Dr. Monica Aggarwal

Episode 1: Plant-Powered Olympian Dotsie Bausch

Podcast, Seeking Voices: Exploring the Science of Health and Healing /

In this episode of “Seeking Voices of Health, Healing and Hope“, my guest is the amazing Dotsie Bausch. Dotsie has been a pioneer in the plant-based movement and runs an amazing campaign called Switch4Good that focuses on eating more plant based and the “ditching dairy” movement. She has caught national news with her campaign against companies that don’t allow milk alternatives or charge extra for them. Dotsie has been remarkable in every step of her life. She was once a journalism major, a New York runway model and an Olympian cyclist who won silver! I marvel at the images of Dotsie on the Olympic podium. She is beautiful and a lovely human being. I have had the pleasure of talking to her about so many things: about plant-based nutrition, health, removing dairy and she has even given me amazing makeup tips which I have yet to do by the way! Sometimes when we see people, we only see those beautiful parts, but Dotsie has had hardship too. Some people might not realize that Dotsie suffered from anorexia/bulimia, attempted suicide twice and had a cocaine dependency. I hope to talk about some of these important parts that make up the amazing Dotsie Bausch.

Some of the highlights we talked about:

  • How do you describe yourself?
  • What makes you happy?
  • How do you keep the joy in your life?
  • You had anorexia. Can you speak to this?
    • Why do you think you developed this?
    • What advice do you have for me, a mother of two girls, who want social media, have kids talking about calories.
  • You comment in your TED talk that you were loved as a child and that maybe you didn’t have some grave moment that made you go down the path you did. Can you speak to this?
  • What’s it like to be addicted to cocaine?? How did this start and how did you stop?
  • I have worked with many addicts and at times, have been jaded by seeing the same face in the ER after they had overdosed. How do I start seeing the human behind the addiction?
  • Why did you stop? What made you do it? What does one need to do to get someone out of this state?
  • You attempted suicide two times. What do you remember about those moments?
  • What was it like to be an Olympian at near 40? Did you feel like you had to compete with the young people? How did you?
  • Do you have down moments now? What do you do to get out of your funk? How do you stay out of your dark places? Is that the goal? To stay out of the dark places.
  • You have become so passionate about plant-based eating and in your TED talk, you show pictures of how seeing slaughterhouses impacted you. You talk beautifully about the benefits of plant-based eating. What two things would you like to say about this?
  • Hope is a hard thing to have sometimes. What would your message be to offer other people hope? How would you use your voice to impact others?

Episode 1: Plant-Powered Olympian Dotsie Bausch Read More »

Launching Podcast on Health, Healing and Hope

Podcast, Seeking Voices: Exploring the Science of Health and Healing /

I have decided to launch a new podcast called “Seeking Voices of Health, Healing and Hope“. As most of you know, I am a preventive cardiologist who focuses on nutrition and lifestyle to heal illness. But I also have a chronic illness. Over the years, as a nutrition specialist, as a cardiologist and as a patient, I have met so many people who feel sad, stuck, hopeless and confused. There are so many people looking to understand their lives, their purpose, the meaning of things and they are struggling. We are struggling as a society, as humans, as women, as moms, as patients, as husbands, as children.

I wanted to start this podcast to bring voices to people of hope, health and healing but also to share how people have overcome their sadnesses, their struggles, their pain. I think we have so much to learn from each other—not always from people in the limelight; but sometimes from the people around us living the day to day, drudging through, overcoming and being. I hope that this podcast makes people consider others more deeply, considers themselves more importantly and reminds us all to have hope, and look for the joy and happiness in the day to day. This is my hope. Stay tuned!

Launching Podcast on Health, Healing and Hope Read More »

New Year’s Resolutions, Illness and Anxiety

Blog /

I have been reflecting a lot this month about life and I want to share that. January marks one year since my family had COVID. We were so lucky not to have significant symptoms and I believe it is our clean living that got us through it well. My husband was doing his MBA last year and working full time plus helping manage our 3 kids, and with all that stress and lack of sleep, my husband developed Shingles in his eye. It was horrible. He was in constant pain. He would describe electric shocks going through his eye every other second. There was so much anxiety and worry about him losing his eye. I would wake up every hour to check on him and you feel helpless.

There has been some correlation between COVID and Shingles likely to the immune suppression. But I am always reminded about the impact of stress on the body. Even if you eat a plant-based very healthy diet, but then you don’t take care of your stress, you are still at risk for illness. My husband learned this last year the same way that I learned it 10 years ago. He is better now. He takes more time to breathe, walk and relax. His eye is better and we are okay. Lessons are important but sometimes back-breaking.

