Dr. Marvin Singh is at the top of his class when it comes to health and wellness concierges. The extremely knowledgeable doctor is the first physician in California to be board-certified in both internal medicine and gastroenterology, and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Medicine. He is also currently only one of two integrative gastroenterologists in the United States to carry all three endorsements. “From a very young age I always wanted to be a doctor, and I guess, innately, I always wanted to help people and make people feel better, so I went on that path,” Dr. Singh states.
Practice What You Preach
Dr. Singh was working as an assistant professor in gastroenterology when he got a little jaded with the work of internal medicine. “I saw that people were coming in when they were sick and dying and we’d help them, but a large percentage of the people who came to see you just couldn’t get help and have had problems for years.” He eventually left Hopkins, wondering if there was something wrong with the medical system of a doctor’s training in general. This led to a fellowship at the University of Arizona, where he learned health, nutrition, and wellness from the world-renowned Dr. Andrew Weil. He also learned he wasn’t exactly practicing what he preached as a doctor of internal medicine. “I looked back at some of the things I would eat during medical school and I think, ‘Maybe that’s how I got about 30 pounds overweight,’” the doctor says.
The reexamination of his health lit a spark Singh thought was lost, which led to his interest in the microbiome and integrated medicine. He read over 100 books on the subject. “I became fascinated with this type of science that I was seemingly not exposed to very much in my training, and it really changed how I looked at my own life and my own health,” he says. “I started applying some of these principles to my health and I lost 30 pounds in three months.”
Precisione Clinic
All of Dr. Singh’s experiences in life up until this point led to the opening of Precisione Clinic, where he helps patients understand their bodies, how they work, and what they need. He says, “Instead of using statistics that are based on everyone in the population, we have technology where we can go in and see what’s true to you—just you. Then, we can make a plan based on that.” The way Dr. Singh does this is through various tests, such as brain, body, and composition imagining to blood tests to more complex procedures such as how well your mitochondria might be working to help get you on the path to a better life.
Still, Dr. Singh emphasizes that one of the most important things is sitting down and having conversations with patients. Even with the quarantine measures taken due to COVID-19, Dr. Singh has been able to still able to reach his patients and provide the care they need. “It’s very easy to do telemedicine now. We can sit and have a 90-minute conversation over video. I can order all the tests and they’d come to your house,” he explains.
Gut Health
One of the most important aspects of not only Dr. Singh’s practice but the study of gastroenterology is gut health. “Gut health is very important because when we talk about the gut, we’re talking about our digestive tract. It is the home to the gut microbiome, which is a hundred trillion microorganisms that live inside of the digestive tract in an ecosystem together—much like all of us humans do on Earth.” Singh explains that some of the things that can help prevent gut imbalance are proper exercise and diet, stress mitigation, and even how much you’re hanging out and having fun.
Precisione: The Healthcast & Own Your Health
Aside from his work in the clinic, Dr. Singh has a podcast called Precisione: The Healthcast, where he brings on some of the greatest minds in the medical industry and talks about a multitude of topics. “We talk about a lot of different things, whether it be a new test that is coming out, how to look at your genes or microbiome to mindfulness,” Dr. Singh states. Some of his guests have included Dr. Shauna Shapiro and Dr. Dan Siegel, leaders in the field of mindfulness and meditation practices, and Dr. Emeran Mayer, one of the most renowned microbiome experts in the world. “I try to have high-quality people on there because I want the information to be high quality and from a trusted source of information,” the gastroenterologist explains. “I also like getting people on there who can teach me something, too.”
Dr. Singh also has a book in the works entitled Own Your Health. “One of the things we want to emphasize is that it’s important to take a personal approach to your healthcare. That’s what the book is about and the approach in our clinic is all about,” he said.
From Doctor to Healer
“This evolution that I went through in learning how to help in this way changed me from being a doctor to a healer,” Dr. Singh states when reflecting on his journey. He explains that there is no greater joy in his life than helping patients become brand new people and have new leases on life. “I had a person tell me that they felt 20 years younger,” he says, “That makes me feel great because I feel like all the hard work I put into learning about these things was worth it and it paid off because, at the end of the day, that’s all I ever really wanted to do.”
