Dr. Nandi: Be Your Own Health Hero
Shawne Duperon: Your passion in your voice is so strong. The passion is palpable.
Dr. Nandi: Thank you for saying that. It is because of one of the things I realized as time goes on that one of the keys to living a fulfilled life is having purpose, having a purpose. A purpose beyond I think just yourself and your immediate family. My entire life I always wanted to make a difference, and that’s why I become a physician. I absolutely love what I do in my practice and I love the impact that we have. And I will always continue to practice medicine, but I realized that there are so many people who don’t have any information at all. They operate on so little knowledge about their body, about their health, about their well-being, and so I wanted to make some changes. I thought about going into politics, but I just could not handle some of the realities of politics. So I said, you know what, how can we make differences in people’s lives? So when this television show came about, we jumped on it.
And that’s what drives me every day. Over the weekend, I had a dozen questions, one from Portugal, one from Africa, one from South Carolina, one from the Philippines, one from India, and the questions vary from, “I have thyroid disease,” to as basic as, “I had an abortion, and now a year later I want to have children. Can I do that?” The questions are so powerful, and they are so needed to be answered. That’s what’s keep us going. Because each one of those lives, if we can impact them in any way, it just makes your entire life worthwhile.
Shawne Duperon: There is something very precious and vulnerable about you as you share.
Dr. Nandi: I think it is because of my parents. That’s how they raised me. At the end of the day, no matter how hard you try, you become your parents, right? In the beginning, you think you know so much more than them and then eventually you figure out what happens. So my parents always taught me to treat people with dignity, and I have always followed that because I believe in medicine or as a reporter or the television show, we are there to be able to help others. We are there to service their needs. If I am not empathetic, if I am not kind, then I take away from that mission. I learned that from a very young age. My mom never let me get away with being unkind. My dad never, ever hesitated to correct me if I didn’t treat people with the empathy that I did. I do that with my kids. I have a 12 year old daughter. I told her. I said as every year goes by, you will like me less and less until you reach age 25, and then you will love me again. And so I realized the truth that you instill in them is the truth that they will instill in their children. I think it has a lot to do with who I was when I was a child and as an adolescent and what was taught to me. I have become a lot like my parents who are extremely kind, empathetic, and really honor the world and everybody around them. My mom never treated anybody differently in any walk of life, and I really try to do that as much as I can because at the end of the day we are all souls. We all have spirits that are fierce and strong. It just happens to be that I was born in the bed that was really lucky. If I was born in the bed next to me, I may be cleaning gutters the rest of my life. I know how lucky I am, and I know that I could have been the guy who is not in the same position that I am at least looking at superficial qualities. I was taught that at a very young age, and I continue to try to endeavor to do that.
