Business Innovators Radio - Dr. Pratiksha Gandhi: How to Prevent and Reverse Heart Diseases

Episode Date: January 9, 2024

Pratiksha Gandhi MD is a world-renowned preventive heart care expert, author, speaker, and researcher with a mission to prevent heart attacks and eradicate cardiovascular diseases. She helps people with drug-free and non-surgical alternatives for heart health through online and in-person programs along with her team in San Diego.Learn more at: gffpc.orgRebelpreneur Radio with Ralph Brogdenhttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/rebelpreneur-radio-with-ralph-brogden/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/dr-pratiksha-gandhi-how-to-prevent-and-reverse-heart-diseases

Your On the station of the planet Resistance is future The revolution Has was done For listening to Revelepreneur radio Helping you break the rules

And build the business you need For the life you want And now Broadcasting his pirate signal From somewhere beyond the status quo Here's your host Best Selling Author Marketing and Media Strategist

Ralph Brogden Hello and welcome to Rebelpreneur Radio. It's the show that helps you build the business you need so you can live the life you want. I'm Ralph Brogden. Building the business you need so you can live the life you want. So within that mission of building a great business, it's also living a great life. And if you're not taking care of your health, how long can your business actually function? Only as long as you are functioning.

So health, healthy mindset. healthy lifestyle, balancing work and play and rest and personal and professional. We have all these things that we are juggling. And it is so important that we take care of ourselves. The old adage is when you're on the airplane and they say in the event of an emergency, put your oxygen mask on before you try to help anybody else, put theirs on. Take care of yourself first. So for a lot of people, especially as we get older, taking care of your health, taking care of your body is going to be a factor in how well you show up in business.

Your ability to sustain the thing that you were working on, your passion project, your organization, your mission. It's only as good as your mental and physical and spiritual health. Well, today's guest is here to speak with us about your heart. Heart health, and I am pleased to welcome Pertica Gandhi, MD. She is a world-renowned preventative heart care expert and author, a speaker and researcher with a mission to prevent heart attacks and eradicate cardiovascular diseases. She helps people with drug-free and non-surgical alternatives for heart health through online and in-person programs, along with her team in San Diego.

She's the founder and director of the Global Foundation for Preventative, cardiology. Dr. Gandhi, welcome to Rebel Pernuber Radio. Thank you, Ralph. I'm very happy to be here. Is the sun shining in San Diego today? Absolutely. It's amazing weather out here. All the time, right? Wonderful. So it's a real pleasure to have you. We don't want to think about our heart health, unfortunately, until it becomes a problem, until it becomes an issue. Your mission is to try and prevent those problems before they happen. And I really love the vision you present of preventing heart attacks and eradicating cardiovascular diseases.

Tell me the story behind what got you interested in this particular field. Yes, Ralph. So typically, like as any conventional doctor after doing MD, had set up a hospital. helping patients in the ICU, like doing the conventional practice. But however, there was like an event which happened, which is very close to my heart. This is way back in India. I'm talking in 1997. So like India at that time was like having like insurance was not actually available to most of like 90% of the population.

And heart surgeries used to be very, very expensive. So I had this gentleman who just broke down and told me that, hey, I'm not going to do a surgery, I better die because I don't have that kind of money, you know. So that was like a very touching moment for me because I felt that, hey, I'm not become a doctor so that my patients can die, you know. So I should something for this person. And I just like, because I'm also a trained teacher in yoga meditation, I have done a lot of naturopathy, homeopathy, Ayurveda, a lot of alternatives along with allopathy. I thought

of like kind of combining the Western allopathic standards with indigenous oriental medicine. And then I helped him and I used the same standards like how we use in heart care. The cardiologists will go for treadmill

and echoes to see the improvement in the heart after surgeries. I saw the same standards, applied them and that person was fantastic. He was walking for three, four miles, lost weight and living a healthy life. And that actually motivated me to a point where I just left the hospital and I made a lifelong mission. I founded Institute of Preventive Cardiology. And that is how this whole journey began, you know, to help people in a different way. Wonderful. So you're working with people to help them prevent heart

disease to incorporate healthy lifestyles and alternatives to traditional medicine. And you also, you do programs online as well as in person. Tell us a little bit about how you work with people online and in person like that. Sure. So like the, there are mainly two groups of people who reach out to me. So like one is the people who have already like undergone a heart attack. or like because the problem here is Ralph that 70% of the people get heart attack as a first symptom. And unfortunately, half of them has last.

