July 6, 2021 - EyeClarity Podcast
For today’s episode, I got to talk with Dr. Monisha Bhanote.
Dr. Monisha Bhanote is a quadruple board-certified physician with 20+ years in health care. She has expertise in Integrative Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Anatomic/Clinical Pathology. She is a sought-after health and wellness expert providing both speaking and written commentary to multiple news media outlets and publications. Known as a health and wellness expert, she has been featured in publications such as in “Shape magazine,” “Mind Body Green,” “Martha Stewart Living,” “Popsugar,” “Bustle,” “HealthCentral,” “Insider,” “Prevention magazine,” and “Healthline,” amongst others. She is the founder of the Holistic Well-being Collective and continues to practice, write, and teach.
Her mission is to support a holistic approach to well-being, health, and happiness by empowering health coaches and wellpreneurs with confidence, clarity, and community through evidence-based knowledge.
Instagram: @drbhanote Website: https://www.drbhanote.com/
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, pathologist, diagnoses, body, individuals, eating, practice, anatomy, cellular, doctor, board-certified physician, called, medicine, microbiome, incorporate, integrative medicine, happening, important, training, years
00:05
Hello, everyone, its Dr. Sam, I’d like to welcome you to my EyeClarity podcast. This is a show that offers cutting-edge information on how to improve your vision and overall wellness through holistic methods. I so appreciate you spending part of your day with me. If you have questions you can send them to Hello@drsamberne.com. Now to the latest EyeClarity episode. Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam and I want to welcome you to another EyeClarity podcast. So we have a very special guest today. She’s a physician. Her name is Dr. Monisha Bhanote, and I met Dr. Bhanote on clubhouse and was very impressed with her information. So I wanted to bring her on. But a little background about her. She is a quadruple board certified physician with over 20 years of healthcare experience. She has expertise in integrative medicine, internal medicine, and something I’m interested in because I studied this in optometry school, anatomic and clinical pathology. I’m very excited because she just shared with me she has a new book that’s going to be coming out in the fall called the anatomy of well being. She also is training holistic health coaches. And we’ll talk about that as well in many other subjects. So Dr. Bhanote, I want to welcome you. And my first question is, what drew you to researching and studying anatomic and clinical pathology? I’m really curious about that.
01:58
Yeah. So thank you, Sam, for having me on your podcast today. And yes, it’s been great meeting you on clubhouse and connecting since then. So I think what drew me to anatomic and clinical pathology is my training where I did my medical school training, I actually trained in Europe, and they are very grounded in the basic sciences. So I had extensive background in anatomy, histology and the functioning of the body. And, you know, when I came out of medical school, I did, I did what I thought was a traditional route of going into internal medicine and taking care of patients, however, that the system that I was working in did was not quite working for me in the sense of I felt like I was helping people. So I actually then explored other opportunities and went into pathology because it’s such a complex study of the human body. And there’s so much to know that I knew that I was not only not ever going to be able to learn everything, but at the same time, I was still going to be able to help people by giving them definitive answers. So people don’t really know that pathologists are actually physicians working with other physicians, they’re the physicians who actually have the answers in the sense that they make the diagnoses off of the human tissue and human cells and blood. They’re the ones who are making the diagnoses. So then the other clinicians, like the oncologist, the gastroenterologist, pulmonologist can then treat the patients. So yeah, it’s a really fascinating field actually. It’s like a doctor’s doctor.
03:58
Exactly, yeah. And just being able to look under the microscope and see what’s going on on a cellular level, you know, and I, in my practice, I talk a lot about cellular health, and that’s where it starts. So in your practice, what are you seeing these days in terms of, you know, the health challenges, you know, and how are you? How are you helping people tell us a little bit about your practice?
