81: Holistic Healthcare with Dr. Nisha Chellam – Dr. Veronica Anderson

by | Jul 19, 2017 | Podcast

Holistic Healthcare with Dr. Nisha Chellam

“We are in that mode where we try to respond to catastrophic events rather than understanding that it takes a little effort every day to stay well.”

 Dr. Nisha Chellam 

Are you prioritizing your health? Dr. Nisha Chellam is an Internist and a Functional Medical Practitioner whose mission is to help people realize the truth behind their illnesses and that being sick is a choice they make. She believes that the little things we do daily create an impact on our health and well-being. She started Holistic ICON (Holistic and Integrative Center of Novi) to empower people to understand the simple ways to keep their bodies healthy and avoid tons of medications.

On this episode, she explains why people get sick and what can be done to restore the body. She discusses people’s mentality on health care and what it truly takes to have a healthier and happier life.

Listen to episode 81 on iTunes here or subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

 

81: Show Notes


Dr. Veronica Anderson’s Links:

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Time stamps:

01:48 – Problems with our Healthcare
07:03 – Medical insurance
10:17 – Why set aside budget for Healthcare
16:20 – Dr. Veronica’s practitioner code
16:59 – Online information overload
21:48 – What’s in our medications
25:26 – Benefits of having a health coach
33:04 – Choosing your medical practitioner

 

 

Full Transcript:

Female VO: Welcome to the Wellness Revolution Podcast, the radio show all about wellness in your mind, body, spirit, personal growth, sex, and relationships. Stay tuned for weekly interviews featuring guests that have achieved physical, mental, and spiritual health in their lives.

Dr. Veronica: Welcome again to the Wellness Revolution. Today we’re going to talk about health care and why health care is screwing you up. I’m with one of my friends who’s a fellow practitioner and we were chit-chatting about why people are not getting results in America and there’s a health care debate and insurance and blah blah blah. So, I said we need to do a video and put this into the podcast and give a little bit of education of what us as practitioners see our patients and clients doing. It’s just like screwing them up. So, Nisha Chellam, an internist in Ohio and so if you’re anywhere in Ohio get in your car and drive to our practice, you want to be but I’m going to tell you she doesn’t take anybody if you’re not serious she isn’t taking you. And what does it take to be somebody who’s serious somebody who’s ready to implement and get results and we’re going to talk about if you think that you’re the want to implement get results in change, we’re going to talk about that mindset if you see the back to mindset of what’s going on in America and why America is getting sicker. We have a health care crisis. I don’t care what plan we put in it’s not going to fix it and America is going to get sicker. If you want to stay in that population wonderful but if you want to be well here’s what you got to do. Dr. Nisha Chellam welcome to the Wellness Revolution.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: Hi, Veronica, how are you?

Dr. Veronica: I’m doing great. So, we’re just chit-chatting about why people are having a problem. What’s going on? We’re having this big healthcare debate. First, I want to know what’s your take on the healthcare debate?

