Good bedside manner seems to come naturally to some and Dr. Vandita Samavedi is one of them. Warm, kind, and caring, she instantly puts you at ease and practices Internal Medicine at Valley Medical Center in Renton, Washington. She also writes for Glow, a Women”s Health and Wellness blog and likes to volunteer at the Indian Seniors Health Fair and Rotacare free clinic. Vandita took some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few questions about health, nutrition and the mind-body connection from the heart. So do give it a read.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your work.
My family and I have lived in the Seattle area for the last 11 years. I work as an Internal Medicine doctor in the Renton area. I practice outpatient medicine. My special interests are in Diabetes and nutrition, Coronary Heart Disease, Geriatrics and Women’s health.
Any patient stories to share that have touched your heart and made you grateful for the work you do?
Several stories have touched my heart and that is what keeps me going at my work. I have a large geriatric population I care for. I have a sweet elderly lady with multiple medical problems, but every time she meets me, she first enquires about how my family and I are doing. Once while looking at one of my patient’s history I noticed he had stopped smoking, I congratulated him and asked how he did that, and his reply was, “ you asked me to do so ”. It is wonderful to see when people make that lifelong change from the advise they got from their doctor and that is one of the most satisfying things.
What is the one food that everyone should include in his or her diet, regardless of age? Why?
I would say the food group: Vegetables. The nutritive value of vegetables cannot be replaced by anything. I recommend vitamins and supplements but the bioavailability and absorbability from fresh vegetables along with the fiber they provides make them irreplaceable. Vegetables are packed with minerals and vitamins and the fiber is essential for a healthy gastrointestinal system.
What is the one health habit/trend that is underrated?
Exercise . I notice people who try to eat healthy, ask questions about their diet, make expensive changes in their food habits and even try out the latest fad diet, but they do not emphasize exercise. As much as we realize it is important, I don’t see that we make enough effort to incorporate exercise in our daily schedule.
Do you recommend supplements? What are the essentials?
Yes, I do recommend multivitamins, since I don’t think most of us get the recommended daily amounts in our diet. Calcium supplements for women are recommended. Other supplements are based on the age group, specific nutritional deficiency or needs they may have. In the Northwest, most lack vitamin D, so we need to supplement Vitamin D with calcium. Eating a balanced healthy diet should be the backbone for your mineral and vitamin
needs, but frequently we need to take supplements. Vegans should try to supplement Vitamin B12 casino online as that tends to be deficient in their diet.
My site HealthEdited is all about making small changes, edits if you will, to your lifestyle habits to create better health. What are you doing at present to ‘edit’ your health?
Arathi, firstly congratulations on your effort. Small changes indeed make a big Aantal munten: Bij sommige van onze speelautomaten, zoals Cosmic Cat en Fruit Slots is het mogelijk om met meer dan 1 munt te spelen, waardoor je ook meer kunt winnen. difference in our lives and health. All this starts with our understanding and knowledge of our health, then we make changes to improve and better our selves. I enjoy your health bits that you put on your site in an easy to read and follow format.
I enjoy cooking and add those small things that make our diet healthier. Sometimes it might mean adding cinnamon to cereal or blueberry to the pancakes my kids enjoy. I have started making yogurt with live cultures, at home. It is fun and easy. I started this after I read an article in NPR ,on our gastrointestinal biome and how the bacteria help in keeping our body healthy.
Lemon juice and garlic are my favorite additions to most of the dishes I cook.
What is the link between physical and emotional health? Are their practical steps people can take to harness the power of their mind-body connection?
This is a great question. I see this routinely in my practice. When people are under stress, anxious or depressed this directly reflects on their physical health. Anxiety and stress may manifest as several bodily symptoms and patients come in because of their external symptoms but the etiology of their problem lies in their underlying stressful event.
One of the things I ask people to do is, take some time for themselves. Meditation, Yoga, Tai-chi, music or a relaxing hobby are a few things that can give you some time to connect with yourself and a good way to start dealing with stress.
What health issues/diseases do you think can be solved in our lifetime?
With research in medicine, it is possible that we may be able to solve or adequately treat several diseases in our lifetime. We have seen eradication of small pox and efforts towards the same for Polio and several other diseases. This gives us hope for several other vaccine preventable diseases, that will get eradicated in our lifetime. We have seen great progress in treatment of cancers and fewer people have complications of diabetes and hypertension if they control their disease well. I hope the growing epidemic of obesity gets solved, because that has led to several other problems.
Do you exercise? What do you as a workout?
I try to stay active at work, take kids out to the park, take the stairs not the elevator . I go to a gym for an hour long work out 4 times a week. I like the group aerobic classes where the rest of the group motivates me to keep going. There are times when the schedule gets disrupted due to work, family reasons or just lack of motivation. I find it useful to talk to my friends who exercise regularly to help me to get back to it. There are some Apps that can help keep you motivated to exercise as well!
How do you encourage your family to stay healthy?
I insist that we eat healthy, add fresh vegetables and fruits in our meals.
I love to see colors on my plate and a meal with the same color most likely lacks variety and nutrition. Salads are easy to add colors, orange carrots, red tomatoes and beets, green lettuce and cucumber make the plate pretty and healthy. The different colors are indicative of different minerals and vitamins each provide. We go out on hikes as a family and the children enjoy horse riding, swimming and Taekwondo.
Thanks so much, Vandita!
