About Us

Dr. Gagandeep S. Anand received his MD from International American University, St. Lucia. He completed his Bachelor of Science from Kasturba Medical College/American University of Antigua twinning program in Manipal, in Karnataka, India, where he did his basic science training. He continued his clinical science training at the International American University in Baltimore, MD/Washington DC area. Before medical school, he completed a degree in computer science, bioinformatics from the University of Waterloo in Canada, where he lived for most of his childhood. He is passionate about lifestyle medicine, prevention and how to keep patients healthy and minimize visits to the operating room/hospital.

From Computer Science to Medicine

I graduated from the University of Waterloo in Canada with a degree in computer science. I was always curious about the programmatical automation that exists in computer science. It may have been the foundation of my curiosity for medicine. The ability to construct a piece of DNA, just as you would build a few lines of code. Then allowing it to take life, transcribed and translated and have a mind of its own. Sometimes even astonishing the creator of its capabilities. This curiosity funneled my passion for medicine.

I decided to go to medical school in a remote part of Southern India (Manipal). I hoped to learn old-school clinical medicine just as my great-grandfather learned when he fought in WWII in India. He kept diaries of his concoctions and day-to-day experiences as a physician in the army. No one else in my extended family had the opportunity to learn medicine and practice it in their lives.

That is a brief preamble of my Computer Science and Medical Science worlds, coming to the history of my family. I come from a very traditional and culturally integrated Sikh Punjabi family from beginnings in Dubai, UAE, and moving to our diaspora in Toronto, Canada. Education was of enormous importance to my parents. My father is a mechanical engineer, he designs and manufactures massive trailer-sized machines, which provide industrial-scale cooling to the manufacturing industry in Canadian Plastics. My mother is a stay-at-home mother, who only worked in the schools where my brother and I attended during grade school. She is the real architect of our daily living and the support system that gave us the courage to pursue our passions in our daily lives. Furthermore, she is the original maestro of our lifestyle medicine journey.

Finding Lifestyle Medicine

My Lifestyle Medicine story took birth when studying for the US Medical Licensing (USMLE) exams. I always struggled since grade school with performing well on examinations, often divided between the foresight of practicality missing in standardized tests versus their ability to provide you a ticket to move ahead. Whether the exams’ ability to gather an individual’s grasp of foundational concepts was eventually tainted by their tendency to give rise to good test-takers; nonetheless, not to diminish the sacred strength of an excellent test-taker to work hard and yield such discipline. My struggles to maintain this discipline led me to watch the documentaries “Eating you Alive,” and “Forks over Knives.”

Having studied so hard, yet producing mediocre results led me into the arms of evidence-based nutrition. Why then was I so passionate about this subject? Both my parents suffered from heart disease. My father required a quadruple bypass, the mother required a stent. My mother had a total removal of her thyroid and parathyroid glands due to invasive thyroid cancer and a virulent mediastinal infection. Nearly losing both parents one after another during medical school in Manipal, I feared that I may never graduate.

Soon before completing my USMLE Step 2 CK exam, I visited my first plant-based nutrition health conference. My parents were skeptical of me starting this non-conventional journey, yet supportive. Having come back from that conference, I was enchanted with the information I realized I was always looking for during my medical school journey. Quickly finding ways to motivate my parents to follow suit, there was definite resistance, and there will always be. Many times, I would question my path, and my deteriorating residency prospects. I soon realized I will always have exams and challenges. I may be able to jump through those hoops eventually. But, what mattered more was that I had only one father and one mother. I felt I had to prove my usefulness to them in this world; I couldn’t afford to fail them again.

Dedication to Merrilee/Taking the next step for my family & the Indian Community

I wrote this blurb for Merrilee, who was the producer of the fantastic documentary “Eating you Alive.” It was this documentary that initially got my wheels turning and made me wonder something. Why have we been inhibiting our physiology through pharmaceuticals in almost every single case, trying to prevent some pathophysiology?

Merrilee, had also asked me to answer the question: “If you believe an Indian version of “Eating you Alive” would be impactful and, why?”

The Indian psyche, as with other cultures is quite nuanced. We have a multitude of Ayurvedic and ancient medical practices that are now beginning to resurface, yet we are resolute in our passion and taste for food that makes us sick. Many Indians, like several other ethnic cultures in North America, tend to do something, so it looks good in front of others. It may not be for their own sake but to gain the approval of another. I am also a culprit of such poor practices. For example, since my parents have begun to see changes in their health, their endocrinologist said, “there isn’t any drug I can give you that replicates the changes in your HbA1c”. My father’s ability to boast has been his saving grace. It is this quality of his that has allowed him to stay motivated. Indians love to be showcased; it gives our “diasporic insecurity” the pleasure of being accepted in our new environment. In fact, it is this showcase that I believe is a catalyst to large-scale reverse programming of our food-related cultural norms, the same patterns that have been sending us to the hospital. I hope that Merrilee will get all the help she needs to make this fantastic initiative come true. I’ve already donated to the cause.

Check out these motivational videos that helped me and continue to help me in my journey

· Dr. Greger’s http://www.nutritionfacts.org – A fantastic resource for born-again physicians. Time to conquer that burn-out and truly make America, and the world, healthy again

· The Game Changers

· Forks over Knives

· Code Blue

· The Peril on My Plate

Regards,

Dr. G

P.S. Also wanted to thank Dr. Deepa, who said “You have a story to tell. And might I dare say, a duty to tell it”. Thank you for your guidance, don’t know where my mind would have been if it wasn’t for lifestyle medicine and amazing trailblazers like her.