Dr. Nisha Chellam: So, you know a lot of the problems with our health care is we’re looking outside for some solutions, right? I tell people 365 days of the year you’re with yourself the one day that you come to the doctors somehow the doctor or the medical system is responsible for your health. And if you ask people what does it take to be healthy you know we do dinner talks we do talk all the time and we try to educate the community. I always ask this question “What is wrong with our health?” And this way well the GMO foods it’s the pesticides and I said does everybody here know what it takes personally to get healthy? And people say yeah you got to exercise they eat right and I said do we do this and everyone says no not really, we try to but we don’t really put our effort into it. And when you ask them what is the reason you know I’ll always the questions that the sort of problems that they face is that’s not enough time we cannot cook, I have to work I have so many other responsibilities so it’s easy and convenient to buy food on the go. And that’s my most favorite and so because when I tell them if you say you don’t have the time is today you’re diagnosed with breast cancer. Would you find the time to go and see a physician to get a second opinion? Would you find the time to go through chemotherapy and radiation and it’s like oh yes, I will, right? So, it’s really why are we not prioritizing our help we’re like I almost this is the analogy that I can always bring up a site where doctors are like plumbers, right? You don’t think about your plumbers till this a big leak and then you’re willing to paint just about anything to get that leak fixed on a Sunday night you call a plumber and it’s 80 to 95 the first shower and then $100 every hour they’re active till we fix the leak. So, we are in that mode where we try to respond to catastrophic events rather than understanding it takes a little effort every day to stay well and actually address our symptoms. I’m sure you know as well as I do little symptoms can be like they can be a whisper or they can be blaring. The blaring ones always get attention which is your acute pain acute migraine headaches or back pain but the whispering symptoms like an occasional target our occasional stomach issues or even people getting to tolerate a big a lot to eat they tolerate the fact that they have to find a bathroom soon after meal because they have what is called imageable bowel. Now, those kinds of symptoms are actually serious or they kind of are signals that something more serious is going to happen and it’s at that time you want to nip it and say hey why am I having it rather than say I’m going to take a couple of tongues I just have a little heartburn and I’m going to avoid spicy foods. So, I think we really need to change how we think about our health and that’s one of the things that keep it a priority, just like how you would like to look good when you’re going out you want to put on some good clothes do your hair do your face look presentable. I think really taking care of your insides by putting in which the right things in your body and keeping that time out for exercise is something that I really believe people should start doing. And we all know that we have to do it and I don’t know what have been your experience. Do you feel that’s one of the things?

Dr. Veronica: Oh, yeah. So, it’s about maintenance and I tell people about it it’s maintenance and so let’s talk about we’re talking about cars you got to maintain anybody who has their car there’s a couple things that are common to pretty much if you’re doing it legally you have to number one you have insurance and then also there’s a maintenance plan and when you go to the maintenance plan, a couple buy it’s funny my cars in getting it those recheck today it is yearly check you know the emissions all that and a yearly check what happens you bring it in I know baseline it’s going to be X dollars and then he looks over my car and he said here’s what I found and this is what we need to do. This can happen today if you don’t fix it today I think you can go a little longer with this one but this is what we got to do today and here are the normal maintenance things that we should do based on an amount of miles that are on your car. And I say okay my car my car has a hundred and fifty thousand miles on it I’ve had it for 13 years now and when anybody gets in them drives my car drives like new why because I keep the maintenance all right. So, let’s correlate that to the body their appearance there’s maintenance. Let’s talk about insurance first. People normally calm and say is it covered by my insurance? When you say no all of a sudden, they walkaway slinking their shoulders. Talk a little bit about insurance so that we can understand what it is what it covers and what you should do when it’s doesn’t cover stuff.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: Okay. So, basically when you have insurance and that’s something that’s very important to people right? When they take up a job they want to know one benefit and really when you’re looking at medical insurance if you really look at what insurance covers, it covers what it’s called early detection plan. In other words, you’re going in for your mammogram your colonoscopy. They don’t prevent breast cancer or colon cancer but they actually help detect it early. How about you are calling in asking nations I want to learn how to actually prevent breast cancer. That takes a whole lot of completely a different path. We have to assess your risk see what you’re doing and if you really look at all of the studies majority of the breast cancers are due to my stuff, their environmental. They’re not due to genetics where is it 15 percent is due to genetics the bracha gene is a very small population that has it. And even when you follow the rock Regina send up them do not get it. So, to a large degree I think we need to understand what your insurance really covers is early detection of diseases. It also covers diagnosis of diseases. So, if you’re looking for a diagnosis and as position we’re trained in these signs of the disease. So, we’re able to catch a disease very early and we connect it to a drug. We don’t look at the roots of the disease, we do talk about etiology, why does the disease happen but it’s too hard to have people change their diet. A lot of times we tell them II what we want you to eat healthy and exercise regularly but we don’t know what it means, they don’t know what it means. They just think okay I’m going to walk every day and then when life happens walking falls behind. Their diet falls behind and the only thing that’s left that’s a stable in their life is the pill that you have given for their blood sugar or for their high blood pressure the cholesterol and it gives them the false notion that they are protected somehow from the progression of the disease or the inevitable end points of the disease. And we know a lot of people who will just get diagnosed with the disease be given a drug because that’s what their insurance covers and you run a statin drug in and the high blood pressure drug drop and yet you’ll end up having a heart attack or a stroke. At that point, you can you know there’s nothing much about the system is going to pick up the standard of care. We’ve provided the standard of care nobody ever comes and asks hey did you talk about diet and exercise and what did you do about it? There’s not much. Did you talk about stress management? We don’t. We tell people you better handle your stress a little better whatever that means. So, I think to a large degree insurance just like in your car you know when you take it for maintenance you realize as a certain amount of budget that has to be set aside for a car that has a hundred and fifty thousand miles. We need to settle the budget for our health. A mammogram when you pay cash is $99. We’re all running everyone is running the amount of grafts to insurance and that’s why it gets so expensive. Our maintenance should be for us for us to do take care of our health on a regular basis, take care of our maintenance seeing our doctor for an annual physical when you actually look at it in the health care system, the doctors are probably the least expensive.

