How a Lifelong Obese Cardiac Surgeon Became a Rebel M.D. - #1

Dr. Philip Ovadia did everything right, but he was still fat. 

As a child. As a teenager. As a student at medical school. Even as a cardiac surgeon. 

Both his parents were obese. Both eventually had gastric bypass surgery. He resigned himself to being “genetically destined” for obesity. 

(Regrettably, this was another concept taught in med school.)

He saw obesity every day, both in the mirror and in the hospital where he treated obese and diabetic people on a daily basis.

Then, in 2015, everything changed.

He went from obese cardiac surgeon to a Rebel MD doing his best to keep people out of his office and off his operating table. 

This is his story.

Like what you hear? Head over to IFixHearts.com/book to grab a copy of my book, Stay Off My Operating Table. 

Ready to go deeper? Talk to someone from my team at IFixHearts.com/talk.

Stay Off My Operating Table on X:

• Dr. Ovadia: @iFixHearts
• Jack Heald: @JackHeald5

Learn more:

• Stay Off My Operating Table on Amazon
• Take Dr. Ovadia's metabolic health quiz: iFixHearts
• Dr. Ovadia's website: Ovadia Heart Health
• Jack Heald's website: CultYourBrand.com

Theme Song : Rage Against
Written & Performed by Logan Gritton & Colin Gailey
(c) 2016 Mercury Retro Recordings

Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from Dr. Philip Ovadia.

Transcript

#1 

SUMMARY KEYWORDS 

eat, people, obese, sugar, calories, diabetic, long, insulin, spent, lose, realized, heart surgeon, gluten, hormones, life, food, overweight, struggle, hungry, attribute 

SPEAKERS 

Jack Heald, Dr. Philip Ovedia 

Jack Heald  00:00 

Hey everybody, I'm Jack Heald, your host and I'm here with the star of the show. Dr. Philip Ovedia of Ovedia Heart Health, and this is the stay off my table podcast. Phil, I am so pleased to be with you. 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  00:13 

Thank you, Jack. I'm pleased to be here as well. 

Jack Heald  00:17 

Well, this is our very first episode of the podcast and I think we should start with who you are. Start with your story. When we first spoke, you told me that your perception of yourself was formerly obese heart surgeon, now rebel MD. So give me a quick, real quick, high level overview. Who are you? How'd you get here, and then we're going to dive into some details. 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  00:45 

Sure thing That sounds good. I spent my lifetime battling obesity, and was fortunate enough, a few years ago to realize that much of what I had learned about why we get obese and why we get unhealthy in general was misdirected. And by discovering kind of this alternative information, it has led me down a path to discover that much of what we do in healthcare these days, has lost focus and is not directed at keeping people healthy. And through my own personal journey to get healthy. I it has led me to a place where I now want to and prefer to help others stay healthy and stay off my operating table. 

Jack Heald  01:36 

Okay, so let's talk about that operating table real quick. What exactly is it that you do? Talk to lay people. 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  01:49 

Yes. So my fancy title is I am a cardiothoracic surgeon. But as he said, for the lay people, what that means is I operate primarily on the heart, and occasionally on the lungs and the other organs that exist within the chest there. And the most common operation I do is for people that have blockages in the arteries of the heart. Again, the fancy medical term is atherosclerotic heart disease. But basically it just means that people have blockages that have built up in the arteries that supply their heart, and therefore they are not getting good enough blood flow to their heart. And ultimately, if that's not corrected, that can lead to a heart attack. 

Jack Heald  02:33 

All right, so as a cardiothoracic surgeon who spends most of his time inside people's chests, or at least most of the time when you're working inside people's chests talk about yourself um, was there a point in your career when you realized you were a candidate for your own table? Yes. 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  02:59 

So you know, as I said, I had found myself basically in my early 40s and I was morbidly obese, very overweight… 

Jack Heald  03:08 

Tell us what “morbidly obese” means. 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  03:11 

Morbid obesity is kind of a technical term for being very, very overweight. And I fit into that category. And I also you know, based on you know, my health evaluations and going to see my physician, I realized that I was on my way to being diabetic, what we call pre diabetic. And it occurred to me that you know, many of the patients that I operate on had the same history and so therefore, I was on my on the way to ending up on my own operating table, so to speak. 

Jack Heald  03:50 

So, how long did it take you to become morbidly obese? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  03:55 

Well I had always been overweight ever since I was a child as long as I can remember and that was despite kind of living a life that we were told was healthy my parents were told to it you know, they were feeding me healthy food according to the US dietary guidelines and the food pyramid. 

Jack Heald  04:16 

So what was that? Well, what were they feeding you 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  04:19 

Yeah, so that was six servings of whole grains a day. We ate the heart healthy cereals, so we were told low sugar you know, but high carbohydrate, Cheerios and Wheaties you can think of we used we were low fat though. Skim milk instead of regular milk. margarine instead of butter. And you know, and diet sodas instead of regular sodas. You know, those types of things. Orange juice. Were very much in line with what the mainstream advice was. You know, also important in my you know, kind of overall story is I have a older brother who is a type one diabetic and he was diagnosed, you know when he was young and I was very young. And so that also guided our food choices within our house. 