04:24
Yeah, so I work. So I actually, since I do semi certifications, I work both as a pathologist and as an integrative medicine physician. So my pathology side is still looking under the microscope you know, anywhere from looking at individuals, pap smears to see the cellular changes that are happening from you know, something that’s women might be familiar with this something that’s called a typical in their pap smear to something that’s called low grade dysplasia to carcinoma. So I Basically not only watched it happen, but this is what I’m diagnosing. And then you know, you can be as complex as diagnosing breast cancers, I also have a breast cancer fellowship. But then in my practice, what I’m doing is I’m really working with the clients, and there will be a puppy appearing here, because she’s just is grabbing my attention. So I’m, in my private practice of integrative medicine, what I’m doing is I am working with clients, for them to understand how the human body works, what they can actually do to make changes and how their daily activities actually make changes in their body. So whether they are living a sedentary life, and feeling joint pains and aches versus whether they are, you know, eating on the go, and, you know, kind of sewers of every fast food restaurant, and how that impacts their bodies design, really. So this is what I’m working with them. And then of course, many people come to me from seeing doctors for so many years, and not really having a whole body approach, you know, so including the person, the individual into participating in their care, rather than just saying, All right, here’s your diagnosis. This is a symptom, here’s a diagnosis, here’s your medication. That’s not my, my way of working. And I think that is what has made my practice thriving. You know, I don’t do any advertising for my practice, it’s all word of mouth and referrals. So
06:48
yeah, and I also think you are doing a great job on your digital branding. And you know, I follow you on Instagram, and you just have such great information and creates such value for people, and they just want more. And one of the areas that I’m really interested in is your, your, your training and culinary medicine. And I know you do a lot of posts on the importance of nutrition as medicine. Could you speak a little bit about that?
07:20
Yeah, yeah. Okay, so culinary medicine is a new and upcoming field. It is really bridging of the nutritional sciences with different diseases. And it’s taking an approach where, you know, we have certain palates that we are used to, we have certain cultures that we grew up in certain foods that we’re used to eating. So how can we take those foods, incorporate them into our lifestyles to also prevent disease or reverse disease. And the beauty behind it is that there’s evidence behind it, that the different foods you eat, how they impact certain diseases, especially the chronic diseases that we are seeing, you know, when one in four millennials has a chronic disease, that’s concerning. And, for me, my interest really lies and that I see these changes in their not only their outwardly function of individuals, but their inner when we start changing what they’re eating, you know, they come to me fatigued, irritable, Moody, you know, and they’re just shocked. I mean, they’re shocked when we we start slow, it’s not like are all of a sudden we go from what they’re doing to, you know, the complete opposite end. But that even that gradual transition. They’re the individuals that I work with their hope that comes out of that, that feeling of now I could actually do something. Okay, now I’m understanding. The best question I get is, Why didn’t anybody ever tell me this? You know, what, why didn’t I learn this in school? And, you know, Why didn’t anybody tell me that my protein bars and my, you know, drive home? You know, picking up fast food was going to impact how I’m feeling today. You know, Why didn’t anybody tell me that? You know, my Yeah, well, we know about the sunbathing and the years of being in the sun now, but, you know, why did anybody tell me that, you know, the sedentary life, you know, actually would make my joints hurt, you know, that, you know, called all these things. It’s, you know, we know what we know from our family members, from our friends from, from the community that we live in, right. So, without having that guidance from others. We don’t really know We’re doing anything wrong until we actually have to go to the doctors, because now we don’t know what to do.
10:06
Sure. Yeah. And you know, we, it’s the symptoms that kind of bring us to a doctor. And then again, there’s such a split because in allopathic medicine, that’s the fixated model with pharmaceutical drugs and surgery. And you know, sometimes you need that. But I think what you’re offering and you know, I offer this too, is, you know, we’re looking at the whole body and not just the symptoms. And I talk, I talk a lot about the importance of the microbiome and gut health. And I know you are very interested in the microbiome, give us your perspective on how to cultivate your microbiome and how how important it is, in the overall scheme of things.