Dr. Veronica: Everything. People say but I can’t afford it. What do you say when people say but I can afford it I don’t have it in my budget? Now, I laugh when people say they can’t afford it because I see them with their smart phone in their hand that’s the latest and greatest iPhone or Samsung or whatever which I didn’t pay for because I know I’m like this is ridiculous which I know call six seven eight hundred dollars. So, people say I can’t afford it and the Disney vacation would cost about $6,000 is afforded by your average family. I can’t afford it and well you’re able to go out and get that Starbucks every day at six box. What do you say, now, I think this in my head I’m not always saying it because I just you know buy what they want and beg for what they need but when people say they can’t afford it, how do you help them readjust to understanding that they can’t not afford it, they have to do it?

Dr. Nisha Chellam: So, I always ask them can you afford to have a disease? If that’s something you can afford then wellness is not for you. Now, when you have a disease for instance of a patient who gets diagnosed with breast cancer. At the end of the first year you will be having to spend a hundred and twenty-five thousand just for the treatment but each of your chemotherapy treatment that it comes down to almost twenty to thirty percent of that is your out-of-pocket expenses number one. A hospitalization for five days for a stroke it’s close to 125 thousand to two hundred thousand depending on how much testing and how many specialists are you and there’s a certain amount of pocket expenses. Now, you’ve got one of those doubles triple coverage insurances I won’t tell you it’s cheaper to have a disease than actually get well if you want to look at it that way. So, taking medications on a regular basis making sure every vacation you’re carrying up extra baggage just for your medicines making sure you know where your doctors, it’s almost like the stress of having the disease, it’s more when you look at it in the long run and people feel like oh I’m taking my daughter’s medicine cost me only five dollars, right now it does. The number of my Medicare patients that go into what is called the doughnut hole with H she’ll out about seven hundred eight hundred dollars for almost three four months of the year is absolutely, you know, alarming, really to speak off. And during that time, they make adjustments to the mustn’t they don’t take their message properly. So, to a large degree the disease is not under control and you feel like why do I feel so crappy despite taking all the medicine? So, insurance really covers catastrophic events but not fully, only eighty percent.  You still have to take twenty percent and those catastrophic events that you could have prevented, it’s something it takes your life away. I mean literally you are doing nothing but paying hospital bills for two to three years after hospitalization. And a lot of people really file for bankruptcy if you really look a good 70%, right? File for bankruptcy and personal bankruptcies are due to exorbitant medical bills and many of them are insured. We don’t think of it that way because a lot of times we don’t think something catastrophic can happen to us number one.  Number two which then we have to change its exchanging of habits. It’s changing of habits that don’t serve you to changing to habits that actually serve you. And that’s not easy and people like you and me who have coaches, we know how much we have to work to change our existing mindset and habits and honestly that’s what the medical system needs to work with it. This is what I tell people in an ideal medical system. You have a heart attack, you go through the ER you get a Scan button you’re in acute care for 24 to 48 hours to make sure you’re stable, you’re not having any arrhythmias following the heart attack. But the next day, you need to be moved to what is called a sanctuary. Where they actually look at the real reason why you have a heart attack. They change your lifestyle, they change how you manage trust you have a yoga instructor, you have a kitchen, they change how you look at food and educate you on all of this. So, this whole you leave a week from there when you leave you go with a completely a different outlook towards your personal health. But that’s not what we do right? Insurance covers a stent puts you on full medicine then tells you for the rest of your life you’re going to be on those medicines. And then, when you have your second and your third stents, you’re not asking that question. When I’m taking all these medicines why am I getting stents one after the other is just say, you know what? It’s in your genes. And does anybody check your genetics to say see if you’re at a higher risk? We don’t because the insurance doesn’t cover that.

