power to other people, and just take ownership of your health. Start to make those changes yourself and you can be healthy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's great. That's a perfect, perfect way to end. So thank you so much, and and again to our listeners, I will. I will put Dr Suresh's information in the show notes. I will put Dr Suresh's information in the show notes and we'll have to have you on again. It's been really, really great and so interesting to have a conversation with you. So thank you again, and to all of our listeners, thank you for tuning in and, as always, do something for yourself and your wellness on this day and have a beautiful, blessed rest every week. Everyone, take care.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did, and if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review words of wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening and if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness, on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy and blessed week. Thank you, you.