Dr. Rajan Popat, an emergency room doctor for over 23 years, provided a different perspective on healthcare during his program at the Sept. 23 Learning Lunch hosted by the Polk County Chamber of Commerce.
“Since I started treating patients in the emergency room in Livingston over three years ago, I immediately felt connected to the people and wanted to continue to serve the community of Livingston so I opened Precise Urgent Care next to HEB,” Popat said.
“Seventy percent of people take a pill every day and 93% of people have some metabolically unhealthy condition. Why do we have high blood pressure? Why do we take our gall bladders out? There are so many auto-immune diseases today. Auto-immune is when the body attacks itself. Why is the body attacking itself? We take melatonin, calcium, magnesium. Why? We didn’t need these 300 years ago,” Popat said.
He explained that humans have been around for a couple hundred thousand years as a species and were hunters and gatherers who learned to breed in captivity and plant food in one area.
“We got regular sleep because we went to bed when the sun went down and got up when the sun came up. Exercise was a part of life. The turning point was after the Civil War. Electricity was invented. Food became abundant,” Popat said.
“We’re not born with malfunction. Genetics, decisions and exposures are what affect us. Some we can’t control. Some we can. Common illnesses are depression, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, cancer, lupus, dementia, heart disease, reflux, eczema and constipation. When you go to the doctor they check your blood pressure, check your weight, check for cancer screening. Do they ask, ‘How are you pooping?’ Are you asked to bring a one-month food diary? Are you asked where you live? Are you asked to sit on the floor? Because if you can get up with just one hand, there’s a greater change you won’t go into a nursing home later,” Popat said.
“We wait for things to happen and then we act on it. What should we do? Take control. Eat more fiber, take a walk instead of that last Netflix show. There’s a reason for everything we have going on. Understand the toxins: sugar, alcohol, tobacco and flour. At the bare minimum, walk 20 minutes daily,” Popat said, adding, “Get closer to what it was like before electricity.
“The dementia that started at 70 actually started at 40. The heart attack you had at 50 actually started at 30. The hypertension that started at 40 actually started at 25. Health issues start five to 15 years before they show up,” he said.
“I’m seeing things in kids that I didn’t see – when I was training – until 50-year-olds. Is it reversible? Yes. The exponential increase is disease after the Civil War is because we’ve equated common to normal. The same thing that causes blood pressure causes cancer. It’s a malfunction. Seventy percent of our immune system lies in our gut,” he said.
“Where to start? Replace the bad with the good. Get rid of the sugar and the ultra-processed foods and your body starts healing within hours,” Popat said.
“Every single chronic illness in the country is tied to what I call the four pillars – food, sleep, stress and exercise; yet we manage it with pills, life hacks and supplements. The cure is the prevention,” Popat said, adding, “In an ideal world, most of us doctors shouldn’t have a job.”