Dr. Veronica: We people say all insurance doesn’t cover it and it’s expensive to get it but I will say that “23 and me” is relatively inexpensive if you go out and just get it on the Internet it’s a hundred and ninety-nine dollars to get everything sequenced. What many practitioners can use but I don’t know if dr. Chellam has this but she can get this, I have a practitioner code whereby people can get it for a hundred and forty-nine dollars and just ask me and I’ll try to remember to put it in the show notes. If you just ask me for my code and I don’t get paid for this I just because I want you to get it you’re going to get a $50 discount and anybody else you give the codes who gets the discount and a lot of times family members discounts like discounts. So, it’s not expensive to get this stuff done. It’s just do you value it and then once you get it done, what are you going to do about information and we’re going to go into the next segment where to talk about which is about information overload because everybody has a medical degree from the University of Google these days. and very good friends with doctor YouTube. Talk about information overland.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: Right. So, if you’re read to find information about just about anything. For instance, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. You can go online you can find any information you want on what your disease processes and one of the solutions available. Now, what I find with people is they look for the solution that they most easily identify with. And for instance, if you’ve always been on a paleo diet you would love to treat your heart she mumbles with a completely paleo diet. Now, if you are a big and you want to treat your Hashimoto’s with a vegan diet. It’s really trying you’re trying to get the universal solution but we’re all very unique. Everyone of this is very unique. If you believe 80% of your health and your life is your environment that is the first thing that has to change. There is no single solution but we’re looking for that one you know the reductionist of view of probably everything that we have. We don’t like our specialist looking at the specialized version of our disease process. Why are we getting very specialized with our wellness? Wellness is really a wholesome thing. You have to take the person in their environment and see how can you get them well by changing both their external environment and their internal. So, sometimes symptoms environments are expiring or inspiring but if you’re just taking spirulina every day in the morning doesn’t make you any healthier if your external environment is still expiring you. And I think that’s a problem with the information overload is again when I have people coming to me with 25 different supplements and they’re spending anywhere from $250 to $300 in supplements. And that’s they don’t even know they look at what it is it’s called Q10 or omega-3 or probiotic but they don’t look at the other ingredients that they have consider themselves gluten-free or sensitive to soy or sensitive to corn and all of these supplements have all these ingredients in them and if you really actually look there was read what was it two years ago where the Attorney General did to Target Walgreens GMC in New York. The oldest supplements, the supplements did not have the ingredients they said they have. So, people are spending money if that supplement industry’s another 13-billion-dollar industry by itself and somehow, you’re trying to get yourself some kind of a cure without actually understanding why your body is doing what it’s doing. And in many ways diseases are what just the body’s way of protecting itself because the body has only two functions that other primitive brain has two functions one is reproduction and the other is protection, right? It’s procreate and protect so when it’s trying to protect its raising your blood pressure or it’s causing your insomnia scoffing you heart but it’s time to send a message to you that things are not well and you need to keep paying attention instead of that we try to suppress it either with medications or with supplements. And by the end of all this information nobody is feeling better but they’re spending a lot of money on themselves, simply because they feel I’m taking something natural. And I think that’s the biggest challenge with the information overload. I don’t think it’s accurate or personalized information.