So if one survives a heart attack, they are really lucky beings, you know. And now you understand that why I'm into prevention, you know, because we are losing half the people. And another thing is that even if they do a surgery or stenting or they get the treatment after heart attack, 25% of the people are getting heart attack again in spite of the standard care which they have gone through the medications and the surgeries, you know. So this is like a major group which reaches out to me because now they have got one event. They don't want another event. And, you know, like, so we have this like program which is a happy method, which is like heart screening, attitude, physical exercise, plant-based diet and yoga.

So, like, I have this kind of program which we conduct in person and online to help them. And we also have, like, a device which increases the blood flow to the heart here in San Diego. So we do all this combination that is for this group, which is there with heart issues. And we also have another group now who is becoming aware that, hey, my father got a heart problem.

My mother had it or uncle had it. or I'm having the risk factors like blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol. You know, so all these people or as you mentioned about business-minded people, they just want to remain fit. You know, like, hey, I want to focus on my business, my work. I don't want to fall sick, you know. Right. So these are the kind of people who reach out to us and we help them through our in-person

and online programs, what we do. Wonderful. So it's a combination of things. there's not a single a single thing that makes the difference across the board. But it's the diet and the exercise. And you mentioned yoga. What are some of the other things that help people get to a place of heart healthiness after they've had or to prevent one from occurring?

Yes. So basically, like there are a lot of things which are available online and Internet. and many times people become very confused because, like, Dr. Google has become the chief doctor nowadays, you know, and I get all the people with. That's scary, Dr. Google. That's exactly right, though. That's really scary. Absolutely scary, ralphicals. They, I see people buying thousands and thousands of supplements and they come with, like, so many things and also. My first goal is that I have a very root cause driven approach that, hey, you know, like, because, you know, like, because the standard care is just doing the lab work of cholesterol. They are not going into other detailed risk factors which are there.

So first is like for me, the screening part is very, very important. And this is all to the listeners here, whether they come to me or not. I think they should focus on heart health screening, go for doing simple tests like HSCRP, which is on chronic inflammation, calcium score, to assess whether you're developing the blockages or not.

So there are now a lot of latest tests which are available, checking your omega-3-6 balance ratios. So these are the things need to be done to ensure that your heart health is okay, you know, because these are the risk factors which are actually lurking in the dark and they are contributing to the problem. So we do all those things in details. That's why I said that sometimes in person, sometimes online we guide them. then there are a lot of other things which they can do is basically more of their lifestyle you know like how their day goes like

and especially like I would like to tell the you know listeners about their morning routine I wish and I tell everyone that please give first one hour to your health you know if you can get into anything of like meditation practices like you know doing some exercises and connecting with yourself, gratitude, journaling, you know, all those things that really benefits and shown to help. And so that's helping our physical body by learning to relax and be mindful.

In addition to the things that we're doing with our body, with exercise, and the things we're putting into our body that's either helping or hurting. So it sounds like a holistic approach. as opposed to just strictly medicine and trying to help the 50% who survived the first heart attack. Yes. So I am a little bit strong on this opinion because I'm observing what is happening is that we have on one side the standard system, which is like a pill for every ill. And we have this alternate where everyone is a supplement peddler, you know, like all this advertisement is going on. this herb is good, that is good, and people are just going crazily, you know, going after all this

thing. So I believe that there is a doctor within you which needs to be awakened. There is a healer within you. And what uniqueness which we bring to our programs is that we work on that natural healing mechanisms. We don't want people now to transition from like pills to supplements, you know. It's not that I'm like anti-supplements or anything. I do recommend supplements, but I feel they should be limited to whatever is actually required, not become like a fad the way it is becoming right now. Right? And that's the reason I like more of a breath work, meditation, mindfulness practices if someone cannot do meditation. So we have a lot of those resources like frequencies which are the natural healing methods.