10:51
Yeah, so for me, it’s a matter of not only diversity of the foods that you eat, when you think about 21 meals, most people are eating pretty much the same two or three breakfasts a two or three lunch, you know, two or three dinners for years, and years and years, okay, so that diversity does not increase in your gut microbiome, right? So you’re, you’re kind of maintaining the same bacteria. And those are crowding out maybe like, especially if you have a poor diet, they might crowd out the good gut bacteria. But when I see it, and I examine individuals, I’m looking at their anti oxidant levels, their vitamin levels. Alright, this one is, it’s play time over here. So. So this, so what I’m looking at is their antioxidant levels, their vitamin levels, and mineral levels, their omega levels, their need for probiotics, digestive enzymes, and I find that most people are deficient in the basic components to make their cells function. And when these symptoms appear, I call them angry cells, they’re basically angry, and they’re showing up as symptoms. When when I do do this testing, and I show that and I’m very thorough, because I’m trained as a pathologist and a clinical pathologist, part of that is laboratory evaluation. Okay, so not only have I written standard operating procedures for laboratories, but you know, and validating these tests, I feel that I can then explain the test, as opposed to saying, Oh, this is abnormal, this is low, this is abnormal. That’s it, but I really try and explain it in a perspective of how is it impacting your body? And I, and I, you know, I see, when we start, you know, something that you’d be surprised? Well, not really, maybe you wouldn’t be surprised, but many people would be surprised that how low we know people are low in vitamin D, but low in magnesium, you know, and magnesium is covering over 300 cellular reactions in our body, right. So there’s simple ways of incorporating magnesium rich foods. So nuts and seeds being one of them. So we definitely talk about that we talked about how to incorporate it, if targeted supplementation is necessary, we go that direction, but and I do show, you know, I will pull up chemical reactions. And I you know, I warn them, I’m like, Okay, this is gonna take you back to your chemistry classes. Mind you, I do have a chemistry degree. doesn’t scare me, but you know, it, sometimes people are like, Whoa, I didn’t realize this is what was actually happening in my body. And that, to me, that method has been more effective for having the individual make their own change, then the method that I had practice 20 plus years ago, doing internal medicine, where they would come to my, you know, the clinic, and I would give them a drug, send them home, and then come back a month later, and nothing would change. You know, so to me, this is how medicine should be. This is the future of medicine. This is what we should have been doing all along. And, you know, when I trained that long ago, it wasn’t something that was commonplace and it’s only in the last decade that I feel that has become more in the forefront. It’s still a work in progress. But I think people are beginning to realize it now because not that there’s anything wrong with it. conventional medicine, it’s absolutely necessary. You know, I’m not gonna say it’s not, it’s if a patient comes to me with cancer, radiation, chemo surgery, yes, that’s what we’re going to do. But there’s additional things we can do to improve the quality of life, make your body work better. So,
15:21
you know, you validate something really important to my community, because when people contact me, and they’re losing their eyesight, you know, it’s an awakening for them. And I say to them, well, we have to start on a cellular level, and build that if you don’t have that foundation, we can do the fanciest, you know, therapy in the world, and it’s not going to change anything. And this is also in my pediatric practice as well. Because what you’re spotlighting here is so important for people to know like to be able to improve cellular absorption, the detoxification pathways. And so I’m so excited that you’re, you’re sharing this with our community. And I’m here with Dr. Manish Manisha up a note who is a Board Certified physician. And by the way, she has a new book coming out in the fall called the anatomy of well being, can you tell us a little bit about that I’m really excited to, to know about it,
16:29
the anatomy of wellbeing is my compilation of how the human body works, what we do to impact it, and how we can make changes to address it. So it’s really, you know, I know not everybody has access to it, integrative medicine provider, I know not everybody has access to pathologists, and not everybody has access to me. And with that, I wanted to compile some of the most important things that I think everybody should know about, not only how their body works, but what they can do to make their body work even better. So in this book, I have provided an each chapter there is different anatomy points, different things about how different organs in your body function, how different cells function, what they need to function adequately, optimally. And then some specific intentional practices really to, to take those habits, those daily habits that we have, and make them more intentional. And, and that’s, you know, people don’t realize we kind of give up our choice when you were just kind of mindlessly living through life. So there’s, how do we approach that intentionality? How do we change a habit to a ritual, and then specific ones that are beneficial, and some that people probably have not heard of? I mean, many, many people know about, you know, drinking warm lemon water, well, warm lemon water doesn’t work for everybody, you know, some people aggravates reflux. So really understanding your body, your body’s design, how its unique. What you need to function, you know, so that’s what it’s about. I’m excited about it.
