I was trained at LAC-USC completing the following:  Internal Medicine Residency, Nutrition Fellowship (where I managed a diabetic ward for 3 years, did research in Nutrition, and was the director of a weight loss clinic for many years while I completed the following fellowships and residencies:  Pulmonary/Critical Care Fellowship, Anesthesia Residency, and Challenged the Pain Boards.)  As I progressed through my career and took on the care of my aging parents I realized that I did not want to suffer from some of their health problems.  I began to read more and more about nutrition and realized that many of the questions that we had during my nutrition fellowship now had real answers.  Excellent studies now existed that revealed most if not all chronic diseases and many cancers had their origin in poor nutrtion.  My prior eating habits mirrored the Standard American Diet as did my developing chronic diseases…Hypertension, Elevated Lipids, possibly Pre-Diabetes, Artherosclerois, Cardiac Arrythmias, and Obesity.  While taking care of my aging parents I did cerebral MRI studies on them and both had small cerebral infarcts too numerous to count.  As I read more and more and after attending my first Plantrician Program, I decided overnight to switch my eating profile from the SAD (Standard American Diet) to a Whole Food Plant Based Nutrition lifestyle.  My chronic diseases melted away.  While I continue practice anesthesia and interventional pain medicine, I have been enhancing my plant-based medical care to both my patients and others that are interested.  All of the patients that I come in contact with receive nutritional advice and care along with the care they originally came for.  For those that take to heart my nutritional advice and care, the results are nice.  

After graduating from medical school (University of Cologne, Germany) in 2002, I commenced my post graduate training in anaesthesiology at the Tulane University of Louisiana in New Orleans. Owed to Hurricane Katrina it was necessary to relocate and I seized the opportunity to complete my residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Harvard University) in Boston. My initial inclination was to pursue a career in cardiovascular and thoracic anaesthesia and underwent fellowship training at the Texas Heart Institute (Baylor College of Medicine) in Houston. For visa related reasons I returned to Europe where I trained in critical care worked in adult and paediatric cardiac anaesthesia. In 2012 we decided to move to New Zealand where I first completed another fellowship in cardiothoracic anaesthesia and critical care before I accepted a permanent position as a consultant anaesthetist in a small rural hospital in the eastern Bay of Plenty.
Only then did I look beyond my “specialist horizon” and realised that applied human nutrition holds the key to better health and a sustainable healthcare system. The classic approach to medicine will always have its place and remains the last line of defence but primary prevention and chronic disease reversal with evidence based nutrition is equally important.