So we are going more into, you can say, like, drug-free supplement, minimal supplements and more of natural methods, because it has to become a lifelong program, you know? Like, I don't think so that it becomes sustainable to keep on popping things into your body all the time. Well, that's the American way, is if there's a pill that I can take, or several pills that I can take, and still continue with my lifestyle, I'll be get the result that I want, then, yeah, sure, give me the pills.

But what you're saying is that the benefit of that is probably overstated for marketing purposes. And to really achieve the help that we need to achieve to prevent cardiac disease is going to take a lifestyle change. And it sounds like, based on what you're saying, that the mindfulness, the relaxation, the stress relief, it is stress that big of a factor in someone's heart? I mean, I can see if they're eating the wrong thing, if they're eating fast food, if they're sitting on the couch. I can see a direct relationship to the physical symptoms based on physical actions. activities or decisions that we make for better or for worse. I believe in a spirit, mind, body connection, but maybe you can help us understand how mindfulness and de-stressifying ourselves

actually has an effect on the heart muscle. Absolutely. So 50% of the heart issues like attacks have been attributed to faulty diets. okay and stress like so i just put the other part is like the stress part because the mind plays a very big important role so what happens in a heart attack is there has to be like kind of a blockage in the artery then there has to be like a constriction you know so like the the vessels have to constrict and that happens in acute stress like stress increases the chances by like 400 you know so it's it's very very important you know so people have like acute emotional

stress, financial stress. You must have even seen people like, like even their favorite sports team loses. You know, some people get heart attack. Oh, like, yeah, I have witnessed that. Yeah, yeah. And I have seen people like, even in the serials, they are watching if their favorite character is like gone or dead.

I have seen people getting heart attacks. So it's like, yeah, like, you know, so the point is that stress definitely has a role to play. People are not understanding this. They are just taking it very light. So I have a simple mantra, which I say is like, hey, every moment is like a choice. You can choose to be like happy, calm, relaxed or you can choose to be irritated or whatever it is. You know, like we have a choice, right?

So it's just developing and cultivating this one simple thing that, hey, every moment is a choice, whether what I'm going to choose. So even if people start choosing that, hey, I choose to be calm, you know, they can. Put a sticky note, write it anywhere, like, you know, put a like a note in your car wherever that I choose to be, like, you know, calm or to be. I think that also like is a very small step, but a significant step to become stress-free and staying heart healthy. Yeah, wow. And that's incredible.

And it really underscores the importance of building the business you need so you can live the life you want. If the business you have built, the model that you're following is causing you stress or it's putting you, your business is putting you in a position of being burned out or feeling stressed out, that can have an adverse effect on your heart health and on your physical health. And if you're not showing up, feeling good, you're not going to do good work. So here's yet another reason why and another motivation to design. the business you need so you can live the life you want and not cut your life short. And I forget the term, but there's a term that originated in Japan for people who overworked.

They worked themselves to death and having heart attacks at their desk. I don't know what it's called. It's not Kaizen. Kaysen is never ending improvement. This would be whatever the reverse of that would be. it's dying from overwork. Too many entrepreneurs are kind of in that risk category if they're not careful. You're right.

Like, as I was sharing with you about the stress, like I have people from the stock exchange, you know, when their stocks crash, then they have problems. Then we have this Friday night's movie. Anything happens to producers. You know, it's like so real because we see all this things happening. And I always tell the entrepreneurs that to have, that balance. And the worst thing I have seen is that irregular eating, people just don't want to eat because I have this meeting, that meeting. So we have to have this analogy of a car

that you just can't keep on running your car without filling in the gas, you know. You somewhere have to give it a break and also. Unfortunately, you know, we are not treating our bodies like with that preciousness. You know, we are just like kind of. So I always say that it requires a lot of hard work in the wrong direction to get a heart attack, you know. Because heart is the most powerful and resilient organ, which keeps on, like, you know, suffering silently till really you have to, let's say, like, you have to push very hard, actually, to get a heart attack, you know. Well, that's good news.