Since that time, I have developed a bit of an anxiety problem. Anxiety is not something we like to talk about, especially not as physicians. It is a sign of weakness, isn’t it. Amazing how pride pops in there without realizing it. The anxiety was significant. I am a great sleeper and all the sudden, I wasn’t. I couldn’t go to sleep at night, thinking that someone I loved was going to get sick and die. Or each cough that I heard was COVID and each headache was a brain tumor. Amazing, how our minds work, how anxiety works. This went on for about one year and now I am thankful to feel much better. How did I change? I wrote in my journal daily, thinking of all of the things that are good in my life. I thought about joy. I reflected on how my kids are sturdy and that they would be okay. I thought a lot about my own death and how, my family would be okay. I meditated a lot.

Every day, I learn something new about myself and about life. Each day, there is a new lesson. I have been reading books by Thich Nhat Hanh like Being Peace and Mindful Movements, both of which I recommend. I felt saddened by his recent death but remember Mitch Albom’s Stranger in the Boat and remember to think of death as an extension of life. Hard but important. I take from these books, this mantra, (breathe in), “I calm my mind and body.” (Breathe out and smile), “I smile at myself.” I was at the dentist this week and while I had scrapers and suction and spit everywhere, I did this meditation and my anxiety went down and I was o-k. Dr. Richard Edlich, my mentor in college, used to say, that it is not about finding peace on a mountain but finding it in daily life, in the here and now.

Some of my 2022 resolutions:

Get a job on my terms. I get to choose.

Work on my anxiety.

Make more connections.

Build more muscle.

Heal my inflammation, work at it every day.

New Year’s Resolutions, Illness and Anxiety Read More »

Women Vs Inflammation Online Event

Event /

Have you all heard about Jane Esselstyn’s annual event? This year the focus is: Women vs. Inflammation: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease and Inflammation. Jane does a great event each March and I have been privileged to be part of several of them. This was will be a virtual event. I will be speaking about inflammation and heart disease, one of my favorite topics. The best part of the event is the love, joy and fun that you will feel after this day. It really is fabulous and you will finish the day feeling full. I always feel great when I spend the day with them. Click here to register.

Women Vs Inflammation Online Event Read More »

Webinar with Diet ID

Event /

Doing a fun talk with Dr. David Katz and the DietID team. My dear friend, Dr. Andrew Freeman, RD Adam Cole, Dr. Katz and I will explore how and why there is a low referral rate of cardiologists to registered dietitian nutritionists exists. In light of cardiology survey results recently published in the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention, we will investigate and explain the role of the RDN in clinical cardiology, barriers to a team approach, and strategies to improve both referral rate and success of nutrition interventions. If you are interested in signing up, https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w0kHioEvTzOW9SirqqGR4w

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How to Implement a Plant Based Menu into a Hospital

Event /

I had the pleasure of talking to the DC hospital association along with PCRM’s esteemed Dr. Neal Barnard. Our goals were to talk about how to start a conversation with hospitals about healthy food options. During that hour, I spoke about our experience at the University of Florida with instituting a plant-based menu for our patients. We talked about the barriers that we encountered and how we overcame them. Dr. Barnard talked about universal meals which is super important because allows for one meal plan to be offered to every person—removing all potential allergens and cultural concerns. He showed the financial costs and went through all of the benefits. There were so many good questions. Was really fun to participate in and as always, I am honored to work on these important topics with PCRM and with the DC hospital association. Take a look at the link: https://dcha.org/advocacy-policy/healthy-hospital-initiative/

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Body on Fire: How to Fight Inflammation with Cardiologist Dr. Monica Aggarwal

Podcast /

Podcast Episodes 149 and 150 with Switch4Good podcasters Dotsie Bausch and Alexandra Paul

What lovely women to speak with. We couldn’t talk about everything in on show. We talked about the pressure of being a woman. We talked about balance and stress and how that affects the body. We talked about being a physician in subspeciality medicine. We talked about the maternal clock. We talked about why I got sick and how we all get sick. We talked about how inflammation is triggered and how it needs to be quashed. So much to talk about and such a lovely time.

Click here to listen!

Body on Fire: How to Fight Inflammation with Cardiologist Dr. Monica Aggarwal Read More »

Speaking at Plant Stock 2021

Event /

I am excited to join Rip Esselstyn and the rest of the Esselstyn family at Plant-Stock 2021. Whether you are new to the lifestyle or have yet to eat greens for breakfast, this event will help you start or strengthen your path to plants. Join in and spend a long weekend with the Esselstyns. Reflect on the progress and share in the vision of a world fueled by plants.

September 8-12 2021,
Online & Streaming Live
from the Esselstyn Farm!

Plant-Stock 2021

Speaking at Plant Stock 2021 Read More »

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