Dr. Veronica: Yeah, it’s interesting because every everybody comes in people come in with more supplements than they do with medications they’ve all grabbed them over the counter office and a lot of them are poor quality. And so, part of my teaching of clients is here’s how you tell what a good supplement is but not only here’s how you tell it a good supplement I’m going to give you access to professional-grade suctioning so that you know and if you buy something over the counter here’s a sight I want you to go look for if it’s not on this site as something that’s approved then don’t use it because we can’t say anything about it. So, before we were chatting before we got on camera we were chatting about medicines and what they have in it so we’re talking about gluten. So, talk a little bit about that because I think it’s something people need to understand if you’re on medicines and you are gluten free, you’re probably not gluten free. And here’s what? Doctor – go.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: So, most of the medications the binders usually have reach products gluten corn or soy and a lot of times in the regular medicines that you get in the in the pharmacies. Then I’m going to tell you the other ingredients. It will tell you what the medicine is and that’s pretty much it unless you call and as for what else is there. So, my most favorites our most tiring most people with thyroid disorders don’t want to deeply with my Rossum’s because they’ve heard bad things about the synthetic levothyroxine but and they go to our website and your thyroid have both eaten corn and touchy items that actually binds it together and I find when people have paradises are my thyroid really doesn’t help them very much. So, to a large degree when you take medicines there are a couple of things that are happening. You get in fish crawls or common food allergens with them. Number two they do block the detox pathways of the liver because the liver now is not only trying to make the medications active, it’s also trying to eliminate all the additives that comes with it. And sometimes that you’ll just find most people’s liver is congested simply because they’re on multiple medications for multiple disorders. And this is what I tell people. Think of your body your body was grown from two cells one from the ovaries the ovum and the sperm. Why does it occur to you that your toe pain is different from your headache? Would it be a token or a headache it’s a system that’s failing. And you have to address the root cause. And one medication is not going to fix any of this and when you introduce one medication you’re introducing four to five chemicals with each of those medications. So, I think this this is a lot of education that really needs to be done and people should really seek better answers to their problems and a lot of their solutions lie within themselves, you know, it’s changing your mindset promising yourself that you will take care of yourself, understanding that supplements are no better than synthetic drugs. All of them help in in the short run but you the question is less your B12 deficient why aren’t you absorbing it from your gut? I mean everything has B12. So, you got to ask those questions rather than just saying I got to take a B12. And a lot of times our goal of our practice has need to educate people to think a little differently and really understand how 100 percent is in their hands. The medical system just helps them in an acute crisis but long-term maintenance is really up to them and their environment, if that makes any sense.

