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Maggie McKay: When it comes to treating your whole body in person, sometimes combining Western medicine with a holistic approach can be the way to go. Simran Keshwani is our guest today and will tell us more about the mind-body connection and why it matters.

Welcome to Top Docs. I'm Maggie McKay. Simran Keshwani is the founder and owner of Tremedy Integrative Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, here to tell us about her practice and the mind-body connection. Welcome, Simran. Will you please introduce yourself?

Simran Keshwani: Hi. Thank you for having me on here. It's a pleasure. So, I'm a nutritionist. I got my bachelor's in biology from Georgia State in hopes of pursuing medical school. I started working in the healthcare field and was a little discouraged just by the lack of holistic and just all around encompassing care. I feel like there was a true, true lack of it, and it kind of discouraged me from pursuing medical school. I had a change of heart and decided to go to grad school, pursued my degree in medical nutrition, where I was first introduced to integrative medicine and its amazing treatment modalities. And from that point on, I decided that I wanted to have a clinic that provided these services to people that was so, so needed. So, that's kind of how I founded my company.

Maggie McKay: Simran, tell us how you got interested in this area of expertise to begin with. Was there one event?

Simran Keshwani: So, yes and no. I think initially my interests in healthcare kind of sparked when I was growing up, and so many of my family members and friends and their family members were diagnosed with chronic illnesses that just totally altered their quality of life. And I think every one of us can think of at least one individual who has been dealing with a chronic illness and just has been struggling and it's altered their life completely. So, I think that initially captivated my interest in healthcare.

Fast forward to when I was applying to medical school after graduation and taking my MCAT, I was working at a family medicine clinic and I got to really build relationships with my patients and really get to know them. And it was just so discouraging because they were all lovely people and almost all of them had a chronic illness, whether it be diabetes or hypertension, whether it be an autoimmune condition or just mental health illnesses like anxiety and depression. And unfortunately, we couldn't spend a lot of time with them in the exam room. And we couldn't really offer lifestyle interventions, nutritional intervention, nor any type of mental health intervention. And it was very discouraging. And so, that year when I worked in the family medicine clinic, it was so crucial in my career because it made me realize, if I was going to practice medicine, this was not the way to do it.

Maggie McKay: And what does Tremedy offer? What do you focus on?

Simran Keshwani: So, we focus on western medicine and we combine it with alternative therapies. And so, I think it's really important to keep in mind that all of integrative medicine's treatment modalities are rooted in scientific discoveries. So, our practitioners provide prescription and pharmaceutical medications as needed. But they focus more so on combining it with alternative therapies. So, just to name a few of them, it includes nutritional counseling, mental health counseling. The mind-gut connection is so, so important and prevalent and just completely overlooked, so those are really big services that we focus on. We offer IV therapy with a few different IV options. We offer acupuncture and we also offer meditation classes to just really help ground our patients. And when you are battling a chronic illness, your mental health is almost always on the line. So, it's so important to keep that in check while you are moving forward with a treatment plan.

Maggie McKay: Right. And you have a master's degree in medical nutrition. Can you explain what that is?

Simran Keshwani: Yeah. So, medical nutrition is slightly different from your standard degree in human nutrition. My curriculum had a lot of integrative medicine kind of woven into it, so that's when I was first introduced to it. And we went over a lot of acupuncture and what that does, a lot of the mind-gut connection. And it was just so in depth and encompassing and all these different treatment modalities that you don't see at a traditional doctor's office. So, I'm really honored that I got to pursue that degree and learn everything I knew.

Maggie McKay: And I love that you treat the entire person and not just separate parts. So, tell us about the Mind, Body and Spirit Masterclass. I'm dying to hear about this.

Simran Keshwani: Yeah. So, you know, we have a membership program and it includes seeing our provider. Our exams with the provider are more in depth, so our patients are spending anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes at every single appointment. And it really gives a provider and the patient an opportunity to build a relationship. They get to talk about their lifestyle and their relationships and how they're sleeping, how often they're working out and do they like their job, all these things that matter so much. Our membership also then includes nutritional counseling.

The goal is to get our patients to. have encompassing care. So, from that point, once they see a nutritionist, then they see a mental health counselor. And the whole goal of seeing a mental health counselor is to nurture that mind and body and gut connection that's so often overlooked. And I really wanted to create an environment where our patients could come and all aspects of them were catered to. So, that's why we have meditation classes. That goes a step further from mental health counseling, just an environment where somebody can come in and truly feel relaxed and get a grip on whatever it is they're dealing with.

Maggie McKay: I think that's great, especially now more than ever. It seems like people are so stressed out. It's so wonderful how passionate you are about combining Western and alternative medicine to get the most out of what you have to offer. Why do you believe so much in this approach?