Jack Heald  05:17 

A diabetic is born without functioning pancreas?  

Dr. Philip Ovedia  05:24 

Very early in life, the pancreas fails and requires insulin and is told the standard advice for type one diabetics is that they should moderate their sugar and carbohydrate intake, and then they have to balance it with the insulin they're using. And I'm sure we'll get into it at some point. But you know, I have now come to believe that that's not the best advice. But anyway, because of that, we didn't have a lot of sugar in the house. And as I said, we ate a low fat diet, according to the US dietary guidelines. And I was a very active child's played sports years around year round, rode my bicycle or walk to school and to my friend's house, and you know, 

Jack Heald  06:15 

Wait a minute, you were fat, and very active? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  06:19 

I was fat and very active. And that that was on. Yeah, and that was a consistent story throughout my throughout my childhood and into my early adult life. 

Jack Heald  06:32 

So was there ever a point in your life before this epiphany five years ago, when you weren't overweight, obese, 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  06:43 

There was never really a time that I wasn't overweight or obese, but there were many times that I had tried to lose weight, and would sometimes lose some weight, but always would gain it back and usually gain it back and more 

Jack Heald  07:00 

To what do you attribute that failure to keep it off? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  07:05 

At the time, I will tell you that I attributed it to my bad genetics, basically, my parents were overweight I was overweight. And I just said, Oh, it's got to be my genetics, because I was doing everything I had learned needed to be done to lose weight, I was counting my calories in, I was increasing my calories out with physical activity. And so and like I said, that would work for a short period of time, and I would lose a little bit of weight. But invariably, as I think most people in the audience will relate to, it didn't hold up over the long term. 

Jack Heald  07:46 

Why not? Why did it not hold up for you?  

Dr. Philip Ovedia  07:52 

Well, again, I think I was told and I attributed that to, I just didn't have the willpower to make that last long enough. What I now realize is, it was because I was always hungry. And ultimately we're, as humans are going to give into our hunger. So when you're just trying to restrict the amount of food you eat, ultimately your hunger is going to get the best of you, unless you really have great willpower, but I, I'm not sure that that exists.  

Jack Heald  08:29 

I want to come back around and talk about that, at some point, maybe in another episode, the why that just calories in calories out didn't really work for you. To me, that that would probably be a common experience for a lot of people. So let's make a note of that. I'm going to make a note talk about calories in calories out. So five years ago, something changed.  

Dr. Philip Ovedia  09:08 

Yeah, changed. So what changed for me is the first time you know, really in my life, certainly in my professional life, and realized by this time, I had gone through medical school and training that it takes to become a surgeon and a heart surgeon and had been in practice as a heart surgeon for you know, over a decade at that point, and I…  

Jack Heald  09:33 

Whoa, whoa, whoa. You spent 10 years as an obese heart surgeon? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  09:37 

I had spent 10 years as an obese heart surgeon. 

Jack Heald  09:41 

Did you ever have a patient say, Hey Doc, what gives? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  09:47 

You know I never I never had a patient actually say that to me, but I always kind of had a sense of that. You know, cuz even to myself I would I would have the standard conversation with patients invariably usually after the surgery because when I'm talking to them about undergoing surgery, that's obviously a stressful situation, but usually afterwards, and they're recovering and they're kind of like, Hey, what do I do, so this doesn't happen again. And I would kind of give them the standard advice, which was eat a low fat diet and watch your calories and try and lose some weight and get some exercise. But I always knew in the back of my mind that wasn't working for me. And wasn't going to work for them. Most likely, so. Yeah. And, and that was always a little that always gnawed at me a little bit, I would say, I was never quite happy with that. But as a busy heart surgeon, I didn't spend as much time thinking about that as perhaps I should have. 

Jack Heald  11:05 

Alright, so I'm trying to picture this person going through, what 810 12 years of medical training, and then another 10 years plus practicing, and you're obese the whole time? Am I right about that? Yes. Yes, I did. We're gonna talk about the medical community, I guess it another in another episode. I'm just, I'm blown away. Alright. So five years ago, something changed. And I know you, you've clearly somehow won the battle against obesity. You're fit and strong and healthy. What changed? How did it happen? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  12:02 