Dr. Veronica: Yes, wonderful. So, let me just talk a little bit because we were similarly about and you mentioned this at the beginning you know you have a coach and you went and I tell people I’m not your doctor, I’m your coach. How a coach operates differently and why you need one? So, for instance this morning I was having a little bit of a business crisis question about something and so it was like okay what I would do okay so I should have turned off my phone and I didn’t turn off my phone but I’ll do that right now. But coaching. All right, I had a crisis and so I didn’t know what to do and I could have stayed stuck or I can make a phone call to or send an email or whatever to one of the many people in my network who I know have a different mindset or a perception or something than I do to get the problem solved so I can move on and to a higher level. Coaching is very different than when you go to the doctor you say here’s what’s wrong about says here’s your prescription goodbye. Coach, so, explain to the audience why they need to consider you can keep your primary care doctor but adding on a coach and maybe not just a coach that’s a normal health coach but a doctor who acts who is your coach. Because I tell people I’m your uber-coach, I know about that stuff over there but I know about this, this, this and this. Thankful I can tell you about that. I understand what’s going on in that and if you need me to talk to your doctor so your doctor will be on board I can talk your doctor’s language too. If you need that. Talk about coaching style and why everybody should have some type of coach on their team.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: Right. So, when you look at the traditional insurance care it’s a very reactive care. It’s driven by the provider. You come in I have seven to thirteen minutes whatever it be the national average. My job is to diagnose the disease I know the disease very well and I treat the disease. I’m still practicing standard medicine but whereas when you go into a coaching atmosphere where you’re coached back to health there are so many aspects like I still use this face the external environment has to change in addition to your internal environment. And for that to happen you have to be associated with people who really are thinking about wellness and not about your disease process. And many times, I can give you an example when patients start on in our program, they’re very they do believe they are eating healthy. They say I have a meat protein, I have a vegetable and I have a starch. And I don’t know where that came from that that is actually healthy for everybody and when I do the genetic testing I find somebody is in Aprillocal protein E 4×4, which means they have a then, I put it this way. I say, I tell them you’re more a gatherer than a hunter. So, if you’re a gatherer then you need to get the switch so as if I’m switching over somebody’s way of living, it’s not easy. You know, you’re here and I have to take you to where like most coaching classes easy where magic happens each time I drag you there you’re going to snap back. And this is what a coach does is keeps you on track to get to where you need to be. And a lot of times our mind. Remember, its job is to protect and procreate. The job of the brain would be “Hey you’re making a change, that means there’s a lot of energy being expended and I need to get you back to where you’re comfortable.” And you’re going to keep snapping back to where you’re comfortable and if you continue to do what you’ve done you’re going to continue to get what you’ve got. And our job is to get you to a new place so you’re thinking differently and each time and I have to get you to a point and then get you better than there. And each time you will need somebody to walk you this because then it’s less difficult, it’s less what can I say stressful because you’re not doing it on you on and not just looking adopting Google and then you try something for two weeks and then you snap back because it didn’t work here. Through this journey we will tell you why something is not working or that you’re on the right track because we know as professionals how to monitor somebody’s progress. Which is very difficult and as a physician who does wellness, the good thing is I’m able to actually get bloodwork that gets my patient engaged in their own care. I mean what could just do to tell somebody oh your cholesterol is high they don’t feel any different you give them a statin they don’t feel any different but when I show them a red, yellow and green. And I tell that hey you’re in the red and we want to get you to the yellow zone and eventually to the green zone and this is what you’re going to be doing, they are engage. It’s almost like after six months my patients know how to whiskey their own blood work, they’re engaged. They kind of want to get better because they see and as those numbers change their well-being changes too. And I think that’s what a coach does, is really educate you it’s almost like going to school to learn about yourself. You learn about how to take care of you. There is no manual for it but you take care of you and that’s what the coach does is help you learn about yourself, if that means.

