Let Food Be Thy Medicine: Shefaly Ravula, PA-C Explains How Diet Can Help Heal Cancer Patients
Speaker 1:
Welcome back to the Armor Men’s Health Hour with Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee.
Dr. Mistry:
Hello and welcome to the Armor Men’s Health Hour. I’m Dr. Mistry, your host, here with my bubbly, effervescent, and wonderfully can’t-do-withoutable office manager, Donna Lee.
Donna Lee:
That’s me. Hello. So effervescent, so bubbly.
Dr. Mistry:
Hello everyone. Many thanks to KLBJ news radio and all of our wonderful staff here for helping us put on this show. This is a men’s health show. I’m a board certified urologist. That is a doctor or a surgeon who treats genitourinary conditions of the prostate, kidney, kidney stones, low testosterone, hormones, wellness. We do so much great stuff here, right, Donna Lee?
Donna Lee:
And ding-a-ling and yum yums.
Dr. Mistry:
Ding-a-ling and yum yums. One of the big reasons that we’ve decided to bring this show to the community is to really highlight a different way of thinking about your health, thinking about how even a surgeon and, you know, maybe in the community, you may not know, but in the medical profession, the internal medicine doctors are considered the smart ones who are more honest about, and the surgeons are just cutters. As a urologist, I get to thread that needle because I’m, you know…
Donna Lee:
Do both?
Dr. Mistry:
…both the genius and…
Donna Lee:
…a cutter?
Dr. Mistry:
…and I get to cut people.
Donna Lee:
And that’s not a teenage disfunction [inaudible] actual surgeon.
Dr. Mistry:
One of the great things about our practice is how incredibly diverse it is. I think that you would rarely find as intensive of a nutrition program in a medical practice, forget about just a surgical practice. What we really strive to achieve is a whole body approach to different medical conditions. Today, we are joined by Shefaly Ravula. She is a physician assistant and she is our functional nutrition provider here at our practice. Thank you for joining us.
Shefaly Ravula:
Thank you for having me. I’m super excited and slightly nervous.
Dr. Mistry:
Well, no reason, no reason to be nervous. Shefaly is a humongous addition to our practice. Not only is she a food writer for the Austin American Statesman, she does cooking shows and is a trained medical provider. So someone who really understands the connection between nutrition and health and wellness.
Shefaly Ravula:
Thank you for having me. And I used to write for the Statesman. I don’t anymore, but I dable here and there.
Donna Lee:
She’s got the street cred. You said huge, but she’s super skinny.
Dr. Mistry:
She is tiny.
Shefaly Ravula:
Which might be challenging for our patients to believe me.
Dr. Mistry:
It is very easy to talk to people and for them to accept on a superficial level, that what we put in our body can affect our health. That’s easy for people to believe. Somehow it’s hard for people to believe that if they change what they’re putting in their body, that it can affect their body system. Shefaly, why don’t you tell me what are some of the triggers that really inspire somebody to change the way they’re eating or their lifestyle?
Shefaly Ravula:
Certainly in the medical world, a new diagnosis. A new diagnosis is like a pain point. It’s a new pain point, especially if it’s a chronic illness. So to me, you know, if, if you don’t have a pain point or a really just a pain point, then you’re going to have a really hard time being motivated and coached by anybody, including yourself to make those changes. So…
Dr. Mistry:
Because transition points are really an opportunity for you to really re-examine what you’ve done. You know, smokers often don’t stop smoking until they get a bad illness. People who are overweight often will wait until they have some kind of chronic illness, which is really a shame, because sometimes you’ve waited too long.
Shefaly Ravula:
Absolutely. I mean, another example is just from, in my prior experience with fatty liver patients, you know–until they’ve been told they have fatty liver or even cirrhosis is when they either first hear about alcohol reduction or they’ve heard all along, but that’s when they actually do it.
Dr. Mistry:
It is a real struggle to get people, to make lifestyle changes when they’re not having a specific pain point, unless you’re particularly motivated that way. You know, as a medical professional, I have to give out pain points every day.
Shefaly Ravula:
That’s right.
Dr. Mistry:
I’ve got to tell people they have low testosterone. I’ve got to tell people that they have interstitial cystitis. And then of course, cancer diagnosis are a big part of our everyday here.
Shefaly Ravula:
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, bandaid medicine is, you know, it’s not what I want to call what we do in the medical field. I mean, we need this Western approach, this evidence based medicine, and we have a role of course, for this kind of medical care. But I’d like us to see in this country a better approach to chronic disease and chronic illness, which takes a lot of work. It’s a work on a provider and more work for the patient.
Dr. Mistry:
So I’m a big believer in philosophy guiding practices. If you were just to kind of generalize the nutritional approach to cancer diagnosis. And nobody here is talking about not doing traditional therapy. You know, if you have prostate cancer, take your doctor’s advice. But every single one of my patients, literally the second I diagnose them, the first question they ask is what should I eat? It’s on the very forefront of their minds. So how would you explain kind of your philosophy or your approach to cancer nutrition?
Shefaly Ravula:
Okay. So…
Donna Lee:
It sounds like a lot.