Simran Keshwani: So, growing up my family members, my friends, my friends' family members, just so much chronic illness, and I'm sure we all know somebody that has been diagnosed with a total life-altering illness. And it's so discouraging when you go to a physician and they hand you medication and say, this is all they can do and you just kind of have to adjust to your new life now. But you know, I always felt like that can't be the only way, because essentially what that's doing is just putting a bandaid on a wound and the symptoms will come back if you don't get to the root cause of what the issue is. So, I think that initially sparked my interest in it and the more I started to dive into it, I just felt like that's how healthcare should be.

Maggie McKay: And let's talk about stress because that's a big one. How detrimental is that on the body? And tell us about the test you have for it or how you help with stress.

Simran Keshwani: Yeah, stress. So, everybody deals with stress, and it impacts so much from weight gain to appetite changes to fluctuations in your sleep cycle. I mean, the list goes on and on. And there really is no way to avoid stress, especially with everything going on in the world today. So, it's so important to understand, not only the effects of stress, but it's important to know that you can do something about it. This is not how it always has to be.

So, a very important test that we offer is the adrenal cortex stress test. So, what this does is a patient spits into a tube and we collect the patient's saliva throughout the day. And this test basically measures cortisol levels and will measure the spikes of the cortisol throughout the day. And so, what this does is it gives us an indication of how the HPA axis is functioning and how the adrenals are functioning in this patient's body.

So, a quick rundown, the HPA axis is a neuroendocrine mechanism, and what this does is it regulates stressors that we come into encounter with every single day. And it does this by regulating your metabolism, your immune function, your nervous system. So when you are constantly exposed to high cortisol levels and high stressors, your HPA axis starts to get suppressed. And when this starts to get suppressed, it becomes a problem. You start to experience chronic fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, depression, and that's when we start to see a lot of autoimmune conditions start to form. So, getting those cortisol levels below a certain level is very crucial.

And so, by analyzing these test results, we're then able to provide a treatment plan that includes more than medication, right? It includes adaptogens and nutritional interventions and stress management. And that's where our meditation classes come into play, our IV therapy comes into play, our ozone therapy comes into play. So, it's important to run these tests because there are so many treatment options that you can combine and put patients through these treatments to really, really turn their health around.

Maggie McKay: During your free time, if you have any, sounds like you're very busy, how do you de-stress? What do you do?

Simran Keshwani: Oh, God. Well, I recently have been trying to meditate more. And I can't wait until we're up and open here in a couple of days because I can't wait to go and sit in on the meditation class because it'll, you know, force me to just be there. But meditation has been huge for me.

Me personally, I love going on walks, so I just take my dog and go on a walk whenever I'm overwhelmed. And the fresh air, just taking deep breaths, just feels so rejuvenating.

Maggie McKay: I just heard about a study that said if you are in nature, like even if you're in the city, but you see green trees even for 10 minutes a day, it lowers your stress levels. I don't know if that's accurate, but that's what I read. I'm going with it.

Simran Keshwani: Definitely. And that just goes to show you that your body really has an innate ability to heal itself and kind of bring itself back to homeostasis. You have to guide it in the right way though. And unfortunately, prescription medications alone is not proper guidance for your body, it's just suppression.

Maggie McKay: Simran, what's your philosophy of life in a sentence or two?

Simran Keshwani: My philosophy of life, I think, it's really important to fuel your purpose. And while you're doing so, just listen to your body, take care of your body. It's so easy to get caught up in our day to day. But I feel like we're so focused on the end goal, we kind of forget every little thing that goes into achieving it. Whether it's securing a job or whether it's healing from an illness, every single step matters. What you eat, how you sleep, how you interact with other people, how you interact with yourself, and the love you show yourself. So I think just being intentional and mindful are very, very important.

Maggie McKay: That's so true. This expression that's become very popular, self-care, I think it's so easy to forget, especially as women. If you have a family, you have kids, you have a job, you get on the back burner for sure. So, what would you like people listening to take away from our conversation today?

Simran Keshwani: I just want to say so many things that we write off as being normal are not normal, right? Like having hormonal imbalances and taking thyroid medication for years and so many women dealing with hot flashes and depression due to menopause. It's just not normal. And we've been kind of told for years now that this is just what happens when you get to a certain point in your life. But you know, that's a myth. It's not true. And I just really want to encourage everybody to take the time and be intentional about their health, be intentional about their healing, and just come and see us and see what we have to offer and give us a chance. Because there is so, so much that you can do for yourself, you just need the guidance.

Maggie McKay: Simran, what a pleasure it's been to talk to and learn more about combining western and holistic health. If someone would like to find out more about your masterclass or get in touch with you, maybe make an appointment, where would they go or call?

Simran Keshwani: They can visit our website. It's www.tremedy.com or you can give us a call, 770-759-0650.

Maggie McKay: Thank you so much for your time. This has been a lot of fun.

Simran Keshwani: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Maggie McKay: Again, that's Simran Keshwani. And if you'd like to find out more as she said or schedule a consultation appointment, you can visit tremedy.com/requestanappointment. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is Top Docs Podcast. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening.