Dig. Health | Dr. K. Singh

The Heart Expert Who Treats Patients by Example

By StoryStudio on January 27, 2023 11:19 AM

A common reason why people avoid seeing a doctor is the belief that they won’t like the doctor’s prescriptive lifestyle recommendations. Many of us fear change, either because we think altering our lifestyle will be too hard, or because we’re afraid to try again after past failures. Quit smoking? Exercise more? Eat healthy? Easy for you to say, doc. Try being me. But what if the doctor making the recommendations also lived by those same guidelines, and then some? Lifestyle medicine by example is the credo of Dr. Karanjit Singh, an interventional cardiologist with the Dignity Health Heart and Vascular Institute of Greater Sacramento. Dr. Singh supports his heart patients in unprecedented ways, running half marathons with them and eating vegetarian. He believes that being a living example of heart health is critical in proving that, with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise, heart health is possible at any age, regardless of past challenges. “I wanted to be a better, more empathetic doctor,” recalls Dr. Singh, as he explains why adopting his own recommendations was so important to him. “I do the same workouts I prescribe patients.”

It wasn’t always this way for Dr. Singh. Throughout his extensive medical training and experience—which took him from India in his early 20s to his residency at the University of Illinois, and even while teaching at Northwestern University before coming west for a cardiac fellowship in Los Angeles—heart health was always grounded in medical interventions like surgery and medication. Preventive, holistic approaches to heart health including lifestyle and diet were never discussed. And even when diet is mentioned, it is rarely explained, causing a disconnect between what medical professionals know in the lab and what patients know in everyday practice. For example, the American Heart Association recommended diet for heart health STEP II calls for less than 7 percent of your calories to come from saturated fat and less than 200 calories from cholesterol. While these numbers mean something to a medical professional like Dr. Singh, they are vague and unwieldy for the average American. How many of us know the amount of cholesterol in an egg? Or a hamburger? If we consider the dire state of American health—every 34 seconds, an American dies from cardiovascular disease—it’s clear that this type of medical advice isn’t as effective as we need it to be. The problem is deeper than just the messaging. If we continue down our current health path, where 50% of Americans have health issues requiring medication every week, more than 70 million Americans have high cholesterol, and children are developing type 2 diabetes at an alarming rate, our future will be in jeopardy. The U.S. currently spends more money on cardiovascular disease than any other developed nation, yet cardiovascular disease remains our number one cause of death. Where are we going wrong?

Dr. Singh believes that effective cardiovascular health begins with prevention—eating healthy and exercising regularly—and he’s engineered his lifestyle to prove it. His motto “Eat half, exercise double, laugh triple, and love in abundance” is commonly heard throughout his practice. But Dr. Singh is quick to point out that lifestyle changes don’t happen overnight, even in his journey toward better heart health. In 2003, Singh became a vegetarian, after realizing that the hormones in meat were causing myriad health problems, chief among them for him, as a father with a young family that includes two daughters, a rapid decrease in the average age of puberty onset in girls. He also notes that commercial meat production is a disaster for the environment. As his plant-based diet began to evolve away from “junk food vegetarianism,” he incorporated more vegetables and cut out processed grains. “Meat has the reputation of being our best source of protein, but that’s simply not the case,” he says. “Broccoli is a great source of protein and has more protein per calorie than beef. Look at an ox. We say strong as an ox, but oxen are herbivores!” While incorporating a healthy diet that, even if not entirely plant-based, limits the amount of meat eaten, Dr. Singh began exercising in a new way. Having been a squash player in India, he’d always been athletic, but after becoming a parent, Dr. Singh began running. He ran his first marathon in 2011, but it was a patient, Mr. Wong, who cemented the connection between running and heart health for Dr. Singh.

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The decision sparked something in Dr. Singh, who began a running group to encourage heart patients to exercise. “Run with Your Doc” provides support and motivation for patients with heart conditions, proving that heart health is accessible to anyone. Dr. Singh not only ran his half marathon with Mr. Wong—he successfully recruited 10 other patients who suffer from heart disease to run along with them. The running group members all train at their own pace but keep in touch about their progress. Today, the running group is still going strong as they prepare for the 2023 Shamrock’n Half Marathon in March. “Diet and exercise share an infinite connection to heart health,” says Dr. Singh. But rather than give a vague recommendation to exercise more, Dr. Singh is quite specific as to how his patients should exercise. He calls his recommendations the “four prongs” of exercise: cardio (which includes running and walking), muscle and bone strength conditioning, balance training, and stretching. If you can’t run, Dr. Singh strongly recommends biking or swimming. These recommendations aren’t just for his patients; Dr. Singh takes them to heart as well. “Since I started eating vegetarian and exercising, I feel lighter and have more energy,” he says. Dr Singh’s only wish is that he would have changed his lifestyle sooner, a sentiment he hears from many of his patients after they make healthy lifestyle changes.

Dr. Singh recognizes that not all heart patients are avid runners like Mr. Wong. Many who come to him are deeply unhealthy, but that doesn’t stop Dr. Singh from encouraging them in their health journey. After all, he says, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Dr. Singh relies on education and support to help patients raise their heart health awareness, explaining the “why” behind his recommendations, whether it be to quit smoking or eat more vegetables. He also helps patients address the mental pain that may be the reason behind some of their unhealthy habits. Ultimately, it’s his unwavering compassion for his patients that motivates his care. “You have to be persistent with your patients and guide them,” says Dr. Singh. “I tell my patients that no matter what, I won’t give up on them.” Dr. Singh and the experts at Dignity Health regard heart health, patient health, and world health as connected.

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