Yeah. So you know, I happen to be, well, actually, the first step was really started with my wife. She, after having our children had struggled very significantly with heartburn. And she went to see one of her health practitioners. And it was suggested to her that she tried eliminating gluten from her diet going gluten free. And, to be honest, I was skeptical, because you know, what I had learned about gluten was that people with it's called celiac disease, but there's a specific disease that makes people sensitive to that they can't tolerate gluten. And I didn't think and no one had suggested that my wife had that. So I didn't see any reason that going gluten free was going to help with their heartburn. But you know, I'm a supportive husband. And I said, if you want to try it, I'll try it with you. And so we went gluten free. And immediately, I noticed that I felt better. Not that I lost weight, just that I felt better, I had more energy I wouldn't be I wouldn't have the afternoon crash and need the three cups of coffee, or even a nap in my office, which I was prone to doing. And I chalked that up as curious, but again, didn't really make the connection. And then probably a month or two later, I happened to be at a medical conference. And the invited guest speaker was Gary Todd, who's a investigative journalist with a background in science. And he had just written a book, the case against sugar, and had previously written the book, why we get fat, and good calories, bad calories. And at that meeting, listening to Gary talk, I was introduced to the concepts around low carbohydrate, why sugar is uniquely damaging to our metabolic health. And this was all new information to me. 

Jack Heald  14:15 

All right, and what did you do with that information, my friend? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  14:22 

Well, I immediately read Gary's books and eliminated sugar, initially from my diet, and then kind of went low carb, and really had immediate great success, started losing weight, started feeling a lot better. And within six months, I had probably lost 50 plus pounds. And the other thing I noticed was that for the first time in my life, I was less hungry. So it wasn't as much of a struggle as it had always been when I was just counting calories and you know, doing traditional dieting. 

Jack Heald  15:03 

So what do you attribute that not being hungry to? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  15:08 

Yeah, so you know, it really comes down to the hormonal signals, you know that the hormones, the chemicals that our bodies produce, in reaction to eating certain foods. And there is one hormone in particular insulin, which again, brings me back to my type one diabetic brother, I had certainly learned a lot about insulin from him, and in medical school, and all of that, but had never really correlated insulin, to nutrition and to overall health and to hunger. And it turns out that insulin is one of the Master hormones, that controls our hunger and our overall, what I call metabolic health the kind of proper functioning of our body. 

Jack Heald  16:01 

So it sounds like we are going to have to talk about hormones in an upcoming episode. 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  16:05 

Yes, certainly another topic to dive deep into, but go ahead, I was gonna say the bottom line is for the first time, I realized that eating certain foods made you more hungry. And eating, not eating those foods, or perhaps selecting other foods instead of those foods can make you less hungry, and therefore make it less of a struggle to lose weight, and then maintain a healthy weight. 

Jack Heald  16:38 

So there are foods you can eat that leave you hungrier. And other foods that don't have that effect. Is that what I heard you say that is correct? So five years later, how much have you lost total? 

Dr. Philip Ovedia  16:52 

I've now lost 100 pounds, I have maintained it. You know, I've maintained that weight loss, I've added muscle, I am literally in the best shape of my life, I wear smaller pants than I did in high school. And I have essentially endless energy. And I am for the you know, again, food is no longer a struggle for me. And that really is the most important thing. You know, in the end, I don't care that much about you know, how I look in the mirror. I care that I can go through my life on a day to day basis, feeling good, having the energy I need to keep up with my kids and you know, do everything I do, being a heart surgeon and running my medical, my telemedical metabolic health practice, and everything else I need to do, and I don't struggle, I don't think about food constantly. That has been the biggest, the biggest change for me. 

Jack Heald  18:03 

So I've got one more question before we wrap it up for this initial episode. What can you do? What do you do? Physically, and or mentally, that you couldn't do before you have this massive lifestyle change? How has it changed your, your, the way you live your life?  

Dr. Philip Ovedia  18:30 

Yeah, so honestly from the mental standpoint, as I said, I don't spend all of my time thinking about food anymore. And I really realized in retrospect, how much of my energy was spent just thinking about food, what am I going to eat? What am I going to eat? You know, planning my day around that if I had a long operation is the cafeteria going to be open when I'm done? Or do I need to you know, find some food beforehand. And now I can go extended periods of time without eating if I have to fast for a day or two, even you know, for whatever reason it I'm able to do that. And it doesn't bother me and I am no longer controlled by food I now control you know what I eat. And from a physical standpoint, I mean, I don't even know where to begin. You know, there, there's almost everything I do in terms of I've now run a half marathon. I do weight training, weightlifting all of that. And these are all things that I couldn't do. But most important to me is that I know that as I continue to get older, I'm going to be able to continue to perform and you know, keep up with my children and ultimately my grandchildren and all of that and I no longer you know, I don't face the Typical future that I think most of us face most of us think we face, which is ending up kind of frail and in a nursing home and spending the last third of our life not able to do the things that we want to do. 

Jack Heald  20:17 

Wow. Well, I think that's a good place to wrap it up. I'm looking forward to continuing conversations as we put this together. For Dr. Philip Ovedia, I am Jack Heald. Go ahead and subscribe so you're notified when new podcasts come out. And we'll talk to you next time.