So it doesn't happen by accident. You have to do a lot of things wrong for a long period of time. Yeah, for 15, 20, 25 years. It's like a long time you get. So that's why typically I also work with a group who is young like in the 20s, 30s, because that is my favorite group, which is primary prevention, that, hey, why don't you build the right habits right now? So that because when they did some research studies,

they found in the postmortem of this young people between 20 to 30 years, the plaques were developing in that, them too. So it's not that when you're getting a blockade, say at 50 or 60, or 60 or 65, at 90% something has happened overnight. And people don't know that. We merely eat those fries and burgers and all those kind of things and they're nicely floating inside and getting deposited over the years. But because we don't have something to see.

For skin, we take so much of care because you want to go and show everyone. I sometimes feel I wish I had a meter to show people, you know, hey, this is where your fries are going, you know. Check it out with you. That's a really good way of looking at it. So I think a good way to think about this is I use Star Trek a lot as an analogy. And you've got the medical officer, you know, Dr. McCoy. You got James Kirk, who's the captain and he's running the ship.

And he's, you know, he's just taking care of what needs to be taking care of. But the interesting thing is that there is a health protocol on the enterprise, and that means that the doctor can say to the captain, you've got to stop. You've got to lay down. You've got to go to sick bay. And I can take the doctor can take him out of command for a medical purpose. What that tells me is there's a health protocol that all of us need to be fun. following. And even if you're trying to build a business, if you're trying to build an organization, whatever it is you're trying to accomplish in life, there's a health protocol that is, that takes

preeminence over anything else that you're trying to build or do. Because why would they put that in place? Because if the captain of the ship has a heart attack, they can't fulfill their mission. And you can't fulfill your mission in life if you don't pay attention to the health So we need to set those things up and say, this is my health protocol. This is my morning routine. This is my diet, my exercise regimen. Here's what I'm going to do, regardless of how busy I get, regardless of how many trips I'm on, or whatever is coming up in my life. This has to be the priority so I can fulfill my mission and my purpose in life.

Does that a good analogy? Does that make sense? I really appreciate this, Ralph, because I'm a big fan of Captain Gordon's. Oh, good. I completely agree with this and that's exactly what we do in our in-person and online programs that I put all this pieces of puzzle in place because we have group programs but I also do a lot of because there are a lot of people who are like very busy and like you know they want one-on-one so I do that one-on-one coaching also where I give them as for their lifestyle and what they want

to achieve like a protocol like a heart-healthy protocol and the good part is that that whatever we do in this protocol is for everything for prevention of cancer. It's overall preventative protocol for a longevity blueprint. It's something like that, you know. Yeah. And so this is something which is very, very important that we can only fulfill our mission in business if our heart and health is in place. So I agree with you.

That's right. Well, good. So now the question becomes what needs to go into that protocol? And that's what you help people to figure out. But what are a couple of things, a couple of suggestions you can give people that would get them moving in the right direction that they can begin to implement that's really simple right now? Sure. So most important, as I told you, that is your diet because 50% like diet is responsible. So like faulty diet.

So simple thing is just cutting out all the processed foods which is there, you know. So anything which is processed with all the preservatives and all, everything to cut down. and go more for plant-based foods. I'm not like, yeah, though there are a lot of research studies which talk totally that you have to go 100% plant-based and give up total meat, but I know it's not practicable and feasible for most of people. So what we can do is that limit the intake

and at least even if we can increase the plant-based food choices, that would is great. Then second, as I told you, is about your mind. because that's most important. So how you are, I always, again, I'm telling us about the morning routine that when most of the people get up and check their phones, you know, like, oh, I start responding to the emails and social media and who has liked and all that stuff. So I said, no, the first one hour is to your own self because you're telling, you're telling a universe that I am the most important person and I have to fortify myself. So getting into the little bit of meditation and silence and, you know, gratitude and journaling and all those things. So having a good routine is very important.

Sleeping is very important. Like at least catching six hours minimum of sleep because reduction in sleep also is linked to diabetes and heart issues and also checking on the sleep is important. If people are super busy, some people in business are traveling, you know, they can take some power naps. in between. There are a lot of relaxation exercises. But keeping that mindfulness, as I told you, that making a simple choice that, hey, I am going to respond and not react because we are always triggered and we are reacting, you know. So that is something which people can make choices. And finally, I always recommend that how much ever fit, great you may be, screening is most important because I have seen athletes very, very fit people apparently looking like a poster

boy suddenly collapsing with a cardiac arrest. So you never know what's going inside. And that's how I help people like, you know, getting to the root cause, identifying the risk factors and then, you know, designing that life. And we also have something where if someone wants to like, as I told you, our mission is to eradicate heart problem, we also work with a device which increases the blood flow. So, you know, like, it's like, if you have like, how in California, we have so many freeways. So, so when you have this freeways, if there is a traffic jam on the main, you can use the alternate roads. The same way, in our heart, we have got the main three arteries. But then if we built up a lot of collaterals, then say, God forbid, because of some reason,

even if one gets attacked, the muscle is preserved, you know? So the whole idea is that, that having like a good, like how we do business planning, we do the heart health planning, that how can we create a robust routine and, you know, a robust blueprint of what I call healthy heart blueprint so that, you know, you don't succumb to heart problems. Wonderful. Yeah, well, it makes sense. I mean, if you have a business plan, why not have a heart health plan? Sure. Well, now that you mention it, that actually makes a whole lot of of sense. How can people get in touch with you to find out more about your services, either there in San Diego or to connect with you online for your online programs?

So basically, I have a website, which is a GFFPC.org, or I can, there's a number which is directly, which many times becomes easier, which is 909-670-613H. One can text or just call and leave a voicemail or like, you know, so just get in touch quickly. That's the fastest way if someone needs help. And yeah, we are, and most important is that we always are very clear and ethical that we just want to help people who are the right fit.

So we just like first talk and find out what they're looking forward from us. And if we believe that we can help them, then only we engage. Otherwise, we just don't want to like kind of, you know, like because we are not like a typical like how you have this medical okay paper time and all that so people are very like worried you know that hey whether i should call up or not so but we we are not that we want to genuinely help people so that's the reason we just talk and first find out what are their needs and then if we can help them then we start the process wonderful so we'll have that link

on the website as well it's jffpc dot oorg and that stands for the global foundation for preventative cardiology. This has really been interesting because it makes me think, hmm, I need to up my game in this area. I need a better health, heart health protocol, and I need to make sure that I'm doing everything I can so I can live the life I want to live while I'm building the business to give me more life that I'm not, my business isn't killing me in the process. And I think that's probably the number one entrepreneurial challenge for everyone that's listening. So especially the older that we get.

So I appreciate you sharing your wisdom with us today. Any final thoughts or words of wisdom that you'd like to leave our listeners with? Yes. Since I also an entrepreneur and we are talking to all great business builders over here, there is one verse from like our scriptures in India. which is the Bhagwad Gita, which is very much applicable if we can, which is like the Sanskrit word is, Karmadi Warris,

Karshma for Leshoshu Kadajanum. It means literally that you just do your duty to your best ability and don't be attached to the results of the outcome. You're getting me? Most of the business people are getting stressed. I'm doing this. I'm doing this. I'm doing that.

But I'm not getting this. You know, like they are constantly stressed out. So to make this whole business. and entrepreneurial journey fun. The best is like every day just show up, put in your best foot forward, work, and just don't be attached to the results, you know? Just introspect, reflect, evaluate.

Next day, just make yourself better, you know? So I've been following that all my life and that keeps me stress-free because I have to walk the talk. Excellent words of advice. Fall in love with the process, not with the outcome. And then the outcome will be the result of, of your of your process. So Dr. Gandhi,

thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today. I really appreciate it. Thank you. You've been listening to Rebelpreneur Radio with Ralph Brogden. Download the show notes and much more at Rebelpreneur.com.