18:28
Yeah, I am, too. So we’ll let us know when you, you know, when you put it out. So we’re coming down to the end of our interview. But I wanted to know about your program with the training health coaches. speak about that, let us know about about your program.
18:50
Yeah. So my program is what I envision. So being that 95% of health happens outside of a doctor’s office, you know, it’s happening in between your doctor’s appointment, so you go to your doctor’s appointment once a year, and that’s where life and health is happening. And when individuals go home, they’re a little lost, confused, not sure where to take this, like what is actually going to make a difference, besides the fact that my book will help. But in addition to that, I’m working with health coaches, because they can be the bridge between the appointments and what’s happening in the house between the doctor right, so they can provide the guidance and the tools to make these intentional practices part of a lifestyle because it’s really not what we do some of the day, but what we do, like not what we do some of the time, but what we do most of the time, that is the sum of all of our parts and that’s what’s going to make right so my goal is to have a community of health coaches that are trained at a really superior level. I know that the health coaching industry is booming. But what happens is, they come out of their six-month 12-month programs, and now they’re entering a world where I don’t think you can really comprehend how the human body works in that amount of time. Yes, there’s a difference between coaching and coaching is in itself one thing, but then you also need to understand why you’re coaching it, how to ask the right questions, how to direct them in the right way. And so I apply it similarly to how you go to medical school. And when you finish medical school, you don’t come out and all of a sudden be a doctor. Yes, you’re a doctor, but you go into residency, and then you fine-tune that a little bit more into fellowship. So my program is basically a finishing school or a residency of sorts for holistic health coaches, the ones who want to take that whole-body approach, the ones that really want to understand what’s going on in the body, and really incorporate that to really make a change for their clients. So yeah, so it’s finishing school to residency call it what you may the program’s called up a level. And it’s really to take them to that next level.
21:32
That’s fantastic. And, you know, I talked to so many people on social media that are looking for somebody who can help them in integrative medicine and holistic health. So the fact that you’re going to be doing this will be great benefit to many, many people. So how can people get in touch with you? What’s the best way for them to connect?
22:01
Yeah, so I’m, I can be easily found on Instagram. So it’s just Dr. Benoit crbh a, and ot E. My website is also the same Dr. Bennett calm, so super easy to find. Those are my two main places on Facebook, it’s still Dr. burnout. So really quite easy. I have, you know, the information I put up both on my social media and on my website has been verified by me. I mean, I don’t have people who are putting up random posts, people ask me, like, who’s making your posts, I do each and every one of them. Because to me, it is very important to make sure that the information that is going out there is as medically correct evidence-based, I’m not misguiding. So that that that that has always been a big thing for me, because there is a lot of misinformation coming out there. And not only from, you know, the general public, but also from some professionals. So I make sure that what I’m putting up there is as accurate as I can find it to be
23:16
with the research, I want to you know, I want to Ditto that because you know, I follow you on Instagram, and I can tell that you are the source, you’re putting it out there. And I’m the same way I’m writing all my copy and doing all my blogs. And that way we know that it’s verified, but your wealth of information. And I’d like to have you back on when you have your book come out. So we’ll stay in touch. But I want to thank you so much for your generosity of spirit and coming on today and just the work that you do. Thanks so much for sharing your information with us. Thank you, Sam, for having me. Thank you for listening. I hope you learned something from the EyeClarity podcast show today. If you enjoyed the episode, make sure to subscribe on iTunes or Spotify and leave a review. see you here next time.
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