Shefaly Ravula:
Yeah. There’s a lot. There’s a lot there and I, you know, you can generalize diets for the masses. It would be hard. Everybody knows to eat clean and eat vegetables for the most part. If you look at all the diets out there, Paleo vegetarian, vegan, Keto…I mean, most of them don’t disagree on vegetables.
Dr. Mistry:
And clean foods, we’re really talking about things that are minimally processed. So whole foods.
Shefaly Ravula:
Whole foods. So not like a broccoli chip, but just broccoli please. Or you know, all those kinds of things out there. So the reason your patients are gonna ask you first and foremost, “What can I eat?” is because patients need to feel empowered. They’ve been given diagnosis by somebody else it’s totally out of their control. This goes for everything, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, whatnot. They are going to ask their doctor because who else can they ask? They don’t, you don’t go to a nutritionist for a well-check. You go to your doctor. So they’re going to ask you. And so luckily now, you know, incorporate culinary, cooking classes, culinary medicine, into their programs, more and more, but certainly when you and I went, when I went to PA school, when you went to med school, nutrition was like two hours of your, you know, education…nothing.
Dr. Mistry:
There’s a lot of reasons for it. You know, you know, how doctors are paid, what we know. And then, how much can we really try to turn the patient’s viewpoint? So, you know, when somebody comes to me with an enlarged prostate, I know that I can recommend, you know, 10 times out of 10 prostate surgery is going to help you pee better, and I’m going to feel very confident that’s gonna work. But I’m not as confident that if I send somebody for weight loss counseling, they’re going to follow through. And I think it’s people being disappointed with our patients follow through that, discourages us to keep going, but that’s never been my philosophy. I’m always a big fan of the one person that decides to go through the therapy. And, when it comes to cancer eating, a lot of them are very motivated to lose weight prior to surgery, but it’s the maintenance of some kind of lifestyle. And if it’s too drastic, they, a lot of people can’t stick with it. So maybe, cite like some guiding principles that are, that people can easily kind of think about when they approach a cancer diet.
Shefaly Ravula:
Sure. So I think the first thing I would say, you can say this the moment you see them in the office is start eating cruciferous vegetables every single day.
Dr. Mistry:
That’s a big word.
Shefaly Ravula:
Yes. So they’re a part of the brassica family and, they just all cruciferous vegetables–so this is kale, broccoli, cauliflower, bok choy, arugala, I’m missing a big one here, couple other ones in that class–if you can eat that every day, you know, a good handful or two servings, just put that…We should all be doing this, this is preventative anti-cancer therapy, truly. So I would suggest, you know, just tell your patients, “Start, you wanna, you want to do something you want, you want some power empowerment? Do you want to take charge and put, be in control a little bit? Start eating blueberries and broccoli every single day.”
Dr. Mistry:
Can you make me a salad?
Donna Lee:
A blueberry salad?
Dr. Mistry:
A blueberry and broccoli salad.
Shefaly Ravula:
Well, there you go. And so that’s another thought of, you know, where I love to think about is…
Dr. Mistry:
Are brussels sprouts healthy for you? Cause I really can’t tolerate that.
Shefaly Ravula:
Yes. That’s the one I was thinking of.
Donna Lee:
Aww. All guys hate brussels sprouts. I love brussels sprouts.
Shefaly Ravula:
Have you had them at Uchiko yet?
Dr. Mistry:
It just takes us right back, it just takes me back to my childhood. Oh my goodness.
Shefaly Ravula:
And the idea is that you’re reducing inflammation. So antiinflammatory diet is huge.
Dr. Mistry:
And I think that that is, you know, if I had to really encapsulate what approach is to so many disease processes, it’s this idea that inflammation is a central core component of many things: cancer, heart disease, high cholesterol, weight. And by reducing the inflammatory response in our body, I think that we can reduce rashes, irritable bowel, cancer diagnosis and progression, and so I I’m really proud of the approach that we’re taking together when it comes to nutrition. And I think that if you’re out there and you’ve been diagnosed with cancer, whether it be prostate cancer, kidney cancer, or another type of cancer, and you haven’t been given guidance on what to put in your body…because you know, what we put in our body has to have some impact in what’s going on with us in terms of our health, even if it’s cancer. It’s not just always just bad luck, right? And so if you’ve, if you’ve been diagnosed and you want some guidance, we would highly encourage you to come in and visit with us. You don’t have to have a urologic condition per se, to be able to visit with visit with Shefaly or our team. And she can see you directly. She’s a physician assistant. She has incredible medical training, worked in oncology, worked in GI medicine, and now very happy to have your here in urology.
Shefaly Ravula:
Super excited.
Donna Lee:
Yeah, thank you for joining us.
Dr. Mistry:
How do people get ahold of us?
Donna Lee:
Well, if we had time, they would call us at (512) 238-0762 and they can send us an email at armormenshealth.com. Thanks, y’all!
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The Armor Men’s Health Hour is brought to you by Urology Specialists. For questions, or to schedule an appointment, please call (512) 238-0762 or online at armormenshealth.com.