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The first time I suspected light could make people gain weight, I was not in a clinic. I was standing in my kitchen at 1:07 a.m., the only illumination a cold rectangle from the refrigerator. It felt like a reversed Caravaggio scene. Darkness everywhere, a harsh pool of light on a plate of leftovers. I […]
I Ate More. I Weighed Less. In Malaysia, I ate like a poet unchained. Noodles in the morning. Spiced broth at noon. Chicken glazed with soy and garlic by nightfall. I sat on plastic stools under humming fans. I picked up late-night snacks from carts where the only menu was memory and steam. I ate […]
Most people walk to relax. I came to Borneo to let the ground fight back. This morning, outside Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, my boots slipped on a tangle of wet roots. The air smelled of earth and rain. A quiet hum of life surrounded me. In that awkward, humbling stumble, I felt something rare: My body […]
It happened without warning. My father collapsed at home, his face slack, his words gone. In Shakespeare’s Henry VI, they called it a sudden outrage:“What sudden outrage hath struck thee down?” But for us, it was something simpler. A stroke. And life was never the same. My uncle survived his stroke, but lost half his body […]
She sat across from me in the radiation oncology exam room, hands folded in her lap. No phone. No watch. No distractions. Just her presence — so quiet, it filled the room. She had metastatic cancer, but that wasn’t what she came to talk about. “I spent my whole life moving,” she said. “Rushing, fixing, […]
Most of my career has been spent treating disease—tumors, mostly one patient at a time. However, it was only recently that I began targeting something deeper. Something upstream. Something ancient. Inflammation. Not the helpful kind you get after a cut or cold. That kind heals. I’m talking about chronic inflammation — the kind that lingers quietly, damaging your […]
“Can food really undo burnout?” a reader recently asked me. It’s a brilliant question — practical, personal, and rooted in lived experience. We’ve all been there: eating blueberries, sipping matcha, nibbling dark chocolate, hoping it’ll offset the chaos of our lives. We’re told that foods like blueberries are miracle cures — that if we just […]
He came in wearing a loose hospital gown, but he carried himself like a man who had once walked freely through the world. When I asked him what sparked joy — my now-standard question for new consults — he didn’t hesitate. “Travel,” he said, his eyes lighting up. “Dozens of countries. I love learning how […]
When I turned 50, I didn’t care how many birthdays I had left. I cared whether I could still carry my groceries. Climb stairs. Finish a sentence without losing the thread I cared how many good years I had left. Not lifespan. Healthspan. I wanted to know how long I could stay sharp, strong, and independent. Not […]
Not everything I learn comes from a chart. Sometimes it’s a look. A line. A moment that lands deeper than diagnosis. This brief essay is a collection of those moments. Brief. Unexpected. And always real. “The Healing Power of Touch: A Patient’s Insight” This week, a patient shared a poignant realization that emerged after years […]