Dr. Veronica: Yes, yes. Everybody knows those are my dogs Artemis and Apollo. They know they can’t you know everybody who listens at some time they come eyes on this place and they come across the screen but not today they’re downstairs like something’s happening. But anyway, yes, okay, so, I just I wanted to highlight what is different about working with a practitioner that works at a coaching style. And you’ve also got a highlight about that that when we’re working in a coaching style, we need a lot more time. And go there’s no seven or eight minutes visits. Generally, when people see me, it’s a minimum of thirty minutes not 45 minutes to an hour because when you walk away I got to make sure you understand whatever concept it is so that you have a little bit it’s not a lot of idea of how to actually implement a change that will be able to stick with you. You’re understanding why you’re doing it you got all the backgrounds so when we say this week we’re doing this, here’s why, here’s the background and here’s the strategy to do it. Again, as the coach, when you run into an obstacle and every and you will run into an obstacle, we’ve developed a relationship with you where this is not about us you didn’t take your medicine so that’s why you’re. No. You’re running to an obstacle whether it be something didn’t work for you something made you feel bad or something happens in life that made you fall off track when you come back to us then we can deal with whatever happens, so that when that life crisis happens again you don’t do something that’s going to hurt you. Because that’s what life happens. We say, people say I don’t have time you know it’s too busy and we don’t know how to do this that. We’ve gotten you through those hurdles so that when the crisis happens all of a sudden, you’ve developed those habits. And that’s what happens, I find that’s what happens. When people spend time in my program, it’s 90 days or six months depending on where they are in the beginning. They by the end of that time but it ended just like you know three to five weeks because that you know it takes about 21 days to develop a habit. Those first three days – Oh, my god. Everybody wants to quit. There are three weeks, they’re feeling really good but they don’t understand what has happened. People what has happened is you have already. It takes about 21 days to develop a habit and your brain changes in about six weeks. So, this is why when you have somebody that’s coaching you through and getting you there and we’re doing this we’re healthy we want to see you healthy, we’re healthy. We’re not just telling you to do this because we’re telling you we’re healthy too. And that’s another important point. Make a point about choosing your practitioner. You don’t want somebody that just tells you how to be well, you want somebody that in their lives and their office and how they do everything is about being well. Talk about that.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: So, this is that’s a very young, what can I say a tricky subject. A lot of times when you look at in general of medical practitioners, I think it’s the most stressed- out profession. And you’ll find like whether you go to the ER or whether you go to a hospital where the hospital is many of them are drinking diet coke, they look very stressed, they look like they haven’t had time for themselves. Their goal is really they’re getting by through the day and I find a lot of times when you’re looking at your cardiologist and your cardiologist and BMI is greater than 30-some or you’re going to a dietician who’s probably also, you know, has a BMI over 30 which means almost in the obese stage. And you’re getting advice from them sometimes you don’t think about it you really don’t think about it that are they just trying to manage your disease, are they trying to get you well? Because obviously, they haven’t got themselves well enough or they don’t have time to take care of themselves. It’s almost like you wouldn’t go to a guy who’s filed for bankruptcy for financial advice, right? I mean normally we don’t do that but somehow, we seem to go to a physician who’s on high blood pressure medicines a diabetic or who can barely get up or has arthritis. And believe and I agree we as physicians are human beings which you can have diseases and but are we actively taking care of ourselves. Is this something that we are in the business of do we practice it on ourselves when we teach others? And I remember before my transitioning to a medical practitioner I had I was a pre-diabetic and I was gaining a lot of weight and I actually was on metformin because I believed that was the best way to treat myself. And it’s just when my hair started falling and I realized I was having a lot of back spasms I couldn’t function and I had migraine headaches, I had one of two options. One is to just go see a doctorand get it all of these symptoms treated or to find out why my body was falling apart. And when I did my traditional blood work everything was fine. In fact, I had I was in perfect health on paper and I wasn’t feeling so good. So, really, when I went to the endocrinologist and you know we did all the testing and she said you know you just have early Hashimoto’s but his heart functions are fine. Well, we’ll re-evaluate in six months. The first thing that occurred to me and she was very harried you know she was like looking at a computer here the new EMR a focus was on how to put information and they should look very stressed. At the end of it, I just felt like you know I’m feeling so miserable I am the Sham I love tests look good but something needs to be done which is how I got introduced to functional medicine because I went for a country and as I was sitting in the conference I diagnosed myself with Hashimoto’s and I realized all of this I could actually fix by addressing the root cause. And it took me 18 months. It took me 18 months to fix my gut, fix my sleeve, fix my stress. And by the end and I did spend a lot of money. I had a TM, you know mentor the Transcendental Meditation as well as changing my diet. All of that by 18 months. What I realized is I didn’t need any medications. But it was not like “Oh, I fixed myself. Now I’m good.” No. I have to continue to maintain and that’s how I started my functional medical practice because it’s almost impossible for me to look at patients who walk in and say you know what I have a weight issue or I have migraine headaches for me to just write a prescription because I know it’s completely resolvable. I started having migraines at the age of eleven. And I usually have them once a month and I accepted it. So, you in life you get what you tolerate and I tolerated it was fine when the migraines became an everyday occurrence is when I refused to tolerate. When my hair started falling I refused to tolerate. So, that’s when I took that tone and I said I’m going to have to do something about my hell is when everything changed. But patients I find are ok if they see a practitioner who is heavier or tired or have issues, they feel that connection is AC low she’s struggling with that too, so that’s normal. And I think people need to understand it is not normal to have any dysfunctional disease. That’s an abnormality. And you know high blood pressure is not normal I have people coming in and saying oh my parents are healthy young people who I can actually impact. Their parents are in their late 40s or early 50s. All my parents are healthier so they don’t take any meds. “Oh, no. Just the usual, the high blood pressure and cholesterol.” When did high blood pressure and cholesterol become the usual? Because we’ve created that new normalcy, you know. It’s okay to have high blood pressure, it’s okay to have commercial and I think people need to understand it’s not okay to have any disease. We’re all going to die but you don’t have to die long. You know, when died you just want to die. Well we’re not living longer with dying longer because we stopped having disease processes in our 40s and we go all the way up to the 90s and the last, almost the quarter of your life 20-25 years you’re in a long-term care or in the medical system. It’s like a revolving door and it’s like there’s no way out unless you make that change. And really and it has to start with who you associate with and you got to find the right provider whose mind is set towards wellness and with the belief that I can get you better rather than saying here I can manage your disease. There’s a big difference between the two.

Dr. Veronica: Wonderful. I really thank you for sharing your personal health story because we everybody has a personal health story. I talk a lot about perception and mindset and how that is and our illness and injuries are a sign to us to do something different and that you all have heard, audiences heard doctor tell them your story of Wade and Hashimoto’s and hair loss that made you shift your whole life to be able to help other people think about wellness. And it is at you know sometimes a shift has to come you know and I was watching you know me in my ophthalmology practice I was watching people go blind on dialysis and get amputations. My grandmother was a diabetic, went blind now I am in the eye surgeon. My grandmother with blind from a lifestyle disease and that bothered me. Both of my parents are diabetics so my whole thing has always been looking and saying I’m going to be different than that. I have every difference is that I’m going to be different than that. I didn’t say I’m not going to have that because I learned to speak in the positive and that’s also about how you have to learn. So, there is mindset perception that’s important and the reason why I do these interviews is because somebody’s going to see it and say yes, I need to do this different I need to change and what people have to understand are there are qualified credentialed well-trained practitioners out there that know how to reverse all kinds of diseases. Because every disease out there including cancer has been reversed and not necessarily with medications, holistically. I got to tell you the longer I follow I see people they were on their death bed, death bed who are standing there telling me their story and I can’t believe it. And those are the kind of people I look to have on my show so people can understand that it wasn’t the state and it wasn’t a medical law it wasn’t the armored thyroid that got them better, it was learning these principles about how to get to the cause of the cause and that you are a whole person, you have to deal with mighty body mind and spirit. All three and all three simultaneously to be able to get well. So, Dr. Nisha Chellam it was such a great interview. Tell us, give us your website tell us how we can find you for people who are around and sometimes people say, I had clients fly from other places to see me but they like me. So, where can people find you?

Dr. Nisha Chellam: So, our website is holistic and integrated center of Nova. So, we just made it as a holisticicon.com. And we’re actually located in Michigan. It’s also Ohio but we’re in Michigan. And we’re in a suburb a call Novi which is about I would say 35 minutes west of Detroit and each of Ann Arbor, similar. So, it’s a very nice look but that’s the best way to reach on it. And I would really recommend people coming to our website we’re going to have a lot of talks posted on the website if they want to know what we actually do and how we approach it differently. That’s a good way to start and if you want my cellphone number I can give it to you too when I put it in there or I don’t know how long.

Dr. Veronica: Feel free to say your telephone number.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: I hope I remember it. Two-four-eight-seven-seven-three-eight-six-four-zero. So, again they can call and my staff is actually very well trained. They really believe in what we do so it’s a great team that we have here.

Dr. Veronica: Wonderful. Dr. Nisha Chellam, thank you for the interview.

Dr. Nisha Chellam: Thank you so much for the opportunity, really appreciate it and really enjoy talking to you.

Female VO: Thank you for listening to the Wellness Revolution Podcast. If you want to hear more on how to bring wellness into your life visit drveronica.com. See you all next week. Take care.

 

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Medical Intuitive, Functional Medicine Doctor, Functional Medicine New York, ManhattanDr. Veronica Anderson is an MD, Functional Medicine Practitioner, Homeopath. and Medical Intuitive. As a national speaker and designer of the Functional Fix and Rejuvenation Journey programs, she helps people who feel like their doctors have failed them. She advocates science-based natural, holistic, and complementary treatments to address the root cause of disease. Dr. Veronica is a highly-sought guest on national television and syndicated radio and hosts her own radio show, Wellness for the REAL World, on FOX Sports 920 AM “the Jersey” on Mondays at 7:00 pm ET.

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